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Proposition 54, the ballot measure proponents claim would lead to a colorblind society, poses serious dangers to the physical and social health of Californians, contend local opponents of the controversial ballot proposition. 

Initiated by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, Prop. 54 would bar “state [and] local governments from using race, ethnicity, color or national origin to classify current or prospective students, contractors, or employees in public education, contracting or employment operations.” 

While Connerly and his supporters say they hope the measure will help solve some of America’s racial tensions, Berkeley opponents—including students, community groups, environmental groups, and health officials, among others—say that it is only going to make things worse. 

They note with particular alarm that Proposition 54 prohibits collection of data health officials use to track information on diseases that affect certain ethnic groups in varying ways. 

Nunu Kidani, a member of the Oakland-based African-American State of Emergency HIV-AIDS Task Force, points out that while only seven percent of Alameda County’s population is African-American, a whopping 44 percent of the people living with HIV and dying of AIDS belong to the African-American community. 

“[Proposition 54] defies complete logic,” said Kidani. “The most marginalized communities are not getting the help they need now and the proposition is only going to continue to impact those communities that are most vulnerable.” 

Without racial data, Kidani explains, nobody would see that a disproportionate number of African-Americans are being infected, eliminating the possibility of special programs targeted at those most in need of help. 

Kidani says AIDS programs in Alameda county receive $14 million, with $11 million of that total coming from the federal government. Without the relevant ethnic data, Kidani wonders how long the programs can survive. 

Proposition 54 also threatens a wide range of education programs, said Peter Gee, a UC Berkeley student and a senator for UC Berkeley’s student government. The ballot measure would prevent collection of data used to monitor disparities in admissions and student enrollment and to monitor things like hate crimes on campus, he said 

Gee, who helped form the Stop Prop. 54 Coalition, has joined with other students to campaign against the measure on campus. 

“We’re organizing because we’re going to be the ones who have to deal with it,” said Gee. 

The Berkeley Unified School District’s Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday night to oppose Proposition 54. Board Student Director Bradley Johnson said passage of the initiative would “hide both the horrors and the wonders of what we're doing in regard to race.” Other board members expressed concern that the initiative would cripple the district's ability to measure the educational progress of students of various races.  

The Sierra Club has signed on to the fight because the ballot measure could wipe out data that is used to fight environmental racism and to expose the targeting of communities of color for dangerous environmental projects. 

“Communities of Color [in the Bay Area] are constantly being unfairly burdened by freeways and power plants,” said Mike Daley, the Chapter Conservancy Director for the Bay Area Sierra Club. 

Daley says that minority communities in West Oakland were devastated during the installation of the freeways in the East Bay.  

“They certainly didn’t build the freeway through the hills where the rich white people live,” said Daley. 

Groups fighting the proposition are supporting a rally and precinct walk this Saturday in Berkeley, starting in front of the Washington School on Martin Luther King Avenue. The event also addresses the recall election and a number of Berkeley elected officials have promised to attend. 

Other racial initiatives that have started in California, such as Connerly’s anti-Affirmative Action measure, have spread to other states, causing organizers to worry that the same will happen with Proposition 54. 

“California has often been a testing ground. If it works, they export it,” said Frances Beale, an Oakland resident who belongs to the Black Radical Congress, a national coalition that organizes around issues in the African-American community. 

Beale says that in addition to negative effects Connerly’s proposition will have on health and education, negative political implications abound. 

“By wiping out the collection of data, it’s saying we don’t want to know if racism exists,” said Beale. “We don’t want to know about it and we don’t want to deal with it.” 

Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor contributed to this report.