Probably more important than the upcoming gubernatorial election is the California Racial Privacy Initiative (a.k.a. Proposition 54), which “prohibits state, local governments from using race, ethnicity, color or national origin to classify current or prospective students, contractors, or employees in public education, contracting or employment operations”. Its proponents say that its passage would mark an important first step towards a color-blind society :

The California Constitution forbids state government from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any citizen based on race. Therefore, since government has no reason to classify persons by race, why should it even ask us for the data? Like religion, marital status or sexual orientation, race should become a private matter that is no business of government?s. Think how refreshing it would be to throw out the entire system of checking little boxes.

As the most ethnically diverse state in the Union, California has the most to gain by compelling its government to treat all citizens equally and without regard to race. The latest U.S. Census divides Americans into a whopping 126 different ethnic/racial categories. How many categories should Californians put up with?

But, like Matthew Yglesias, I think this is a really terrible idea. Like most people, I’d love to see us all move towards a society in which race is irrelevant, unfortunately, I don’t think we’re there yet. There are still plenty of racial disparities in education, health care, the job market, etc, yet those who seek racial privacy think that the collection of racial data is the “racist” problem that needs addressing. Not only will the passage of Proposition 54 do nothing to solve those disparities, but it will make it nearly impossible to actually track them. Closing your eyes and hoping all your problems go away has never worked before, and it won’t work now.