"Race is always a contentious issue," said Ward Connerly, setting the stage for a debate Thursday in Phoenix over Proposition 107, which seeks a constitutional amendment to ban state-sponsored affirmative action.

Connerly's group, the American Civil Rights Institute, has spearheaded an effort to ban affirmative action nationally. Now, Connerly, a Californian, has taken his fight to Arizona.

On Thursday, he attempted to persuade an audience of about 40 people at the Goldwater Institute that the nation has reached the point that affirmative action is doing more harm than good.

"We are as polarized now about race as we have ever been," he said. "No one should enter the competition with an expectation that they are going to be discriminated against or given preferential treatment. It (Prop. 107) seeks to enshrine in your Constitution . . . equal treatment for all."


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