Opponent of I-1000 Says Washington Voters Should Reject Affirmative-Action Measure

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This fall, a ballot measure will test whether attitudes have changed. In the Nov. 5 election, voters will decide whether to repeal a law, known as Initiative 1000, passed by the Legislature that restores affirmative action programs to the state. A vote of “yes” on Referendum 88 would maintain the affirmative action law, while a “no” vote would abolish it.

{snip} Kan Qiu, a Bellevue resident who is part of the Reject 88 campaign and a member of Washington Asians for Equality, argues that I-1000 would impose what amounts to racial quotas.

“Our fight against Initiative 1000 is really a fight against racial preferences and racial discrimination,” Qiu says. “We want equality for all regardless of your skin color.”

Although the text of I-1000 bans quotas or preferential treatment based solely on race, Qiu argues that its effort to set goals for hiring and contracting amounts to the same thing. “We don’t see the boundary here,” he says.

Qiu, a Bellevue resident who immigrated to the U.S. from China after participating in the Tiananmen Square student protests of 1989, was previously involved in a fight in the Bellevue School District over equity efforts, and contends the law would be harmful to Asian Americans.

He rejects the idea that affirmative action is needed to remedy historical wrongs including slavery and Jim Crow laws despite ongoing disparities in contracting and education. Qiu even compares I-1000 to Jim Crow. “I actually don’t see the difference,” he says, arguing both are “government-sanctioned discrimination.”

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