California Proposition 54
On October 7, 2003, residents in California defeated ballot initiative Proposition 54 — otherwise known as the Classification on Race, Ethnicity, Color, and National Origin (CRECNO) initiative.
If approved, Proposition 54 would have banned California from collecting racial data in all but a few exempted areas. Without data collection, this radical measure would have damaged the state's ability to address disparities by race or ethnicity in health care and disease patterns, educational resources and academic achievement, and hate crimes and discrimination.
Proposition 54 clearly would have undermined civil rights and was a threat to effective civil rights enforcement.
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