{"id":7891,"date":"2002-07-15T13:43:00","date_gmt":"2002-07-15T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=7891"},"modified":"2021-06-30T16:48:33","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T16:48:33","slug":"elections-officials-put-racial-privacy-initiative-before-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2002\/07\/15\/elections-officials-put-racial-privacy-initiative-before-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections officials put Racial Privacy Initiative before voters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Date: Monday, July 15, 2002 1:43 PM<br>From: Kevin Nguyen<br>Subject: Elections officials put Racial Privacy Initiative before voters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Racial Privacy Initiative<br>P.O. Box 189113<br>Sacramento, CA 95818-8113<br>(916) 444-2278<br>FPPC #1237969<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br>Monday, July 15, 2002<br>Contact: Kevin Nguyen, 916\/444-2278<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elections officials put Racial Privacy Initiative before voters<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(SACRAMENTO) \u2013 California\u2019s Secretary of State today reported full-count verification of 694,586 valid signatures (670,816 were required) submitted by proponents of the Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI), and campaign supporters hailed the official completion of the qualification phase of the measure, the first of its kind in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re pleased that the initiative is now qualified,\u201d said Ward Connerly, Chair of the American Civil Rights Coalition. \u201cThis gives the people of California \u2013 and indeed, the nation, since this is the start of a national revolution \u2013 a chance to decide our future with regard to \u2018race.\u2019 We will give our society a chance to move forward, beyond restrictive and arbitrary racial boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proposed constitutional amendment would largely end the governmental practice of classifying and tracking individuals by race, ethnicity, color or national origin. Upon qualification and passage, racial check-off boxes would be phased out in state and local government forms by 2005, with explicit exemptions for such areas as medical research and treatment, law enforcement and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis initiative will trim millions of dollars of racial snooping out of the bureaucratic budget,\u201d said Ted Costa, CEO of People\u2019s Advocate, Inc., a leading taxpayers group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo one chooses the color of his or her skin or any of several other categories used to place boundaries between Americans. Rather than artificially dividing us and establishing dependency programs that dilute our competitive spirit, it\u2019s time to focus on that which unites us: namely, we\u2019re all Americans\u201d stated Valery Pech, a RPI steering committee member who was a plaintiff along with her husband in the landmark Adarand lawsuit. \u201cThe true measure of an American is not a category \u2013 it\u2019s not an artificial box \u2013 we\u2019ve been placed in for the sake of highlighting our differences. We don\u2019t ask people about religion or sexual orientation \u2013 race should be accorded the same privacy protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cState and local government should not have to foot the bill for the seemingly insatiable appetite of those who are obsessed over racial data collection,\u201d Kevin Nguyen, RPI\u2019s Official Proponent, pointed out. \u201cThe racialists\u2019 curiosity is fed by a crumbling classification system that lacks standards, consistency and scientific legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Racial Privacy Initiative is certified for the next possible statewide election, the primary election scheduled for March 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: Monday, July 15, 2002 1:43 PMFrom: Kevin NguyenSubject: Elections officials put Racial Privacy Initiative before voters Racial Privacy InitiativeP.O. Box 189113Sacramento, CA 95818-8113(916) 444-2278FPPC #1237969 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, July 15, 2002Contact: Kevin Nguyen,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[126,103],"class_list":["post-7891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-racial-classifications","tag-press-release"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-23h","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Press-Releases.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7892,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions\/7892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}