Had a good discussion last night with David about the upcoming California state ballot initiative, the so-called "Racial Privacy Initiative." This initiative would be horrible! It looks like it has just received enough signatures so that it will be on the ballot this November. I have no doubt; the pockets of the right-wing to fund the petition-gathering are deep. We must work throughout the rest of this year to defeat this initiative.

This article gives a good summation of some of the arguments against the initiative, but I would also like to add my own two cents: This initiative is part of a larger goal by the right-wing to end civil rights. It would end the ability to collect data on race thereby disallowing the understanding of disparities among races/ethnicities in regards to housing, income, health care, you name it. Once you end the access to the data on the differences among races then you end the understanding of the what/where/how/why of the possible discrimination therein. Once that happens then you no longer have to deal and respond to the discrimination; thereby effectively saying that discrimination doesn't exist even though it does. Once you say that discrimination doesn't exist, then it allows the option of saying that civil rights laws are not necessary. That's the overall agenda of this agenda. And that is why it must be stopped!