Affirmative action has brought nothing but division. That’s still happening at a time when California is the most diverse polity in human history. The latest comes from Fox News: “Calif. Democrat accuses Muslim colleague of White supremacy for not backing race-based law: Calif. Republican says bill allows state to ‘discriminate based on race when providing services.’”
The Democrat is Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Perris). The Republican is Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside). After they tussled over affirmative action, which Jackson is trying to revive and Essayli opposes, Jackson let loose with this post on Twitter attacking Essayli:
“This is a perfect example how a minority can become a white supremacist by doing everything possible to win white supremacist and fascist affection.
“History will judge him poorly. His politics is dangerous and should be combated at every turn.”
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, former vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party, speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 19, 2016. Alex Wong/Getty Images
That brought a retort from Harmeet K. Dhillon, a Republican National Assemblywoman and well known GOP lawyer; also a member of the Punjabi Sikh minority:
“Did they teach you sophistry and demagoguery in the Doctor of Social Work program, or is that a post-doc thing?”
The immediate issue is Jackson’s bill Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7, which would put before the voters an initiative to repeal Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that banned affirmative action by California state and local governments. ACA 7 passed 8-3 in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on June 13. It’s currently being considered in the Committee on Appropriations.
As Essayli pointed out, Prop. 209 passed with a majority of the vote—even though he mistakenly said 57 percent supported it. It was actually 55 percent. He must have been thinking of the more recent attempt to repeal it, Proposition 16 in 2020, which lost by an even bigger margin when 57 percent voted nay.
An October poll that year by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies showed it was opposed by white people, Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans. Only black people favored it.
Dr. Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, gave a public lecture titled "The Role of Government in a Free Society" at Texas Tech University on Sept. 19, 2013. Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University
My touchstone for this is economist Walter Williams, whose columns I read with appreciation until his death two years ago. Here’s what he wrote when this came up in 2014:
“Earlier this month, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act was celebrated. During the act’s legislative debate, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey, responding to predictions, promised, ‘I’ll eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas.’
“I don’t know whether Humphrey got around to keeping his promise, but here’s my question: Is it within the capacity of black Americans to make it in this society without the special favors variously called racial preferences, quotas, affirmative action and race-sensitive policies? What might a ‘yes’ answer to that question assume and imply about blacks? Likewise, what would a ’no' answer assume and imply? Let’s look at it.
“There are some areas of black life in which excellence can be found without the slightest hint of racial preferences. Young blacks dominate basketball, football and some track-and-field events despite the fact that there has been a history of gross racial discrimination in those activities. Blacks are also prominent in several areas of the entertainment industry.
“Those observations mean that racial discrimination alone is not an insurmountable barrier to success. By the way, I can’t think of any two fields with more ruthless competition.
“You say, ‘OK, Williams, everyone knows about the success of blacks in sports and entertainment, but what about the intellectual arena?’
“A few inner-city junior high and high schools have produced black champion chess players, schools such as Philadelphia’s Roberts Vaux High School and New York’s Edward R. Murrow High School. Last year, two black teens – from Intermediate School 318 Eugenio Maria de Hostos in Brooklyn, N.Y. – won the national high-school chess championship.”
A YMCA staff member assists a child as they attend online classes at a learning hub inside the Crenshaw Family YMCA during the Covid-19 pandemic in Los Angeles on Feb. 17, 2021. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Covering Up Failure
In addition to setting all against all with a racial and ethnic spoils system, there’s another big problem with affirmative action: It covers up the failures of government, in particular the schools, to lift blacks up. No wonder both the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers favor ACA 7. They blame the low quality of education handed out to black students on racism, instead of on their actions to stymie real reform, such as has been enacted in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other states.
Earlier this month in The Epoch Times, I also described the “Mississippi Miracle” in education, where, when a Republican Legislature and governor reformed the schools, especially for black students, it went from being one of the worst states on achievement tests to near the top.
California’s political failure of the black community also can be shown in Jackson’s own career. Jackson’s Assembly District 60 includes Moreno Valley, where many tens of thousands of blacks have moved in the past three decades, as well as to other areas of the Inland Empire, because they were priced out of Los Angeles.
And who is responsible for housing costs doubling and tripling in that time, even accounting for inflation? Well, it sure isn’t Republicans, who as a super-minority are nearly irrelevant. And even Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom couldn’t advance a modest reform of the main impediment to building housing, the California Environmental Quality Act. Why isn’t Jackson working on CEQA reform?
U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington on June 7, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
Supreme Court Action
In the background of this new controversy is the U.S. Supreme Court’s expected ruling against affirmative action, due any day now. The Brookings Institution provided a summary:
“Sometime in the next six weeks the Supreme Court will likely reveal its decisions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFAI) v. President and Fellows of Harvard and SFAI v. University of North Carolina. Court watchers are almost unanimous that the Supreme Court majority will:
read the 14th amendment as barring the use of racial preferences by public colleges and universities and
interpret Section VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as similarly restricting race conscious admissions at any school receiving federal funds.”
If that happens, it will make ACA 7 moot. However, Jackson’s absurd insult of his colleague, Essayi, will linger in the air. It’s probably too much to expect his Democratic colleagues to censure him, but that’s what ought to happen.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
John Seiler
Author
John Seiler is a veteran California opinion writer. Mr. Seiler has written editorials for The Orange County Register for almost 30 years. He is a U.S. Army veteran and former press secretary for California state Sen. John Moorlach. He blogs at JohnSeiler.Substack.com and his email is [email protected]
