BAMN

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter.
It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view.
Please discuss further on the talk page.

This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

BAMN is a group that advocates maintaining affirmative action. The acronym "BAMN" currently stands for "Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary", although it originally stood for "The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary". The original purpose of BAMN was to defeat the University of California Regents plan to end affirmative in the UC system.

BAMN was one of 44 parties to intervene in the Grutter v. Brollinger affirmative action case.^[1] BAMN's activism also includes challenges against the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative as well as rallies, protests, and confrontational activism. BAMN received considerable media attention in Michigan for its role in exposing instances of racially-targeted voter fraud committed by backers of the initiative. The group led a campaign to expose racially targeted fraud in Michigan. BAMN was notably successful in convincing a federal judge to rule that anti-affirmative action groups misled voters.

BAMN recently campaigned against the Oklahoma and Missouri ballot initiatives supported by Ward Connerly.

[edit] Terrorism Investigation

The American Civil Liberties Union has reported that the FBI has investigated BAMN for potential involvement in unspecified "terrorist activities." According to the FBI, the group's protests were discussed in a meeting about terrorist activities.[1][2]

[edit] Abusive Behavior

The group has also been criticized for busing in students from the Metro Detroit area to BAMN protests. The most notorious of these happenings occurred when the language of Prop 2 was being certified by the State Board of Canvassers and the rally that BAMN led with school-aged children in Lansing flipped tables over and threatened the signers of the ballot. After this, many groups against Prop 2 disassociated themselves from BAMN and their intimidating tactics. Video and photographs documenting table flipping episode. A BAMN leader has been accused of displaying a knife during a disagreement. [3]