California voters will face the question of affirmative action once again

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

The California Senate Wednesday voted to send the question of affirmative action to the voters in November.

The two Asian American members of California's state Senate voted on opposite sides Wednesday when the Senate voted 30-10 to put ACA 5 on the November ballot.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 (ACA5) would allow for consideration of race and gender in public education and public hiring and contracting by overturning Proposition 209, which banned the use of affirmative action and was passed by voters in 1996.

Diamond Bar Republican Sen. Ling Ling Chang said that ACA 5 amounted to legalized racism, and drew parallels with Legislature's support of the Chinese Exclusion Act which discriminated against Chinese immigrants into the 20th century.

"The problem with ACA 5 is that it takes the position that we must fight discrimination with more discrimination," Chang said.

Voting for ACA 5, state Sen. Richard Pan, a Democrat, said: "Why do we support ACA 5? Because we understand that by the time you get to the college application process, structural racism ensured that people are not at the same starting point, no matter what your talent is."

Pan said the current ban on affirmative action is “blindness towards structural racism… This is an issue of fairness and equal opportunity for all Californians.”

Pan is vice chair of the the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, which formally endorsed the measure on Monday.

In the California State Assembly, Asian Americans were clearly split along partisan lines earlier this month. Eight Democrats supported the measure, while three Republicans opposed it. Two Democrats and one Republican sat out the vote.

Since the implementation of Prop. 209, enrollment of Blacks and Latino students at the state's colleges dropped while the number of Asian American students rose.

Since 1995, the number of black and Latino students admitted to UCLA and UC Berkeley dropped by 70% to 75% at the UCLA and UC Berkeley, compared to just 35% and 40% for Asian and white applicants, according to Patricia Gándara, a research professor of education at UCLA and co-director its Civil Rights Project.

According to Market Watch, Asians account for 33% of the undergrad and graduate student body, followed by Latinos at 22%, Whites at 21% and Blacks at 4%.

These figures do not reflect California’s population, where Latinos account for 39% – the largest ethnic group – and Asians account for 15%.

The University of California Board of Regents recently endorsed their support for ACA 5.

Despite the loud protests against ACA 5 by some Asian Americans, mostly first-generation immigrants, the vast majority of AAPI support affirmative action, according to AAPI Data.

The vote that would repeal Prop. 209 comes at a time when the nation is coming to grips and gaining the realization of the extent of systemic racism in the country's institutions, including education spurred by the death of George Floyd and other unarmed Blacks at the hands of police and vigilantes.

The senators debated the measure for two hours before the emotional vote. 

"I know about discrimination. I live it every day. We live it in this building," said state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, who is Black. "Quit lying to yourselves and saying race is not a factor … the bedrock of who we are in this country is based on race."