Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, left, and ACRU Executive Director Allen West | Gov. Jay Inslee and Allen West
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, left, and ACRU Executive Director Allen West | Gov. Jay Inslee and Allen West
Washington's policy of prohibiting affirmative action in areas such as public education and public employment embraces "principle of equality of opportunity for all," the executive director of the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU) said.
Washington is among the nine states that ban affirmative action, according to a recent Evergreen Reporter analysis.
“If there’s one policy that exemplifies systemic racism and the soft bigotry of low expectations, it's affirmative action,” former Congressman Lt. Col. Allen West (ret.), ACRU's executive director, told the Evergreen Reporter. “My dad challenged me to find the standard and exceed it. Affirmative action says the standard cannot be achieved due to one’s skin color, so the standard will be lowered.”
The first state to ban affirmative action was California, which passed Proposition 209 in 1996. This measure prohibited the consideration of race, gender and ethnicity in public employment, education and contracting.
“States who support that philosophy are systematically racist,” West said. “States like Washington that do not conform to that lie embrace the principle of equality of opportunity for all.”
Michigan banned affirmative action through a 2006 voter-approved amendment to the state constitution, which prohibited preferential treatment on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, education and contracting. The “Yes” vote on the measure was 58%, compared to 42% voting “No.”
In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan's ban on affirmative action in higher education admissions in a 6-2 decision.
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