Links on the CANF

The movement against "One Florida"
The fight against conservatives seeking to end Affirmative Action
Cuban American National Foundation supports One Florida

"One Florida" is Governor Jeb Bush's program to get rid of Affirmative Action in the state of Florida. The NAACP and many others organized a large march against One Florida  on 3/7/2000 in Tallahasse and mustered between 25,000 to 80,000 participants, a very respectable showing for civil rights marches, comparable to the numbers in historic marches.  The country ignored it.

Jeb Bush's One Florida initiative, supported by right wing Cuban Americans, is said to be in response to black California and Florida businessman Ward Connerly's drive to end Affirmative Action, known as the "Florida Civil Rights Initiative," using typical right wing double speak.   Connerly was behind the California and Washington initiatives to end Affirmative Action and turned his attention to Florida in 1999, mounting a campaign which collected over $200,000 in that year.  Observers estimate it will cost a total of around $500,000 for a successful campaign to gather the nearly half a million signatures required to get his Florida Civil Rights Initiative on the Florida ballot this year. The Bush brothers, Jeb and George W., both oppose Connerly, fearing he will detract from their efforts to draw dissaffected Democrats into their campaigns

Polls show Connerly's initiative would win if it got on the ballot, which seems likely as state contractors are paying heavily to support it. The wording is key: 80% would support an initiative worded to end discrimination in contracting and college admissions while only 40% would support one worded to end Affirmative Action.

CANF watchers will be interested to note that the CANF (Cuban American National Foundation -- the Miami right wing group which has many ties to terrorists and drug smugglers) supports the end of Affirmative Action in Florida, which is not suprising as they have a consistent record against civil rights and against the advances of most any black group one can think of, from South Africa to Angola and Miami, passing of course via Cuba, where these folks were responsible for massive suffering and virulent racism prior to 1959 and where their policies and their manipulation of the US have created untold suffering in the decades since. Their reception of Nelson Mandela in Miami was certainly memorable as an insult. 

Also interesting is the CANF's claim to represent all Latinos when announcing their support for Bush's One Florida initiative.  There are many latinos who disagree!   In fact, USA Today published the demographics for Miami: under Hispanics, there were Cubans 780,000. Nicaragans 105,000. Puerto Riquenos, 99,000. Columbians 75,000. Dominicans 35,000. Mexicans 32,000. Others 174,000.  The non Cubans number 520,000.   We suspect that state-wide, there is a stronger showing by non-Cubans.

Finally, we should note that the CANF is not alone in the Cuban American community in their support for One Florida -- most of the major Cuban American media outlets in South Florida have also come out against Affirmative Action.