California Dreamin' Isn't What It Used To Be
https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2026/03/09/california_dreamin_isnt_what_it_used_to_be_153922.html
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California’s elected Democrats can’t move beyond pandering. Gov. Gavin Newsom is https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/11/04/gavin_newsoms_divisive_racial_pandering_153485.html
on reparations for African Americans, and the legislature’s Democratic Party majority is once again trying to divide Californians by race, sex, and gender orientation.
In 1996, California stunned the nation when 55% of voters approved Proposition 209, which amended the state’s constitution to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity in employment, contracting, and education. Ten years later, the United States Supreme Court https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/572/291/
its right to do so.
As the state moved further left, in 2019, the Democratic controlled legislature placed Proposition 16 on the ballot to repeal Proposition 209. That effort failed in 2020 when more than 57% of voters rejected it, despite widespread support of elected officials and opponents being https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/03/election-2020-proposition-16-results-california-voters-weigh-affirmative-action/5987502002/
nearly 20 to 1.
Undeterred, in 2020, the legislature enacted laws that required California-headquartered public companies to include up to three directors who “self-identify” as women and up to an additional three directors from “underrepresented communities.” In 2022, California state judges https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/california-court-holds-board-diversity-law-unconstitutional/
its appeals.
Also in 2020, Newsom signed into law a requirement that the state develop reparations proposals for black Californians. In 2022, he https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/9.13.22-EO-N-16-22-Equity.pdf?emrc=c11513
to develop programs to implement the commission’s report.
Inevitably, those programs will violate the California and U.S. constitutions. At a USC Dornsife event last week, a panel of recently retired top Democrat officials acknowledged that the state could not afford reparations and that it would be far more productive for it to focus on improving academic and vocational education.
In 2021, Newsom signed into law AB 101, making California the first state to require ethnic studies for all high school students. The California Department of Education issued a https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/the-folly-of-woke-math/
a curriculum based on Critical Race Theory, with an emphasis on “equity” and “people of color.”
Following the Newsom commission’s report on reparations in 2023, the California Assembly passed Assembly Constitutional https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA7/id/3232042
to indirectly repeal most of Proposition 209 and allocate state funds to so-called marginalized minorities. Last month, the Assembly passed a modified version of ACA-7 that preserves race-based funding, and may still repeal some of the other protections accorded by Proposition 209. The California Senate is now considering that legislation.
If ACA-7 is enacted by the legislature, it will be placed on the ballot in November.
Reparations based on race are unconstitutional. More insidious, compelling middle class and poor families to subsidize affluent students is contrary to the principles of most Americans of every race, gender identification, and economic strata. Countless polls over many years show that Americans overwhelmingly oppose using affirmative action and DEI in hiring, admissions, promotions, and contracting. Only progressive activists believe otherwise.
In a 2016 https://news.gallup.com/poll/193508/oppose-colleges-considering-race-admissions.aspx
survey of 1,600 registered voters, 66% disapproved of relying on race, sex, or gender identity for hiring or promotion. The results were similar among men, women, Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, and moderates. Even liberals disapproved by a margin of 54% to 34%.
In a July 2024 https://manhattan.institute/article/americas-new-consensus
of 2,100 likely voters by the Manhattan Institute, respondents across the partisan spectrum rejected race-conscious policies. Just 21% (including 36% of Democrats, 35% of Latinos, and 37% of blacks) agreed that “We should focus on creating a race-conscious society to repair the harms of the past by developing policies that benefit marginalized groups.” Majorities across all demographic groups agreed that “We should focus on creating a color-blind society where everyone is treated equally regardless of the color of their skin.”
A https://blueprint2024.com/polling/why-trump-reasons-11-8/
Democrats as “too focused on identity politics.”
In https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/07/16/fact-check-social-media-post-underrepresents-slave-ownership-1860/7980243002/
suburbs, and pursue the same careers as do people of other races.
When California was admitted in 1850, slavery was prohibited. No Californian has ever https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/reparations-will-only-make-things-worse/
in America’s ugly legacy of slavery – whether as a slave, slave trader, or slave owner. None of their grandparents did. Very few of their great-great-great-grandparents did. More than a quarter of the state’s population is foreign-born. That means California’s elected Democrats are asking recent immigrants to subsidize the children of affluent, educated black Americans.
In a 2019 Associated Press-NORC https://apnews.com/article/va-state-wire-us-news-ap-top-news-slavery-mi-state-wire-76de76e9870b45d38390cc40e25e8f03
had similar results. Even a quarter of blacks oppose reparations. A search found no polls in which any meaningful percentage of Americans favor reparations to blacks who are not direct descendants of slaves.
Polls aside, the 14th Amendment prohibits governments from allocating benefits based on protected class, most notably race. Eliminating discrimination means eliminating all of it.
With a Republican leading the polls for the next governor of California, and many California Democrats opposed to reparations and racial pandering, more far-left virtue signaling is unlikely to benefit Democratic candidates. DEI and reparations deprive blacks of agency, penalize Americans with no connection to slavery, and represent racial politics at its worst.
Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including RealClearPolitics, The American Mind, National Review, television, radio, and podcasts.
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Wed, 03/11/2026 - 16:50
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