Last week, the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee considered Assembly Constitutional Amendment 7, which would allow the state to explicitly fund programs based on “race, color, ethnicity, national origin, or marginalized genders, sexes, or sexual orientations.”
Under Proposition 209, approved by voters in 1996 and upheld by voters in 2020, California state government cannot consider these factors when allocating public funds. Defenders of Prop. 209 argue that it is essential for government to treat all individuals equally and without respect to such immutable characteristics.
But the debate over ACA 7 got heated when one of the proponents of the constitutional amendment, first-term Assemblyman Corey Jackson, D-Perris, decided to personally attack and smear his colleague, first-term Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, as a “white supremacist” for opposing ACA 7.
In the committee hearing, Essayli, a Muslim born to Lebanese immigrants, said this about ACA 7, “I believe it is a mistake in the United States of America go to backwards and inject race into government policy. I think that all people are created equal and the government should treat people equally. And we can provide services to disadvantaged communities without making race a factor. I support that.”
What Essayli said is perfectly sensible, perfectly rational and perfectly inclusive. It’s also consistent with the perspectives of the majority of Californians.
Even so, the committee voted to advance ACA 7, with Essayli voting against it.
After the hearing, Essayli reiterated his opposition to ACA 7 on Twitter, tweeting, “The judiciary committee just voted to allow government to discriminate based on race when providing services, as proposed by #ACA7. I fundamentally disagree with this backwards policy as do 57% of Californians who voted to prohibit Affirmative Action when they adopted #Prop209.”
In response, Jackson tweeted, “This is a perfect example how a minority can become a white supremacist by doing everything possible to win white supremacist and fascist affection. History will judge him poorly. His politics is dangerous and should be combated at every turn.”
If we are to believe Jackson’s thought process, it is “white supremacist” to argue, “that all people are created equal and the government should treat people equally.”
This might pass for enlightened in extremist and bizarre corners of far-left Twitter, but it doesn’t pass even minimal scrutiny. Corey Jackson’s thoughtless smear of Bill Essayli is plainly disreputable.
It’s also historically ignorant and even reckless to associate the position of Essayli with fascism. Jackson might want to read up on what fascist regimes actually entailed as far as treatment of racial and ethnic minorities by government. If Jackson remotely cared about history, Essayli’s position of support for equality under the law and providing services for disadvantaged communities regardless of race would have been denounced as liberal or even communist under the regimes of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini or Francisco Franco.
Alas, Corey Jackson chose to smear a colleague for taking a position shared by a majority of Californians. Jackson’s irresponsible and extremist demagoguery should not be tolerated.
—The Editorial Board, Southern California News Group
