On Monday, April 30, 2020 Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill into law that outlaws affirmative action based on race in state agencies, state contracting, and education.
House Bill 440 made Idaho the ninth state to pass a statewide ban on affirmative action. Other states like Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington passed similar bans previously.
In most cases, measures to abolish affirmative action in the public sphere were passed via popular referendum.
A closer look at the civil rights campaigns against affirmative action reveals an untold story: Americans of African and Asian descent, rather than white supremacists presented by the media and academia, are increasingly spearheading these movements.
Despite media portrayals, movements against government-mandated quotas tend to be comprised of people of all racial backgrounds.
According to a March 2019 Pew study, nearly three out of four Americans argue that colleges and universities should not factor in race or ethnicity in their student admissions. A 2016 Gallup poll indicated that 63 percent of Americans are against race-based affirmative action and 70 percent support a strict merit-based college admissions process.
Affirmative action is clearly unconstitutional and represents a form of centralized public administration.
It is both unjust and serves to displace hard-working Americans whose positions end up going to less-deserving candidates.
This makes grievance groups happy, but only serves to increase social tensions in the country and allows the state to have greater power over civic and economic institutions.
