Yesterday a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled that a legislative attempt to reinstate race- and sex-based discrimination in violation of California state law is unconstitutional.
Proposition 209, approved in 1996 by 54 percent of California voters (by county), outlaws skin color and sex preferences in public hiring and admissions. Since then, various groups have tried to overturn the law. Most recently, the former Governor Gray Davis signed a bill in 2003 that would have allowed the state to — get this — appeal to “international treaty provisions” to discriminate on the basis of skin color and sex, despite state law and federal constitutional prohibitions against it. The judge said no go.
Read more at the Sacramento Bee (reg. req.). Also read this press release from the Pacific Legal Foundation.
Related posts:
Is California waking up? Are the dems learning that the PEOPLE have the right to pass their own laws? And that those laws are subject to the Constitution of the United States? Not some judge and not some other country! Wouldn’t that be something.
Comment by pajamazon — 05.13.05 @ 1:41 pm
I can hear the victim-card-players’ wailing and gnashing of teeth from all the way over on the East Coast.
Comment by FL Mom — 05.13.05 @ 1:54 pm
Nice to see the internationalists beaten down, and the voice of the citizens upheld.
Comment by RedBeard — 05.13.05 @ 2:24 pm
I am suffering a paradigm collapse. A California judge rules the right way. Wow, like that will happen again anytime soon.
CitzCom
Comment by jwbrown1969 — 05.13.05 @ 3:30 pm
I heartily approve. Skin color is an ignorant measure of diversity.
Comment by DrTony — 05.13.05 @ 3:47 pm
A little bit of sanity from the left coast?
I just wonder what the citizens of California think when they see their elected officials trying to ignore their will?
Comment by Steven J. Kelso Sr. — 05.13.05 @ 4:02 pm
Black children in america think college is right? Unfortunately, 75% of black children don’t even realise college is an option. But “that ain’t you”.
Comment by kahuffman — 05.13.05 @ 4:26 pm
Kahuffman,
Huh? I need a cite for that one.
Comment by stephen johnson — 05.13.05 @ 4:37 pm
He’s just being ignorant, Stephen. Ignore it.
Comment by Tiffany In Mpls — 05.13.05 @ 4:49 pm
Wow!
I mean, wow!
And this was a judge in Sacramento? Isn’t that in California?
Comment by Pat'sRick© — 05.13.05 @ 5:15 pm
LaShawn,
This post is being linked by Salon.com on their round up of blogs, left and right, here’s the link:
daoureport.salon.com/
Comment by Tiffany In Mpls — 05.13.05 @ 5:19 pm
Don’t worry, folks. The leftist judiciary hasn’t been reformed. This good ruling is only an aberration in the ongoing agenda of legislating from the bench. Here’s proof. In Nebraska, the will of the people has been trashed by a single judge:
http://www.beaufortgazette.com/24hour/nation/story/2392798p-10658593c.html
Comment by RedBeard — 05.13.05 @ 6:41 pm
Dr. Tony, your statement is one of the CLEAREST I have EVER heard on the diversity/tribalism/racism issue. Bravo.
Comment by Rafael Daniel — 05.13.05 @ 10:07 pm
Tiffany my post was too shortly worded: the statment that 75% of black children don’t think that collage is an option means that children, tend to live what they know as life experience. i.e. if higher edgucation is not a part of your parents life it is less likely to be a part of yours. This opinion was developed over 20 years (my entire adult life) of living and raising a family in the near northside of the same city (minneapolis) as you. The statement is not meant to be racist the same thing could be said about poor children of any race. Can this be changed? of course it can , but it takes work that some don’t seem willing to take on. I am white my husband and children are not and I’ve had this same arguement with him.
Comment by kahuffman — 05.13.05 @ 11:13 pm
“…if higher edgucation is not a part of your parents life it is less likely to be a part of yours. This opinion was developed over 20 years (my entire adult life) of living and raising a family…”
That was my experience too Kahuffman. It is all about your parents expectations and the money to
back them up.
Comment by Jim R — 05.14.05 @ 12:08 am
I don’t think there’s any way to enforce it though. The Colleges will get around it, somehow. I’ve always thought it was very ironic that the majority of College Administrators/Admissions/Regents….who support affirmative action, are overwhelmingly White—and they think they’re being so altruistic.
It’s almost like plantation imagery: The benevolent White master who is so generous with the Black slaves. —The oh-so-sympathetic White College Admissions/Regents who freely admit the throngs of ill-prepared minorities.
I think we should start doing affirmative action and diversity at the Administrative/Admissions level.
OFF TOPIC: Sorry, but I’m absolutely livid over the comments Vincente Fox made about how….. “Mexicans do the jobs even Blacks would not do”. He’s angry about USA Migrant Policy. Yeah, well I’m angry too. Where does he get off talking about what Blacks would or wouldn’t do? Very presumptuous and arrogant. Plenty of Blacks work unglamorous minimum wage jobs, or would like to— but for the fact that they don’t speak Spanish! If these jobs are so horrible, and exploiting……I’d think Fox would be relieved.
Comment by Glamchild — 05.14.05 @ 2:33 pm
Well, yet another victory for the revisionist right. Now they’ll go back to drawing board on Prop 54–Ward Connerly’s scheme to eliminate all government records and tracking of racial discrimination and the journey back to the 1950’s will be complete.
But hey…that’s the last decade most conservatives said was “good” for America, right?
–Cobra
Comment by Cobra — 05.14.05 @ 4:42 pm
Cobra, there is so much wrong with your last post that I hardly know where to begin.
So I won’t.
Comment by RedBeard — 05.14.05 @ 4:52 pm
Us revisionists thought the 80’s were pretty darn good too…didn’t you read LaShawn’s post about Top Gun???
Yup, I can’t wait to get back on the plantation and put those blacks back where they belong. I can whistle me some more dixie and them folks can pick some more cotton.
I’m sure that’s the goal of all of us “revisionist righties”
Comment by Chris Roberts — 05.14.05 @ 11:25 pm
>>>”Impact of Prop 209 — California, which has traditionally had the largest number of black-owned businesses, had slower growth in black self-employment in the five years following the passage of Proposition 209. Compared to a national average growth of 43 percent in black self-employment from 1997 to 2002, California’s ranks of black self-employed only grew 30 percent. The national average growth for men was 21 percent, compared with 15 percent in California. The numbers of women sefl-employed in the Golden State grew 50 percent as opposed to a 70 percent gain nationally. Professor Wu, who spoke during the NAMIC awards breakfast in San Francisco, said initiatives like Prop. 209 “have a very negative effect on black business both directly and indirectly because they have a chilling effect on entrepreneurs.” A proposed initiative in Michigan carries “tremendous risks,” said Woo.
http://www.blackpressonline.com/
Couple that with the fact that Prop 209 used “bait and switch language.”
>>>But the ultimate trick came with Proposition 209, audaciously known as, “the California Civil Rights Initiative,” which banned the use of race or sex as a criterion for “either discrimination against or granting preferential treatment to” anyone doing business with the state. Prop 209 spokesperson, Ward Connerly, is as duplicitous as the language—having once served as a paid lobbyist for the construction and roofing industry — the same group that provided a vocal rearguard in recent Supreme Court affirmative action cases.
When the Harris Poll surveyed Californians, 81 percent supported the referendum. But when asked if they would still support the measure if it would “outlaw all affirmative action programs for women and minorities”– that support fizzled to 29 percent, and opposition climbed from 11 percent to 58 percent. Simply put when the voters understand these mean-spirited ideas, they reject them. The citizens of Houston did not buy this verbal sleight of hand either, and refused to accept a similar initiative, when worded properly, even though they’re Southerners, and like California, in a highly populated state.”
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/pking.html
So the fix was in. A lobbyist for white contractors (Connerly) came up with a cleverly worded scheme to eliminate non-white competition for his former bosses. If you doubt Connerly’s motivation for these adventures, simply follow the money…
http://www.mediatransparency.org/people/ward_connerly.htm
And just as an aside, what exactly was so GOOD about Proposition 54?
–Cobra
Regardless of what you think of Ward Connerly personally, so-called affirmative action itself is nothing more than bar-lowering, skin color preferences/race discrimination, which, on its face, is repugnant to me as a black person. (I doubt the veracity of the claims made by your left-leaning sources. A liberal editor I had the displeasure of working with made a similar claim about Connerly. I’d read and reviewed his book couldn’t believe he’d done what the editor accused him of. I contacted him, and he set the record straight. The false accusation stemmed from a San Francisco Examiner article that contained an error, which was later corrected.)
Both sides can frame an issue in the most favorable light, but in this case, skin preferences are just plain demeaning. Any policy that even HINTS that I belong in a special category, separate from competition with whites because I’m black, is vomit-inducing. Implicit is such nonsense is my “inferiority.” Government set-asides are now so ingrained in our minds, some blacks actually accept them as a preverse compliment, entitlements handed to us on a stinking garbage can lid as though it were a gift. That other blacks actually support such dignity-robbing policies is a frustration I will take to my grave. - Admin
Comment by Cobra — 05.15.05 @ 10:58 am
I wonder what JESSIE JACKSON and his RAINBOW/PUSH bunch think of this? will he and his hoods be holding a protest at the court house? will they hold riots? i suggest he and his monotone coalition get used to it
Comment by firebird — 05.15.05 @ 1:45 pm
>>>”When asked what he thought about Trent Lott’s comments about segregation in 2002, Connerly told CNN: “Supporting segregation need not be racist. One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races.”
http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=173
Lashawn writes:
“Any policy that even HINTS that I belong in a special category, separate from competition with whites because I’m black, is vomit-inducing. Implicit is such nonsense is my “inferiority.†”
Now, I hope you’re sitting down right now…because I’m going to AGREE WITH YOUR STATEMENT…to a degree. Given a choice between YOUR statement above, and Ward Connerly’s, I’d take yours in a heartbeat.
Yes, I would certainly take issue with a group or individual that would call both you and I “inferior” because we’re African American. That’s one of the reasons why I’m a LIBERAL. There are any NUMBER of conservative individuals and organizations that should certainly “induce you to vomit:
Take the white conservative-think tank sponsored Charles Murray of “The Bell Curve” fame, who believes that blacks, on average, are only 85% as intelligent as whites.
http://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript129.html
Take Heather MacDonald of the conservative Manhattan Institute, and her rationale for the lack of black bloggers. She explains why you have a problem blogging, LaShawn.
>>>As for minorities, the skills gap in reading and writing means that, at the moment, a lower percentage of blacks and Hispanics possess the verbal acumen to produce a cutting-edge blog.”
http://nationalreview.com/comment/mac_donald200503300758.asp
Do I have to post up quotes from:
The Council of Conservative Citizens?
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=360
Or from the myriad of websites that tout racial superiority and eugenics?
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=240
Let me further establish, that even though I rarely agree with you, I SUPPORT your success in the blogosphere, and all of your endeavors because I realize there are those who still don’t believe it’s possible.
–Cobra
Comment by Cobra — 05.15.05 @ 2:11 pm
25% sounds about right. Now if we can get 25% to apply for apprenticeships in the trades and the last 50% to finish high school and go to work and show up on time, the blacks will do just fine.
Amazing that enemies of Ward Connerly and the KKK want the same for blacks; unique different treatment based on skin color. There are brilliant blacks like Ward Connerly and Mrs. Barber and really stupid whites like Harry Reid and Sandy Berger, so evaluating by race makes little sense.
Comment by Walter E. Wallis — 05.15.05 @ 2:23 pm
Cobra - The cool thing about hosting your own blog is that the blogger gets to have the last word. What we have here is your fundamental lack of interest in my archives. I understand, though. Who has the time or inclination to read all of that? But this stuff your talking about is well covered territory on this blog. It’s very annoying that you, a fairly new commenter, make assumptions about what I might find vomit-inducing, when a simple review of my archives, particularly the “Liberals†and “Race Preferences†categories, will clue you in on quite a few of my controversial opinions. But if you don’t want to make the effort, why should I?
For instance, I’ve written about the faulty reasoning and bogus psychological tests that the Court relied on in Brown v. Board of Education. If you check “My Writings,†you’ll find two columns that discuss the case. In one, I make the point that people self-segregate ALL the time. It matters NOT whether white people like me or want to hang out with me or think I’m one of the inferior dregs of society. If they choose to segregate themselves from me SOCIALLY, that’s their right, and vice versa. I agree with Connerly’s statement wholeheartedly, and if you check your list of friends, I’m certain it’ll be obvious that you do some self-segregating of your own. The GOVERNMENT segregating citizens based on race is a whole other matter. But they do so all the time with set-asides and separate tracks for college admissions. Complain about THAT kind of segregation, and you get called a racist.
About the IQ thing, the fact is that blacks, on average, test one standard deviation (15 points) below whites. On average, Asians test higher than whites. Now you can argue about the validity or usefulness of the tests, but you can’t blame someone for reporting FACTS. Cobra, whether you acknowledge it or not, there IS a skills gap between blacks and whites, particular in schools, but no one likes to talk about it. The white people who have the courage to do it are called “conservative racists.†What the so-called gap reveals about adult bloggers is beyond the scope of my blog and of little interest to me. Popularity can be relative. One man’s success is another man’s failure.
I have also quoted CoCC on this blog and defended it against charges of racism in the context of Hispanic groups like La Raza and that dinosaur we all know and mock, the NAACP. Check it out: http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2004/11/29/topcop/
I’m glad you support my success in the blogosphere. It’s more than I can say for most black liberals. But you miss the irony of your own statement about people not believing it’s possible. What black people need to do is defy the odds and negative stereotypes and CREATE something instead of EXPECTING something in this country. I’ve worked HARD to build up my readership, blogging day in and day out. NOBODY — black or white — gets the credit for that but ME. We’ve got to dump the “you owe me” mentality, Cobra, or another generation will emerge with their hands out, feeling entitled to something because they’re black. I wan’t NO part of that.
To expect anything less of blacks is REAL racism. It makes whatever “racist” study or article you cite pale in comparison.
Comment by La Shawn — 05.15.05 @ 2:30 pm
Pi**ing on the Ashes
Awww, look at this - Newsweek has actually retracted their “Amerikan fascists flushing Korans down toilets trigger floods across length and breadth of Cuba, countless Muslim prisoners drown” story:
Newsweek magazine, under fire for publishing a …
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