SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The University of California and California State University would give priority entry to children and grandchildren of slaves. A lawmaker in California said on Monday that he will introduce a bill that would do this.
Conservative Isaac Bryan, who is a Democrat and serves parts of Los Angeles, told The Associated Press that he will introduce the bill while lawmakers are meeting at the Capitol to swear in new members for the new session. They will also hold a special session to talk about how to protect the state’s progressive policies before Trump takes office again.
It is expected that President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration will make getting rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs a top goal. There is a growing trend among conservatives in state capitals and college governing boards across the U.S. to limit DEI programs. In many states, officials have already taken action against these programs.
The movement grew stronger after the Supreme Court ended affirmative action at colleges. This changed the laws that apply to diversity programs in the workplace and everyday life.
But the rise of DEI as a political rallying cry has its roots in college, where Republicans have said the programs are unfair and spread left-wing ideas. Trump has said that he might introduce legislation that would fine colleges for their diversity efforts.
Also, legacy admissions have been criticized since the Supreme Court decided against affirmative action. These admissions were once seen as a perk for wealthy and white people getting into selective schools. Some people say that the court made it even harder for students of color to get into college by banning affirmative action but letting legacy preferences work. These preferences help the children of graduates and donors.
“For decades, universities gave donors and their family members special treatment when it came to admissions, while others with ties to past harm were ignored and sometimes even shut out,” Bryan told the AP. “Those wrongs are wrong, and we have a moral duty to fix them.”
Bryan said he hopes the measure will be passed because it is in line with what members of California’s Black Reparations Task Force have suggested.
“People are becoming more aware of how California contributed to the unfair conditions that arose from slavery, and they are ready to work to fix those problems,” he said.
According to the most recent figures from both universities, about 4% of students at California State University were black and 4.7% of students at the University of California were black in 2023.
The idea comes after states have tried to make reparations but had mixed results. In September, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to officially apologize for the state’s history of racism and discrimination against Black residents.
But lawmakers in the state blocked a bill that would have set up an office to handle reparations programs, and Newsom vetoed a plan that would have helped Black families get back property that the government took illegally through eminent domain.
California voters also turned down earlier this month a ballot measure that would have changed the state constitution to ban forced prison labor. Bryan and other members of the California Legislative Black Caucus pushed for this plan.
Bryan said that the measure’s goal is to fix discrimination that has happened in the past and is happening now at colleges.
“When people think of reparations, they only think of giving money.” “Getting rid of the harm and inequality caused by slavery and the policies that followed is a much bigger job,” he said.
Bryan said he also suggested the bill, which will have to go through a months-long approval process by lawmakers, in part as a response to Trump’s recent comments that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs have hurt white students and that they should be paid “reparations.”
Some states, like Kansas and Iowa, have banned DEI offices and programs in higher education. Last year, Republicans in at least twenty states also introduced at least fifty bills to limit DEI programs.
Stephen Miller, who used to work for Trump as an assistant and now runs a group called America First Legal that has strongly criticized corporate DEI policies, will become Trump’s new deputy chief of policy.
Trump has promised to get rid of “woke” people in American schools. On his first day in office, he also wants to cut funding to schools that don’t agree with him on many issues, even though some of his fans say he doesn’t have the power to make such quick and broad changes.
Trump has called the government Department of Education full of “radicals, zealots, and Marxists,” which is a very bad thing to say. He chose Linda McMahon, who used to work as a manager in wrestling, to run the area.
But like many conservative leaders before him, Trump has also called for getting rid of the department completely, which would be hard to do and probably would need Congress to take action.
