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If passed, the bill ‘will be vigorously challenged,’ civil rights attorney says

A California bill that would allow higher education institutions to prioritize slave descendants in college admissions is drawing harsh critique from some civil rights experts.

Introduced in December, the bill, AB 7, is a project of Democrat Assemblymember Isaac Bryan who represents part of Los Angeles.

If passed, it would allow the state’s two public higher education systems, the California State University and the University of California, as well as private colleges and universities to “consider providing a preference in admissions to an applicant who is a descendant of slavery, as defined, to the extent it does not conflict with federal law.”

But Edward Blum, the president of Students for Fair Admissions, told The College Fix the legislation basically amounts to racial discrimination.

“Prioritizing the status of those who self-identify as descendants of U.S. slaves in college admissions is the same as using racial classifications,” Blum said in a recent email. “Being a descendant of a slave is an exact proxy for being an African American.”

His organization successfully challenged affirmative action admissions policies at Harvard and other schools at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. It believes “a student’s race and ethnicity should not be factors that either harm or help that student to gain admission to a competitive university.”

Blum pointed The Fix to a recent interview he did with The New York Sun predicting the bill will face legal challenges if it passes.

“Any legislation that awards reparations or benefits based on race or ethnicity will be vigorously challenged in federal court. Racial proxies, including ancestral servitude and past discrimination, will be challenged as well,” Blum told The Sun.

The bill aligns with recommendations in a 2023 California Reparations Task Force report. As The Fix reported at the time, the report recommended lawmakers approve projects costing more than $500 billion to “right the wrongs of the past,” including “structural racism.”

Assemblymember Bryan told The Associated Press in December that he believes Californians have a “moral responsibility” to “right” the “wrongs” of slavery.

“There is a growing understanding of California’s role in perpetuating the inequalities that arose from slavery, and there’s a willingness to try to rectify that harm, to heal that harm,” he said.

When contacted about the bill earlier this month, a spokesperson for Bryan’s office told The Fix the lawmaker was occupied with the wildfire crisis in California and unavailable for comment.

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Kirsten Mullen, a writer and lecturer whose work focuses on race, art, history, and politics, supports the bill.

Mullen told The Fix the government should be offering “atonement” for the country’s past support of slavery. She is co-author of the book, “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.”

“States can make amends and should compensate black American descendants of U.S. slavery for decades of discrimination they have inflicted upon them,” she said in a recent email to The Fix. “But that is not and should not be called ‘reparations’. Call it ‘atonement’ or ‘a program for greater racial equity.’”

“White household wealth is about $1.3 million more than that of black households,” Mullen said. “States do not have the capacity to pay this debt to the eligible claimants. They shouldn’t be let off the hook, however.”

Mullen said she supports “preferential treatment in admissions … but without the funds to pay for that education, no advantage is conferred.

“Only a payment of a debt now approaching $1.3 million per black household will get the job done,” she said. “A white person with a high school degree has significantly more wealth that a black person with a college degree. Wealth matters!”

The Fix asked Mullen if giving slave descendants reparations is the responsibility of public college institutions.

“There’s no such thing as ‘slavery reparations,’” Mullen said. “And no, public college institutions are not responsible for providing them. Instead, they should employ affirmative action, which is an anti-discrimination measure.”

When asked if college admission priority for slave descendants is fair for students who are not slave descendants, Mullen responded, “Was it fair for some students to receive legacy preferences when some students were denied admission on the basis of race?”

However, Monica Harris, a lawyer and executive director of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, disagreed.

“While FAIR appreciates the need to address historical inequalities, we believe this bill undermines equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment because it grants preferential treatment to black applicants,” Harris told The Fix in a recent interview.

Her organization works to advance civil rights and liberties by “promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.”

Harris said, “The Supreme Court was very clear in its recent decision in Students for Fair Admission v Harvard: race-based policies are unconstitutional, period. California’s proposed bill smacks of an effort to circumvent SCOTUS’ ruling under the guise of reparations and restorative justice.”

Asked if she believes slave descendants want such things, Harris told The Fix that civil rights pioneers like Martin Luther King Jr. “were keenly aware of the legacy of slavery in America and felt its impact far more than we do today.”

“Even so, they never sought special treatment for black Americans; they simply wanted and expected to be treated equally,” she said.

“I think the same holds true for most black Americans now. They want to be valued and appreciated for what they bring to the table instead of being ‘tokenized’ based on their race,” Harris said.

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