Greenberg: Dismantle the San Francisco Office of Racial Equity

In July of 2019, after much advocacy by Black City workers, labor leaders, and community members, the Board of Supervisors (our 11-member city council) unanimously passed an ordinance requiring DEI ideology be adopted by every city hall department. Each are mandated to develop a “Racial Equity Action Plan” utilizing a prescribed template, or “framework”. By December 2020 each department was required to submit their action plan to the newly-established Office of Racial Equity (ORE), to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors, as well as posting their plan on respective department’s website. And they complied.

Racial Equity, per the ORE website, is defined as a set of social justice practices, rooted in a solid understanding of historical and current-day oppression. The ORE site was created for how to address structural and institutional racism.

The glaring problem with all of this is it’s unconstitutional. Yet, all 11 Board members voted for approval. The San Francisco City Attorney signed-off on the form and content of the legal text of their legislation, and London Breed, mayor at that time, signed it into law.  Every city hall official knew the concept of racial equity and the establishing of race-based protocols was unlawful, yet they went ahead anyway.

According to the ORE’s mandates summary beyond the establishment of racial equity/DEI policies, employees would be appointed as “Racial Equity” leaders on teams. A policy analysis tool would be created to analyze every proposed piece of legislation put before the Board of Supervisors/City Council ensuring terms of the legislation met racial equity ideology. Would communities of color be impacted by the passage of such legislation? A city budget equity analysis tool would be created to see how city department’s spending would benefit or burden communities of color. Data collection, analysis and reporting on San Francisco’s workforce by race, salary, promotion, and disciplinary action would be compiled and published annually.  A “Racial Equity Index”, effectively a report card on San Francisco’s racial equity progress, would be issued.

All -in-all, the obsession of seeing the city government through the lens of race has created a race-obsessed rank and file. Merit is extinguished; excellence in job performance and hiring is made irrelevant. And for non-people of color, well, you could be out of favor and out of luck.

Designated staff as racial equity leaders function as a liaison from each city department to the ORE, and such designated liaison must be provided time dedicated to racial equity work and would protect them from retaliation.  Obviously, this means city workers are being paid via taxpayer’s money to perform work outside their job description, to gather data and file reports on race, hiring, and racial equity compliance.

The list of state and federal violations by Racial Equity ideology is lengthy.  The desire for the upper echelons in City Hall to institute radical change was greater than the fear for legal repercussions, and to date there’s been little to no pushback. Architects of ORE sought to transform the system, to support liberation of Black, Indigenous and People of Color in San Francisco, and there, they mostly succeeded. Not by uplifting, but by creating a facade of success through establishing an equity office.

Since the passage of the ORE plan on July 30th, 2019, San Francisco has been under the iron grip of a radical race-based ideology. The City’s official policy is that of a religion or cult: in their words, to respond to growing racial disparities, to address San Francisco’s history of structural and institutional racism, and how to resolve inequitable outcomes San Francisco itself has created.  To date, no lawsuits have been filed to block the ORE from operating. No challenges to the Racial Equity Plan have been filed.

We cannot begin to imagine how many highly-qualified applicants to city jobs have been discouraged to apply or rejected due to racial quotas. How many promotions unfairly passed over because they weren’t the right skin color. How many city employees’ careers were advanced not because of exemplary performance. And how many outside contractors were denied doing business with San Francisco similarly for not being certified as race-gender-equity compliant.

The Office of Racial Equity, by action of being established and then operating, is violating the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. Government policies and actions must treat individuals equally. Also, the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s, Title VI, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.

San Francisco is, of course, famous nationally (and internationally) for its failures. DEI, Racial Equity, crime, drug dealing and homelessness are rampant and painfully slow to be cured, if at all. President Trump has signed numerous Executive Orders specifically addressing federal DEI policies, Sex/Gender preferences, and just today, he has banned men participating in women’s sports.  This may be one of the only manners changes can be brought to San Francisco: federal intervention. These last several weeks has seen corporate America, Google and other tech giants joining with many universities to discard discriminatory equity ideology. Now, let’s do San Francisco city hall.