Commotion clouds Connerly event

Intense opposition to the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative began before Ward Connerly, advocate of the initiative, even arrived on campus.

Truman College Republicans, under the direction of MoCRI Executive Director Tim Asher, collected 50 to 60 signatures on a petition to put the initiative on the November 2008 ballot, junior Courtney Robbins said. The Tuesday before Connerly came to speak, College Republicans could not find the signatures or their large poster, which they stored overnight in their CSI mailbox. Robbins said the group assumes someone took the signatures and does not expect their return.

"Whoever took it obviously doesn't have a lot of sympathy for the cause that we're pushing for," Robbins said. "We did try to collect some signatures the night of the event to make up for some of the lost signatures."

Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, said he spoke last Thursday with the intention of educating and informing audience members about the initiative. The initiative aims to eliminate discrimination against or preferential treatment of individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public education and public contracting, Connerly said. He clarified that the initiative does not use the term "affirmative action."

"We tend to think of [affirmative action] only in the context of it helping on the basis of race, but affirmative action comes in many forms," Connerly said. "First of all, it's a non-discrimination policy, and we don't want to eliminate that. ... What it eliminates is preferential treatment of anybody on the basis of those five prohibitive factors in the three areas."

Connerly repeatedly said socioeconomic factors create different conditions that call for a need for affirmative action.

"Give the help to those who need it, not on the basis of the way somebody was born or their skin color," he said.

Connerly said he used a paper submission question-and-answer system to save time and prevent questions from becoming personal statements, but audience members expressed disdain.

"Why can't we speak in our own voices?" one woman in the audience asked. "... We ask you the questions. You, the great expert, tell us the answers. That is the purpose of this format."

Throughout the event, Connerly frequently fought for control of the audience while maintaining his composure.

"If we can't have a civil discussion, I'm leaving," he said at one point.

Despite many audience outbursts, Connerly said his reception at Truman did not differ from that at other speaking venues.

"Generally it's a little bit more civil, but I don't have any complaints about Truman, I really don't," he said.

Prior to the event, the College Democrats had held a Ward Connerly protest rally, organized on 48 hours' notice. Speakers at the rally included Joe Thomas, member of Jobs with Justice, a statewide coalition to stop the Ward Connerly movement, as well as State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, D-St. Louis.

El-Amin said affirmative action allows for equal opportunity that MoCRI would deny.

"America is the land of opportunity, and the only thing we want is for Missouri to be consistent with that," El-Amin said.

Sophomore Makita Abraham, an advocate of affirmative action, attended Connerly's presentation to learn more. She said the event was unprofessional and that Connerly seemed angry and was not welcoming or personable. After Connerly told an audience member to shut up, Abraham had to step out of the room to regain her composure, she said.

Abraham said she left the event upset.

"It seems like it kind of separated our community," she said.