Proposition 54, the controversial voter initiative on the October 7, 2003 ballot, has been labeled everything from a racist gag order to a catalyst for a colorblind society. Co-written by U.C. Regent Ward Connerly, an outspoken opponent of race-based affirmative action, Proposition 54 would ban California’s state and local agencies from collecting or using data that identifies people’s race, ethnicity, or national origin. This Bay Area reporting project takes a closer look at some of the public and private institutions that would be directly affected by Proposition 54—the places where “classifying by race, ethnicity, color or national origin,” in the words of the ballot measure, actually occurs on a day-to-day basis.

Project 54, reported by a J200 class at the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and edited by Jason Marsh, examines how Proposition 54 might affect:

Efforts to close the achievement gap between Caucasian and minority students.

The competitive considerations now given to minority-owned businesses.

Unconventional methods for trying to foster diversity.

The way foundations and their grant applicants use information about race and ethnicity.

Finally, we examine some of the confusion about definitions in Prop. 54, which could keep lawyers at work for some time to come.

Read the full text of Proposition 54.

 

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UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism