Posted on 06/26/2002 7:35:27 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
California's Racial Privacy Initiative will add an amendment to the state's constitution outlawing classification based on race, ethnicity, color, or national origin. Furthermore, the amendment would prevent the state from collecting this information.
With the state defined broadly to include everything from municipal government to state universities to local school districts, this initiative would end racial checkboxes and classification in most aspects of people's lives.
Critics charge that while this initiative purports to end racism and create a colorblind society, it has just the opposite effect. They argue that we need to collect race-based information to identify areas where racism occurs in order to root it out.
These critics miss the point. The very fact that race is a necessary part of a business license application or a tax form places importance on a private aspect of one's life that has nothing to do with the object at hand. It separates society in ways that are conducive to more racism not less.
People become accustomed to viewing themselves in racial context instead of part of a societal whole. Racial checkboxes create walls instead of knocking them down.
Furthermore, these critics are being disingenuous. Often race works to their advantage, and they are scared of losing this leverage. Thomas Sowell writes, "Race has become a racket. It is a very lucrative racket for the likes of Jesse Jackson, who has been able to pry big bucks from big corporations by threatening to organize boycotts against them, which might imply that they were racist."
A society without classification would prevent this sort of extortion and remove power from those who would divide on racial lines.
The Racial Privacy Initiative recognizes that there are certain areas where race-based classifications are commonsensical and compelling in nature. To that end, exemptions exist for medical research, certain types of law enforcement operations, and other state run initiatives if passed by two-thirds of both the Senate and Assembly and signed by the governor.
These exemptions answer claims that this initiative would hinder government operations or endanger public health.
The Racial Privacy Initiative works towards the ideal of a colorblind government - a core value of our nation's founding that has been ignored in the name of the underprivileged.
Racial classification has failed to help the underprivileged while leading society into an era of neat little boxes.
Racism will not end while society promotes the concept of racial classification.
(Chris Nosko is a summer research associate for the Free Congress Foundation's Center for Technology Policy.)
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Tell us more. What are you thinking?
Of course race shouldn't be a racket.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.