California Democrats are at it again, pushing yet another divisive piece of legislation wrapped in the bow of “justice” but stuffed full of political pandering. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan plans to introduce a bill that would give admissions priority at the University of California and California State University systems to descendants of slaves. On the surface, this is billed as some moral imperative to right historical wrongs, but scratch just a little, and it’s clear this is yet another clumsy attempt at social engineering.
“For decades universities gave preferential admission treatment to donors and their family members,” Bryan claimed, conveniently leaving out that it’s Democrats who’ve controlled these institutions for ages. Now, he says we have a “moral responsibility” to prioritize these new categories, as if the woke obsession with slicing and dicing society into ever-smaller groups of victims is going to heal anything. Spoiler alert: it won’t.
This legislative gimmick is allegedly tied to recommendations from California’s Reparations Task Force—a group already infamous for its ludicrous proposals to hand out billions of dollars the state doesn’t have. Bryan and his cohorts claim this measure will “heal harm” caused by slavery, despite California being a free state when it entered the Union in 1850. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good narrative?
The timing of this bill is no coincidence, as President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration has made it clear that dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs will be a top priority. The left knows its DEI house of cards is on borrowed time, especially after the Supreme Court’s ruling ending affirmative action in higher education. So now, they’re doubling down with this new ploy, because nothing says “unity” like stoking racial resentment and handing out admissions perks based on ancestry.
Bryan and his ilk try to justify this by pointing fingers at legacy admissions, claiming those policies unfairly benefit wealthy white students. Yet, they conveniently ignore that the real problem isn’t legacy admissions—it’s the Democrats’ decades-long stranglehold on education, which has left public schools in shambles and students ill-prepared for college.
Meanwhile, Harvard and other elite universities are seeing declines in Black student admissions post-affirmative action. Instead of focusing on improving education across the board, Democrats like Bryan are rushing to carve out more arbitrary preferences, which will only further divide Americans. This isn’t about equality or opportunity; it’s about pandering to the activist left.
President-elect Trump’s approach to this circus is refreshingly direct. In a video from July, Trump proposed restitution for individuals harmed by DEI policies, flipping the script on Democrats who love to play the victim card. His administration’s focus on fairness, merit, and unity is exactly what’s needed to undo the damage inflicted by decades of identity politics.
California Democrats can keep their virtue-signaling legislation. The rest of the country is moving forward, leaving behind the tired politics of division and grievance.
