The Racial Privacy Initiative would
prohibit any government agency in California from collecting data on race, ethnicity, color or national origin and using it to classify those involved in public education, public contracting or public employment.The RPI is being promoted by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, who wants California to stop being obsessed with race. Wilson shares Connerly’s desire for a color-blind society but in his view:
the initiative would aid those who want to continue to obsess about race because, no longer privy to the facts, we would invent them.Wilson argues that the initiative would prevent the collection of racial statistics and make it difficult for social scientists like himself to assess the effect of anti-discrimination laws and other social policy initiatives.
Personally, I’m uncomfortable with the state categorizing people according to race. I find the idea somehow unnerving, even when I’m told it’s for the good of the people.
