Letters to the editor

Prop. 54 concerns unwarranted

Proposition 54 has taken center stage on the UCLA campus.
Compelled by the opposition to the bill, I looked into the actual
bill text as well as commentary by the Legislative Analyst’s
Office. While making my comparison, it seemed obvious the people
running around with “NO ON 54″ buttons had an argument
full of holes so big it puts the Inverted Fountain to shame.

Let us start with the argument that it will block the ability to
gather racial data in medical research necessary to address certain
diseases and conditions afflicting specific ethnic groups. Although
a valid concern from the altruistic left, Proposition 54 contains,
however, a clause allowing for the collection of racial data for
medical purposes.

Other arguments claim Proposition 54 will undermine the ability
of law enforcement. This might be true if it were not for another
clause exempting law enforcement from the information ban, allowing
them to use race in describing criminals to aid in the capture of
those who are suspected of committing crimes.

Only those wishing to keep our country and world in a quagmire
of racial politics will vote no on Proposition 54.

Jon M. English Second-year, political
science

Color blindness not yet reality

Most sane men and women will agree that race does not signify
whether a person will show intelligence or be predisposed to
violence.

But what does this have to do with Proposition 54?

Alan Ward (“Racial classification furthers
discrimination,” Oct. 6) made an impassioned plea for the
passage of Proposition 54 based on scientific facts. I cannot
dispute him, for indeed scientific fact supports him. But this
debate has nothing to do with scientific fact. It has everything to
do with ignorance and with stereotypical bile that is stirred up
when people wish to blame someone for society’s ills.
Proposition 54 does nothing to address it.

We all wish that discrimination would go away. Many people have
invoked Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”
speech to envision a world in which people are colorblind and treat
each other as human beings. I, too, wish that people could sit down
and look at each other without having to qualify statements using
race. However, I live in reality, and the reality is that people
will discriminate anyway.

Adrian Haymond Financial Services manager