☆ “We are a free market country:” Tony Guan on how racial preferences stifle prosperity.
A couple decades after Prop 209 protected non-discrimination rights for all Californians, Prop 16 tried to re-impose racial quotas. Local grassroots organizer Tony Guan worked tirelessly to defeat Prop 16 by showing how affirmative action actually hurts the Asian community and erodes the rights of all Californians. An Opportunity Now exclusive Q&A.
Opportunity Now: After working on something as pragmatic as reducing airplane noise, how did you end up getting involved in Prop 16?
Tony Guan: For Asians, I felt the fear that all our fellow parents had about Prop 16, because it was actually going to revert our constitutional protection held up by Prop 209[TG1] .
I served as a board member on The Silicon Valley Chinese Association which, together with other grassroots organizations, created the grassroots organization "Californians for Equal Rights PAC" as the official opposing org against Prop 16. It was such an action-packed period of time.
ON: Where did the hardest resistance to your campaign actually come from?
TG: As a matter of fact, a big part of the fight back in 2020 was within the Asian community. Some people were brainwashed by all the mainstream media, and they believed they would be the beneficiaries of affirmative action. We had to debate and give them the facts and tell them why affirmative action is not actually good for our community, and for society.
It’s a fact of life for Asian people: we go to the good schools not because we are Asian, but because we work hard. Is there one thing we get from getting treated with preference? No, nothing. We just have to work hard and to succeed. And that's it. It's not a complaint. Everybody should be doing that.
ON: What helped make your case credible to people in your own community?
TG: Mr. Ward Connerly is the father of Prop 209, he himself is Black and he does not believe in racial preferences. He fought really hard and sacrificed so much for that. I have very high respect for him. It was one of the best things to be able to work side by side with such a legendary figure and learn from him.
ON: And he wasn’t alone in the Prop 209 fight?
TG: He and Professor Gail Heriot and other pioneers fought really hard to protect our Constitution. Californians have enjoyed the prosperity Prop 209 has guaranteed for about two decades.
ON: Prosperity?
TG: We are a free market country. The government cannot assign racial preference to a certain group of people, the government cannot play the referee for who can succeed or who cannot. You don't put people into different categories and then decide who can or cannot succeed just because of their skin color, race, gender, ethnicity, or country of origin.
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