The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Table of Contents

• Introduction

Executive Branch

• Looking Forward to New Blood in Washington
• Interview with Bob Edgar

On the Hill

• The Americans With Disabilities Act, Act Two
• As Home Foreclosures Climb, Efforts to Help Troubled Homeowners Continue
• The Year in Judicial and Executive Nominations
• Advocating for Federal Leadership on Education
• Facing New Challenges with the 2010 Census
• Modernizing the Federal Poverty Measure
• Piecemeal Legislation, Raids Take Place of Immigration Overhaul
• Below the Surface
• Interview with Kathryn Kolbert

In the Courts

• Wrapping up the Supreme Court’s 2007-2008 Term

In the States

• Colorado: Battleground for More Than Just the Presidency.
• Interview with Lilly Ledbetter

Leadership Conference Activities

• Preventing a Digital TV Divide
• Examining the State of Fair Housing in the 21st Century
• Bringing Diverse Communities Together
• 32nd Annual Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner
• Interview with John Payton

Colorado: Battleground for More Than Just the Presidency

Op-ed by Israel García

Americans have very diverse political opinions on matters ranging from border security to stem cell research and public education to health care. Despite all of this, Americans overwhelmingly value the underlying principles of the "American Dream:" opportunity, fairness, hard work, community, success, and justice. These values have held the country together and allowed us to grow, transform, and succeed over the past 200 years. 

Being raised on these principles allowed me to achieve what my ancestors could only dream.  As a Mexican first-generation American, the son of immigrant parents, raised in a low-income family in rural Colorado, my opportunities in life were limited from the very beginning.  Nonetheless, through hard work, dedication, and support from my family, I was able to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder on a "full ride" scholarship and eventually earn three Bachelor's degrees and a certificate.

Many people would say that I am the "American Dream."

But my story would not be complete without the many equal opportunity initiatives that allowed a young man like me to build my skills, talents, and abilities and help me develop the courage, determination, and faith to forge a path no one in my family or neighborhood had ever taken.  Initiatives such as Gifted and Talented, Upward Bound, Talent Search, and a variety of other programs at CU-Boulder offered me the support that I needed to reach my highest potential.  They were not a handout or a free ride, but rather initiatives that addressed the challenges I faced as a student from a background different from most of my collegiate counterparts.

I am a product of affirmative action and equal opportunity, the beneficiary of equal opportunity initiatives, and I could not be more proud of who I am and what I have accomplished.

But in today's world this means something different from what it did a generation ago.  It is less something to be proud of, no matter the hours, months, and years of hard work and struggle, than it was before.  Of course, such thinking has less to do with the initiatives that I participated in and more to do with the political climate of our time.

As a student raised in a post-civil rights era, I have seen a dramatic shift in the way we now discuss the very initiatives which were supposed to – and, in many ways, have – led us to a new, brighter, more equitable future. These initiatives have opened the door of opportunity to many who would have never had a fighting chance in the time of their forebears.  Increasing equal opportunity has brought people of color and women to the Supreme Court, governors' mansions, Senate chambers, House seats, and now even possibly the White House. 

But it is these same initiatives that are being labeled as programs that offer "preferential" treatment to women and people of color.  They are said to foster "reverse discrimination," and unearned advantages.  We are being asked to look at society through a color- and gender-blind lens.  We are asked to ignore the vast inequalities that still exist in education, housing, health care coverage, income, etc. between men and women, between people of color and Whites.

It is this type of twisted logic, misinformation, and bad policy that has brought me to the front lines of the battle to ensure, expand, and promote equal opportunity in Colorado.

I am currently working as the Colorado field director for the United States Student Association, a student-led organization that fights to ensure that education is a right.  We are facing a huge challenge to those efforts in Colorado.  Ward Connerly, a California millionaire and former regent of the University of California system, has set out on a national campaign to bring an end to equal opportunity.  He has waged successful campaigns in California, Washington, and Michigan.  He has attempted, but failed, in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arizona this year. 

Now the battle lines have been drawn in Colorado and Nebraska.  Using vague and misleading ballot language, Connerly – through the guise of the so-called "American Civil Rights Initiative" – plans to put an end to all initiatives designed to increase opportunity for women and people of color by amending the constitutions of both states with a clause that claims to prohibit "the state from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."  

In truth, this ballot measure has had negative effects in the states where it has passed.  As a result, we have seen a drop in admissions rates of minorities, hiring of minorities and women in the public sector, and in public contracting for women- and minority-owned businesses.  Connerly's "civil rights initiative" has successfully closed the door of opportunity to countless gifted women and people of color who are simply looking for a chance to compete and achieve the "American Dream."

Connerly, in essence, has set out to make unlikely stories like mine even more unlikely.

In Colorado, we have developed a broad coalition to inform the electorate about the true intents of Connerly's initiative, Amendment 46, and why it is bad for Colorado.  Civic leaders, grassroots organizations, students, business, faith, and labor leaders have all come together to tell voters to "Vote No on Amendment 46."

This will be an uphill battle, but I am confident that if we can get Coloradans to reconnect with the principles behind equal opportunity: – fairness, hard work, community, success, and justice – we will be able to continue to expand, not roll back, equal opportunity.

Israel García, 23, of Monte Vista, CO, is the Colorado field director for the United States Student Association and a 2008 graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder with B.A.s in Sociology, Ethnic Studies, and Political Science and a Certificate in Leadership Development and Theory. If you are interested in becoming part of the efforts or wish to offer monetary support to protect equal opportunity in Colorado please contact Israel García Colorado@usstudents.org.