The campaign to reinstate affirmative action in overwhelmingly Democratic California had money, momentum and big-name backers, including Black celebrities Issa Rae and Ava DuVernay, but voters in the most populated state rejected the measure.
Supporters of Proposition 16 signaled before Election Day that the race would be tight, saying they didn’t have enough time to sway voters on the touchy topic of government granting preferences in public hiring, contracting and college admissions based on race, ethnicity or gender even during a national reckoning on race.
The measure was passing in Los Angeles and five San Francisco Bay Area counties that are liberal and losing everywhere else. With more than 11 million votes tallied, 56% opposed Proposition 16 as of Wednesday.
James Taylor, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco, said the proposition suffered from several factors: the coronavirus pandemic and racial justice protests that have left voters stressed and uncertain; the lack of a high-profile champion such as Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and younger voters who may not know much about the issue.
Then again, the vote is in keeping with a state that has welcomed cheap labor of all colors but then demanded they “go back” when no longer needed, Taylor said. California was founded as a free state but sanctioned ownership of Black people.
“It’s both a liberal bastion, but it’s also a place where you had Los Angeles burning in 1965 and the Black Panther” party founded out of frustration in Oakland, Taylor said. “That duality and that duplicity is part of the character of California.”
Supporters said in a statement Wednesday that they would wait for every vote to be counted but vowed that California would lead the country in rooting out barriers to advancement. The campaign acknowledged needing to “enlist more champions in the fight against structural racism and gender discrimination.”
Democratic lawmakers placed Proposition 16 on the ballot in June following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police and the nationwide protests that followed. They pointed to his death as evidence of the barriers that hold back Black Americans and other people of color.
The campaign didn’t have enough time in a crowded election year, said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter chapter.
“I also think that there’s a lot of conversation that needs to be had among folks who should be allies on this,” Abdullah said. “We were able to pull many leading Asian voices, but there’s a narrative for a long time that Asians would lose, so we just have to do more solidarity work there.”
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