Why are these initiatives called "civil rights" initiatives?
First, there’s nothing “deceptive” about the naming of the Civil Rights Initiatives. The idea of this tactic by the opposition is to claim that somehow “civil rights” means ONLY a movement that supports ONLY people of certain races or colors, but that the phrase can’t be used by anyone who doesn’t advocate special rights, different rights, or group rights for certain people.
Opponents actually bristle at the use of the term “civil rights” by those of us who want truly “equal rights.”
The term “civil rights” does not belong to any group or movement. Commonly, activist Blacks tend to co-opt the term as if it belongs exclusively to Black Americans. Occasionally they throw a bone to Hispanics or other select groups. There’s a difference between “the Civil Rights Movement,” which was a historical incident, and “civil rights” which we all possess.
However, “civil rights” are the rights Americans possess as individuals, represented by our right to be equal to each other in the eyes of the law and the government.
These Civil Rights Initiatives are named after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, after which they are modeled. The Act guarantees, or should guarantee, that each American will be judged without regard to “race, color, religion, ethnicity or national origin.” There was no mention of sex equality because that was not embraced in the early ‘60’s. Modern Civil Rights Initiatives use the same wording regarding descriptions of people by heritage: “race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
“Civil rights” is used more property, more Constitutionally, in the Civil Rights Initiatives than they are by the opposition, who think “civil rights” means something it does not mean. And they know it.