White voters backed anti-affirmative-action ballot measures across racial and gender lines.

Evidence

Half of women (compared with 57 percent of men) and 45 percent of Asian Americans (compared with 60 percent of whites, 26 percent of blacks, and 30 percent of Latinos) voted for Proposition 209 (the California Civil Rights Initiative) in November 1996 (Ness, 1996). White men and women supported the antiaffirmative action proposition more strongly than did men or women of color. In Washington, 65 percent of men, and 50 percent of women supported Initiative 200, which was modeled after Proposition 209. Almost 60 percent of whites, and 46 percent of nonwhites (almost all of whom are Hispanic or Asian American) similarly supported the initiative (Ladd, 1998:129). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2028

Categorization

• SHARE: Asian Americans (45%) were far closer to whites (60%) than to blacks (26%) or Latinos (30%) on Prop 209 — a striking data point about Asian-American political positioning someone working on race politics would relish.