The California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans) has asked the Federal Highway Administration to allow it to assign some contracts by race.
The proposed plan … would set a goal of awarding 13.5 percent of small-business state transportation contracts or subcontracts to firms owned by women and underrepresented minorities.
Half of those contracts — 6.75 percent — would continue to be awarded through current race-neutral policies, in which Caltrans tries to attract more minority and women bidders through outreach to targeted groups.
But the proposal unveiled Wednesday would also create a new requirement that the remaining 6.75 percent of contracts be awarded to woman- and minority-owned businesses. It would also create penalties for firms that fail to do so.
It’s a good thing that mandatory 6.75% is only a “goal” and not a “quota”; otherwise, it might be unpopular and run afoul of various laws and regulations.
Proposition 209 was passed by California voters to ban precisely this sort of racial contracting. It allowed an exception to comply with court orders or federal requirements. I haven’t read the text lately, but I don’t recall it allowing an exception for “permission” letters from federal agencies.
I love the left-wing sugarcoating that is required to make illegal and unethical programs look like the only solution to what may or may not be a problem. A goal with penalties for not meeting the goal is not really a goal. Is the support base of these liberals stupid, corrupt or blind to the true intentions of the liberal elite?
Also with all of the targeted outreach Caltrans has done, if these businesses are not winning bids, they probably shouldn’t be. Why waste taxpayer money on second-tier companies?
Lloyd – Affirmative Action is ethical because it seeks to reduce sexism against Women & racism against People of Color
FreeMan,
I don’t follow your logic. It’s kind of like you’re saying the Nazis were ethical because they sought to improve the Aryan race.
Besides, the policies here were race-neutral, so there’s no identifiable sexism or racism.
It fail to see how it is ethical to look at the ethnicity/race/gender of a person and then decide to pay them more or less than other people.
The only way for many small white owned busiess to get contracts is to underbid every black owned business. I fail to see how that ends racism or sexism.
Of course, what the article does not tell you is that the small business can only get the set aside contracts for a few years before they become ineligible. The idea is that the government contract becomes the starter money for a real growing business. What really happens is that the minority companies generally never grow but live on government contracts until they become ineligibile and then declare backruptcy. Once again, I fail to see how such a business culture reduces racism. In reality, it makes the mid-level government employees who have to deal with such shady companies to have lower opinions of blacks instead of higher.
Freeman,
You have only two things to say:
1. My racism is good.
2. Your racism is bad.
We’ve heard this insanity about a million times. How about ceasing until you have something else to say.
Yes, we know that you are proud of your racism.
Ayy – Are you saying that the US is not a White European-American Male dominated society with a history & current practice of sexism against Women & racism against People of Color ?-
Shouting Thomas you neglect to mention sexism against Women- Racism against White European-American Males the most dominant members of society for moral justice Affirmative action does not equal the sexism against Women & racism against People of Color
Freeman, I’m glad you asked me that question.
You see you’re response tells me that you see all women and all minorities as fungible, so it doesn’t matter if anyone was the actual victim or the actual discriminator.
The way I see it is that if someone is concerned about sexism and racism he should be concerned about racism and sexism against everyone, not just particular groups.
The way I see it is that the cure for racism isn’t more racism especially when it’s oing to punish someone who probably didn’t discriminate in the first place.
AYY – That’s all fine & good but since sexism against Women & racism against People of Color specifically is a major problem in the US – What are you going to do about it to benefit Women & People of Color – specifically?
AYY writes:
>>>”The way I see it is that if someone is concerned about sexism and racism he should be concerned about racism and sexism against everyone, not just particular groups.”
Are you out of school yet?
I don’t ask this in a condescending manner, but one of intrigue. You see, if you are as “concerned” about racism and sexism against everyone, then I don’t see how you could bare to sit through an American History class given
the VIRULENT and ABOMINABLE racism and sexism in American History, which lingers to this very day.
–Cobra
Racism and sexism are not major problems in the U.S.
Cobra, Freeman… you are lying.
That’s the answer.
Cobra,
Yes I’m out of school. Full disclosure: long division threw me for a loop for a while, but I made it through.
As far as your question about American history goes (btw you sure you mean “bare”?) that’s why you need to read something other than Howard Zinn. If all you’ve learned about American History is racism and sexism then you’re getting a very skewed view of what happened.
If you want to see the effects of quotas, look at Lebanon or India. Besides, historical racism doesn’t have anything to do with Caltrans’s quota. Whether or not there was historical racism has nothing to do with whether Caltrans should be asking the feds if they can violate Prop 209 because of a statistical imbalance.
Freeman, see what I said above about racism. As far as sexism goes, well, there’s a war against boys in the schools, family courts are biased against men, and Nifong was running loose for over a year, and you’re complaining about sexism against women?
As for your other question, the post is not about me, it’s about the Caltrans quota. But if you’re trying to hit me up to buy a “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt, or trying to get me to send fifty dollars to the Michael Vick defense fund, well, you are just barking up the wrong tree.
AYY – I asked you a personal ? because you argued that Anti-Affirmative Action programs could be justified by a desire to reduce all sexism & racism – I wondered then if you had a desire to do something about sexism against Women & racism against People of Color – but it is clear from your answer that you don’t believe that those are major problems – No I don’t want any $ from you – you are satisfied with the staus quo of White European-American Male supremacy