SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As California’s legislature prepares for a special session, one representative has plans to rectify past discrimination at state universities. California Legislator Isaac Bryan, representing a portion of Los Angeles, announced the bill on Monday. If successful, the bill would give admission priority to slave descendants at the state’s public colleges. This includes two of the state’s largest schools, the University of California and California State University.
“For decades universities gave preferential admission treatment to donors, and their family members, while others tied to legacies of harm were ignored and at times outright excluded,” Bryan told The Associated Press. “We have a moral responsibility to do all we can to right those wrongs.”
According to The Campaign for College Opportunity, nearly two-thirds of Black high school graduates are ineligible to apply to state colleges due to a lack of preparation. In 2012, private and community institutions enrolled more Black students than public universities did. Reports from 2023 show a roughly 4% Black population at both the University of California and California State University. The California legislator’s bill is designed to bridge that gap.
There have been ongoing reparation efforts in California, despite slavery never occurring in the state. In September, Gov. Gavin Newson signed a formal apology for the state’s historical role of perpetuating the legacy of slavery through discrimination and racist policies.
Affirmative action has long been a topic of debate in California. One landmark Supreme Court case on the matter is the 1978 case California v. Bakke.
Allan Bakke was a white 35-year-old man who had been denied admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis. He argued that his denial was due, in part, to the school’s affirmative action program. After a lengthy legal battle, the court ultimately decided that the subject of race was permissible as admission criteria.
Trump’s attacks on DEI and affirmative action
It’s expected that the forthcoming administration will attack existing affirmative action and DEI programs. A video of President-elect Donald Trump from last year has resurfaced, making the rounds across social media. In the video, Trump vows to provide restitution to those he claims higher education equity policies have hurt. To achieve this, he would use the Department of Justice to fine institutions and redirect money collected to “victims’ of such policies.
These initiatives go hand in hand with Trump’s belief that there has been a growing problem of a “definite anti-white feeling” in America. He has also marked Fulton County DA Fani Willis as “racist” for her grand jury indictments of the President-elect.
Also on Monday, California’s legislature convened a special session to attempt to preserve the state’s progressive policies ahead of a second Trump administration.
Programs like diversity, equity, and inclusion are already under fire in many conservative majority states. California is a leading state in the fight to protect inclusive values as the country prepares for Trump’s second term. One goal of the session is to allocate more money to the state’s attorney general’s office to fight federal challenges.
As California continues to promote progressive and equitable values, the rest of the country will watch to see if these efforts prevail successfully.