Harrison calls for ban on race-based employment, admission practices

ELLIS COUNTY – District 10 State Rep. Brian Harrison sent a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott late last week asking for an immediate ban on all race-based admission, employment, and contracting practices in public universities, private universities that accept federal money, and all government entities, including political subdivisions.

Harrison sent the letter in response to the recent Supreme Court decision relating to same.

“Thank you for championing conservative priorities during the regular legislative session, including banning racially discriminatory practices like diversity, equity, and inclusion in our public universities,” stated  Harrison.

“Considering yesterday’s historic Supreme Court decision striking down explicit and facially racist affirmative action practices in universities, I believe that, without legislative action, Texans might not fully realize the benefits of this decision. We must build on this momentum and maximally protect our citizens from government-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of race.”

Harrison asked for the item to be added to the current special session for the 88th legislative session.

In his letter he also wrote, “I appreciate your chief of staff’s memo to state agencies in February directing them to end race-based employment practices. The Legislature should also codify this prohibition into law.”

Harrison made mention in his letter of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stating after the Supreme Court ruling regarding Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, that race-based employment and admission policies that are predicated on a fallacious linking of race with individual outcomes “is an insult to individual achievement and cancerous to young minds seeking to push through barriers, rather than consign themselves to permanent victimhood.”

Harrison indicated he also believes Texas should not tolerate racist policies, but rather should act on the sentiments Justice John Roberts articulated in the opinion when he explained eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.

However there are two sides and two thoughts to every political action in local, state and national politics and in this paper we believe both sides should be presented.

State Representative Carl Sherman (D-109), whose district is located just next to Harrison’s District 10, said he believes regarding the United State Supreme Court’s decision to wipe out affirmative action in higher education that it is “exactly why we need new and better leadership for Texans in the United States Senate and Congress.” 

Sherman continued, “We can see clearly how the politically motivated Court chose not to address the ‘affirmative privilege’ of the elite families of lawmakers and high courts to get their children and grandchildren into prestigious universities. The extremist continues to attack DEI initiatives, erase Black America from our children’s history books, fight to take away women’s freedoms and our right to vote.

“Enough is enough – we need bold bipartisan representation within both the judicial and legislative branch that respects all Texans with equitable opportunities, and we need it now. May God continue to bless us as we strive to be a more perfect Union.”