Global Courant 2023-05-12 13:50:12
The California Reparations Task Force, a committee created by legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, has formally recommended that the state legislature repeal a constitutional amendment that prohibits the government from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to anyone based on their race.
The task force formally approved its final recommendations last weekend to the California legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to the governor’s office to be signed into law.
Much public attention was focused on the price tag of the commission’s proposed reparations to make amends for slavery and anti-black racism. However, several aspects of the committee’s recommendations, which are detailed in hundreds of pages of documents, have received little attention, including a proposal to withdraw Proposal 209.
California voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, which is now enshrined in the California Constitution. The measure amended the California Constitution, adding a section that reads, in part, “The state shall not disqualify any person or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the conduct of public employment, public education, or public procurement. .”
Walter Foster, age 80, a longtime Los Angeles resident, holds up a sign as the Reparations Task Force meets to hear public input on reparations at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2022. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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The Supreme Court of California said in a 2000 case that, in the context of Proposition 209, discrimination means “to discriminate in treatment; show partiality (for) or prejudice (against)” and preferential means “to give a priority or advantage to one person … over others.”
Proposition 209 is largely known for banning affirmative action, but it actually outright banned racial discrimination in California. Repealing it appears to allow discrimination, as the court defined it.
Nevertheless, the task force wants to get rid of the measure, arguing that it has actually caused more racial discrimination.
“Since its adoption, Proposition 209 has had a far-reaching impact on efforts to redress entrenched systemic anti-Black prejudice and discrimination,” the task force said. writes in a final report to present its proposals. “In recognition of the systemic discrimination faced by the African American community and the barriers to justice and reparation imposed by Proposition 209, the Task Force recommends that the Legislature take steps within its authority to enforce the repeal (of) Proposition 209 This effort must continue until the California Constitution is purged of this or any other measure rooted in racism.”
Kamilah Moore, chairman of the California Reparations Task Force, departed, and Amos Brown, vice chairman, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2022. ((Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))
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The task force highlights a study commissioned by the far-left Equal Justice Society, an organization chaired by a member of the task force, which concluded between $1 billion
and $1.1 billion in contract dollars was lost annually by women-owned businesses and
people of color because of Proposition 209. The task force report also argued that black candidates were being denied “on every campus”.
However, according to UCLA law professor Richard Sander, the number of black graduates at the University of California had increased Up 70% above pre-Proposition 209 levels by 2017. That same year, he wrote, the number of STEM graduates jumped from an annual average of about 200 before Proposition 209 to 510. The figure rose to 558 in 2018.
It is unclear how repealing a measure prohibiting discrimination or preferential treatment based on race would help to combat racial discrimination.
One possible explanation relates to legality.
Lisa Holder, a member of the California Reparations Task Force, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2022. (Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
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Many of the task force’s proposals rely explicitly on race to discriminate in favor of black Californians as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent racism. With that in mind, critics of reparations have argued that Proposition 209 could pose a legal hurdle to their proposals.
For example, San Francisco resident Richie Greenberg who founded the successful movement to recall the city’s former district attorney, Chesa Boudin, has argued that large-scale reparations would violate not only Proposition 209, but also the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Ward Connerly, the leading black voice supporting Proposition 209, has expressed similar sentiments.
“It is (proposal) 209 that will prevent our legislature and governor from doing something as ridiculous as some of us offsetting based on our skin color or being the ancestors of slaves,” he tweeted last year.
Connerly served as president of the California Civil Rights Initiative Campaign in the 1990s and is now founder and president of the American Civil Rights Institute.
March and rally for reparations, child protection and human rights advancement, June 17, 2021 in St. Paul, Minn. ((Photo by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
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The task force did not respond to a request for comment for this story. However, the committee seemed to recognize the potential legal hurdle that Proposition 209 presents in its report, writing, “More broadly, Proposition 209 is widely seen as an impediment to taking corrective action. The chilling effect has been far-reaching.”
This is not the first attempt to withdraw proposal 209. In 2020, Proposition 16 appeared on the general election ballot asking California voters to amend the California Constitution to repeal Proposition 209.
Proposition 16 failed, with 57% of voters saying they want to keep Proposition 209, which is still in effect.
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“In other words, a majority of California voters wanted to keep Prop 209 and uphold the constitutional ban on the state engaging in discrimination based on race or preferential treatment,” Edward Ring, a senior fellow at the California Policy Center, recently wrote. of the 2020 vote.
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
