How Gavin Newsom brought South Africas race obsessions to California
The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 positioned the country for a new era of equality and prosperity.After nearly a half-century of apartheid, however, South African leaders argued that formal equality wasn’t enough.
Instead, as the argument went, a transitional period of redress was required.These efforts included affirmative action, land reform and “black economic empowerment,” among others.South Africa created a dense system of race-based policies across employment, procurement, land rights and licensing.
The country embedded racialism throughout the political, educational and economic systems, making identity central to how the government, schools and businesses hired employees, enrolled students, prioritized benefits, bid on contracts and assessed the success of initiatives. Today, the hope that followed the fall of apartheid has all but evaporated.And the South African model is being replicated in an unlikely place: California.During the administration of Gov.
Gavin Newsom, California’s racialist project has kicked into high gear.Race is becoming an organizing principle of public policy, shaping everything from education and data collection to bureaucratic decision-making and wealth redistribution.
South Africa sorted its citizens by race to deny rights, and now California does the same to distribute benefits.In September 2022, Newsom signed Executive Order N-16-22, which revolutionized the workings of the state government.Newsom ordered state agencies to create or update their strategic plans to “more effectively advance equity.”What this meant, in practice, was that California would increasingly conduct government business on the basis of race.
Take, for example, the California Arts Council, a state grant maker that distributes funds to local art projects.In 2021, CAC published a training deck to help its members identify “the relationship between government, white supremacy culture, and racial equity practices.” The Californi...