SJ Racial Equity Office pushed to pursue expansive, race-based affirmative action agenda

The mask finally slipped at the wacky 2.1.22 SJ City Council meeting. Progressive council members acknowledged, at last, that they view the Office of Racial Equity as a platform to deliver a citywide, race-based affirmative action regime. The Opp Now editorial team analyzes the latest matinee performance of SJ's opera bouffe, below.

Three Big Takeaways from SJ City Council's Meeting on Racial Equity Office

I. Racial Equity supporters came clean about how they want to redistribute city resources away from some neighborhoods and towards others, based on race.

"I don't think District 5 should have the same budget that some of the other districts have. I think we should have 2-3 times the staff of other districts."

"We have to be sure that we are okay with giving more to those folks and neighborhoods that need it."

"San Jose believes in equal outcomes."

That's CM Magdalena Carrasco, CM Sylvia Arenas, and SJ City staff, respectively, cutting through the canopy of euphemisms and jargon ("balancing," "redressing," "turning the curve") that Racial Equity supporters hitherto have used to camouflage the Office's real intent--which is to institutionalize a citywide affirmative action system based on race. And we say this without snark: Carrasco & Co. have our thanks and respect for their candor in getting this issue out in the open.

But it's important to remember why the obfuscation around this effort existed in the first place. It's because a substantial majority of Silicon Valley voters reject affirmative action programs. In fact, Santa Clara County and the City of San Jose both voted AGAINST 2020's Prop 16 (statewide affirmative action), even though--catch this--the SJ City Council endorsed Prop 16--UNANIMOUSLY (See here:).

II. You are a knuckle-dragging, retrograde, violent force of historical evil if you believe in a colorblind society and a government that doesn't organize itself around skin pigment.

In other words, you're a racist. And not just a sometimes, while-riding-your-bike-down-the-Los Gatos-Creek-Trail-on-a-nice-Saturday kind of racist, but a systemic, institutional, rooted-in-the-very-core-of-your-identity racist

We're old enough to remember when that was a tremendously serious charge, the sort of accusation that people who wanted to work together constructively would only make in response to clear indications of such. No more: city staff and certain CM's now throw the term around like carnival beads at a Mardis Gras parade--and aim it at anybody who makes even the slightest query about what the heck their project is about.

The most hilarious part of the 2.1.22 meeting came when gentle vice mayor Chappie Jones tried, ever so tenderly, to get Racial Equity staff to explain exactly what sorts of things, y'know, they will actually do once they get going. In response, he got a fusillade of mindful frameworking around centered identities and lived experiences. He tried again: same cannonade of systemic inequities, rooted impacts, and legacy patterns. He waded in yet again, only to have CM Sylvia Arenas shut the conversation down because she is "saddened" by all the probing and that simply, "It's racist" to question the Oracles of Systemic Racism.

She wasn't alone. CM Raul Peralez chuckled his way through a bizarre and historically illiterate rant about how white men can't understand oppression, basically suggesting that world history began in Virginia in 1619, ended in 1861, and nothing came before or after anywhere on the planet. Perhaps even more shocking, deputy city manager Angel Rios smacked down members of the public who wondered if there might be reasons other than government policies that effect how different groups perform in the workplace. Rios looked deep into commenters' hearts and concluded their "assumptions are based in racism."

Rios is a paid employee of the City of San Jose.

All of which is a long way of saying: it appears that SJ's racial equity warriors, going forward, will endure little dissent, and will attempt to smear in the most extreme way anyone who even slightly questions their march through SJ city government.

III. There are miles to go before the Racial Equity Warriors' victory is complete.

While Tuesday's meeting was an odd mix of farce and tragedy, it's still early days for the Office of Racial Equity. Sure, the wokesters swept the field on Tuesday (Council voted unanimously to accept staff's daft, incoherent "definition" of racial equity--see our analysis here). But it was clear from the comments of fairer and more independent minds on the city council (Jones, Mahan, Davis, Liccardo), that they are ready to push back on efforts to make an end-run around democratic processes and create a stealth affirmative action regime at 4th and Santa Clara.

At the future meetings, when the Office of Racial Equity's more concrete plans will be presented, we advise Jones & Co. to bring their raingear, because a lot of unpleasant material will come their way. The Affirmative Action warriors are on the march in San Jose, they're out in the open, and they are ready to rumble.

Watch the meeting here.

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Photo by Anda Chu