MEDICINE & RACE: NMA Boycotts Seattle Over I-200
The National Medical Association announced yesterday it would not be holding its 2001 convention in Seattle due to Washington state voters' passage in November of an anti-affirmative action measure. The century-old NMA, based in Washington, DC, represents some 20,000 black physicians. NMA Executive Director Lorraine Cole said Initiative 200 "is counter to the basic tenets" of the NMA. But John Carlson of Bellevue, Washington, who headed the drive to put the initiative on the ballot last year, said, "Unless their organization was founded on the tenets of racial quotas and preferences, they are seriously misreading Initiative 200 because that's all that prohibits." Nearly 60% of voters approved I-200, which "bars state and local governments from giving preferential treatment to women and minorities in contracts, jobs or public higher education" (Spokane Spokesman-Review, 2/3).
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