Celebrities Urge Defeat of Prop. 209

Rocker Bruce Springsteen, whose songs chronicle people’s struggle to achieve their dreams, used music Sunday to urge a Westwood rally of about 1,400 people to battle Proposition 209.

“I don’t think any of us can look in our hearts and say we live in a colorblind society,” Springsteen said, reading from scrawled-out notes and clearly a bit ill at ease with his role as a speechmaker.

Dressed in a casual shirt, with his dark hair slicked back, Springsteen said: “A country grounded on fear of one another won’t stand. . . . People in this city have seen where that takes us.”

He finished his remarks by chanting, “Vote No! Stop Proposition 209!”

Then he took up his shiny black acoustic guitar and harmonica and, as the crowd outside the Federal Building raised its fists in the air, sang “Promised Land,” about working people’s desire for a better life. “Mister, I ain’t a boy, no, I’m a man,” Springsteen wailed, “and I believe in the promised land.”

His appearance was the highlight of the rally, which also drew actress Christine Lahti, United Farm Workers pioneer Dolores Huerta, civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and local elected officials.

In an interview before his performance, Springsteen said he was there because of his young daughter, Jessica Rae. Once affirmative action was just an abstract to him, he said, but now he looks at his daughter and thinks of the effect Proposition 209 could have on her. Without it, “she’ll have less of a chance to fulfill her potential,” he said.

“I don’t think 20 years of progress can make up for 300 years of injustice,” Springsteen said. “It’s been very subversive, nasty and cynical what’s going on in this state.”

Affirmative action “isn’t a perfect” remedy, but “it has been the only tool we’ve had to get an equitable society.”

“My songs deal with an image of the kind of country I want to live in. That’s what my work has been all about: People trying to empower themselves, the marginalized trying to find their way into society.”

Lahti, who plays a heart surgeon on the TV show “Chicago Hope,” said roles such as hers reflect changes brought about by affirmative action.

Years ago, she said, such programs encouraged girls to go into the fields of science and math, and television now reflects those changes in society. “If [Proposition 209] is passed, it will set women back 25 years,” she said. Although the measure wouldn’t affect private firms, she added, it would signal to unions and private employers that it’s all right not to press to hire more women and minorities.

Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal, who helped organize the rally, wasn’t daunted by a Los Angeles Times poll taken Oct. 17-21, which showed that 54% of likely voters support Proposition 209, 31% oppose it and 15% are undecided. The initiative would amend the state Constitution, banning state and local government affirmative action programs. It would not bar private employers from implementing programs to hire or promote women and minorities.

Smeal said the language of the initiative is deceptive, calling itself a “civil rights initiative.” She pointed out that by a margin of 52% to 30%, voters continue to support the concept of affirmative action programs. Opponents of Proposition 209, Smeal said, must educate the electorate about how the initiative would affect the programs.

Like many, civil rights activist Joe Hicks pressed the crowd to get out the vote. “What civil rights measure have you ever known to be supported by Strom Thurmond and David Duke?” thundered Hicks from the podium. Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina implored each person in the crowd to call 10 friends, and ask each of them to get 10 more friends to vote no on the initiative.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) said that since the slide in Americans’ standard of living after the Vietnam War, politicians have tried to deflect the blame onto everyone from minorities to TV character Murphy Brown.

Immigrants and minorities, he said, “suddenly became the cause of the decline of the middle-class.” And Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn said that, even with decades of affirmative action, 97% of top executives in the United States are white men.

Standing in the middle of the crowd, which organizers estimated at 3,000 but sheriff’s deputies said was closer to 1,400, was Katrina Hamilton, 22, a student at Cal State Dominguez.

She credits the school’s equal opportunity programs with motivating her to become a psychology major, improve her grades and plan on getting a doctorate. She predicted that if Proposition 209 passes, the number of African Americans like herself will drop by two-thirds at her school.

If Proposition 209 passes, Smeal said, 17 to 20 states will follow California’s lead. “This will be the first skirmish in a nationwide fight,” she said.