For Immediate Release
March 16, 2020
Dear friends and supporters,
On March 12, 2020, the California Legislature passed ACA-5 in the Assembly Rules Committee, an unconstitutional and immoral measure that would legalize discrimination against Asian Americans in education and public employment by repealing Proposition 209 through a state constitutional amendment. The Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) strongly opposes this renewed attempt to harm the Asian-American community and calls upon you to fight against this bill. There will be a committee hearing on March 18, 2020 in the California Legislature. We urge you to organize and speak up at the hearing to protest ACA-5!
ACA-5 clearly violates Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that guarantees the equal protection of the laws. It also encroaches Title VI of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance”. Employing inflammatory verbiage to roll back “diversity” programs to rectify disparities for “Black Americans, Latino Americans, and women”, ACA-5’s proponents promote a political agenda of discrimination, unjust preferences, and double standards. It rejects the voter-approved Prop-209 which guarantees equal treatment of all residents of California. ACA-5 will surely result in racial discrimination against Asian Americans in California.
It is time that we speak up for our constitutional rights to the equal protection of the laws and our children’s equal education rights, both of which are on the line as SCA-5 pits racial groups against each other.
If you reside in California, please join the fight against this bill on March 18 and beyond. You can also write to your state legislators voicing your opposition! Otherwise, please forward this email to your friends and family who live in California.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Asian American Coalition for Education
MEDIA CONTACT:
Dr. Wenyuan Wu, telephone: (786) 393-8028, email: admin@asianamericanforeducation.org.
Ms. Swann Lee, telephone: (617) 829-3559, email: swanleeca@gmail.com.
About the AACE: www.asianamericanforeducation.org
Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) is a non-political, nonprofit, grassroots national organization, the proven leader in fighting for Asian-American children’s equal educational rights. On May 15, 2015, the founders of AACE united 64 Asian-American organizations and jointly filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to request that they conduct investigations into Harvard University’s discriminatory admissions practices against Asian-American applicants. As the largest joint action taken by Asian-American communities over the last few decades, this complaint is now being investigated by the Justice Department. Over the years, we have advanced the cause of equal education rights for the Asian-American community.