Please vote NO for SCA5. Here are our reason. Please correct us if we are wrong. Thanks

                In 1996, Californian voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 209 which banned the consideration of race and ethnicity in public institutions. SCA5, a current bill in the legislature, seeks to overturn Prop 209 and revert to policies based on racial and ethnic background. Janet Chin, a spokesperson for author of the bill, Senator Ed Hernandez, defends the bill by stating, “Campuses have become less diverse. Qualified individuals have been looked over.”[i] Ward Connerly, founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Council called Chin’s statement’s “nonsense” and continued to state, “If they want the best and brightest, they will use merit. They have the right to do that now, free of any race consideration or discrimination.”[ii] SCA5 seeks to create diversity as an end goal, resulting in empty racial balancing. The best way to increase diversity while respecting the equal rights of citizens’ is to embrace race-neutral alternatives, such as increasing the top percentage of students from California high schools, adding mentorship programs in high school and middle school, including socioeconomic factors into consideration, etc. Since Proposition 209 passed the percentage of underrepresented minorities in the UC-system has jumped from 20% to 25% with an 18% increase in graduation rates of minorities.[iii]

                Senator Hernandez and other defenders of SCA5 disguise their proposed racist policies as promoting diversity and equal opportunity. The bill, in reality, is a shameful attempt at dividing us based on race and infringing on peoples’ civil rights based on race. Diversity and equal opportunity are necessary values to promote but passing a bill that legalizes blatant discrimination based on race is not the way.

                                                                                Thanks

                                                                                From voters: