UCLA activists walk precincts against CCRI

Sunday, July 21, 1996

By Michael Angell

Summer Bruin Contributor

At 9 a.m. on Saturday, most students would still be in bed. Not
Margarita Gonzalez, though. The fourth-year Chicano studies/history
student was out of bed, ready to wake up the neighborhood.

"We’re going to wake some people up this morning," Gonzalez
said.

What she was going to wake people up to was Proposition 209, the
California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). Gonzalez and about 40
other UCLA students spent Saturday morning learning and practicing
that 1960s-era strategy of precinct walking ­ going door to
door registering voters and informing them about the issues on the
November ballot.

Members of the Students for Social Justice walked neighborhoods
in Palms, Mar Vista and Venice in conjunction with other efforts
across the state to inform voters about the initiative.

"What we’re trying to find are the people in the middle, the
swing vote," said Liz Ryder of the Metropolitan Alliance, an
organization of union and activist groups including the UCLA
Affirmative Action Coalition.

"(Those are) the people who, if we share some information with
them and show them the right way to vote, will vote against CCRI,"
she said.

The Metropolitan Alliance has staged other precinct walks
against CCRI throughout Los Angeles.

The key task for the canvassers was not only to inform people
about the initiative but also to make sure that those people
actually went to the polls. Ryder believes that low voter turnouts
have helped other controversial initiatives succeed.

"We have to motivate them to get to the polls because the key in
this is that most people do not make it to the polls," Ryder said.
"There are not enough people voting. We are the majority and if the
people were out voting then we wouldn’t have a Proposition 187,"
she added.

"We’re targeting towns that have communities that would be
affected by the passage of CCRI. Palms has a lot of students. Mar
Vista has an ethnically diverse population. Venice, the same
thing," Ryder said.

The California Civil Rights Initiative was drafted by University
of California Regent Ward Connerly to eliminate gender and racial
bias from all state hiring practices.

But its detractors insist that the initiative’s seemingly
neutral language is simply a way to erode affirmative action
policies in businesses and schools.

One example cited by the walk organizers occurred a year ago
when the Board of Regents voted to end affirmative action
guidelines for student recruitment.

Precinct walks took place in other cities across California as a
way to commemorate the event as well as to prevent what walk
organizers believe to be another attack on their civil rights.

Current attacks on affirmative action motivated students for
Saturday’s precinct walk, said incoming undergraduate student
President John Du.

"(It’s) not at all hard to get people motivated to precinct
walk," Du said. "We turned out about 40 people. I think a lot of it
has to do with the hard work that the Affirmative Action Coalition
laid out last year. We were able to plug in people who have already
been active and some of the new people who have already heard of
what we’ve done."

For the most part, students were cold calling on voters in
different precincts. Du predicted that the vote solicitors would
meet with voters on all sides of the issue.

"We’re going to get people that don’t know what the hell is
going on with CCRI," Du said. "We’re going to get people that are
for CCRI and people that are dead set against CCRI."

For the most part, Gonzalez and her partner, second-year
undeclared student Gabino Arreondo, found people who were
registered voters yet had very little knowledge of the California
Civil Rights Initiative.

The two vote solicitors worked two quiet streets south of Venice
Boulevard, where the mostly white, middle-class residents were
receptive to the message Gonzalez and Arreondo gave them.

After Venice resident Tamie Smith heard the students’ pitch, she
said, "I didn’t know about this initiative. I’ll definitely vote
against it."

Stewart Oscars also had little knowledge of the initiative
before he heard Gonzalez’s argument.

"The state of the world is such that now everyone is trying to
get back all these things that they think they have lost," Oscars
said. "Everyone’s competing for fewer opportunities and they
perceive others as a threat. I’m for opening doors for all people
even though I’m a white male."

One Venice resident heard Gonzalez’s argument against CCRI, yet
may still vote for it. Ken Diashyn said that he wants to look at
the initiative more closely.

"They were very polite. It was good that they are trying to
educate the voters, but I’m leaning towards voting yes," Diashyn
said. "Somebody’s got to stick up for the white male."

SHAWN LAKSMI

Margarita Gonzalez (left) and Gabino Arreondo (right) ask Venice
residents to vote against CCRI.