Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
The movement to abolish Proposition 209, which made it illegal for the state to discriminate based on race, gender, and other characteristics is racist, plain and simple.
Abolishing Prop 209 via Prop 16 is supposed to, in theory, give minorities—primarily Latinos and blacks, a better opportunity to compete. The main problem with this is the fact that it has never worked, and will never work. All it does it put unqualified people in place of those that belong there.
It’s sold as a temporary pause to equality to eliminate systemic imbalances, but it neither fixes the alleged problem nor is it temporary. There is no better example of this than what Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said about affirmative action.
“We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest [in student body diversity] approved today,” Justice O’Connor explained. That was said in 2003 and so far, nothing has changed. Affirmative action will still be justified by some in 2028, and in all likelihood will be justified under the same misguided reasons in 2128. No acceptable quota for racial equity will ever exist because the goalposts can and will always be shifted.
Another problem with bringing back such racial discrimination is that it’s not even for all minorities—just for the ones that are “falling behind.” Therefore, groups like Jews and Asians are subject to the same discrimination as whites, while Latinos and blacks are the only groups that ostensibly benefit. All of this while Latinos make up a larger portion of the California population than whites.
Even if the previously mentioned minorities were included, that wouldn’t really change anything. Abolishing Prop 209 is still racist because doing so would allow the state to discriminate based on race. This is completely unacceptable in California, and the movement—in the form of Prop 16—must be defeated.
