Virginia Introduces Bill That Discriminates Against White Men in Government Contracting
“If enacted, this bill would require Virginia state agencies be racist in who they do business with.”
With the ascension of newly minted Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Democrats in the Virginia Legislature have lost no time in introducing a bill that, if enacted, would officially codify racism in the Old Dominion.
These legislators must have missed the day in school when we learned about the Civil War.
In any event, for those who may not be “in the know” when it comes to government contracting, governments consume goods and services, just as any other firm or institution does. This includes the relatively simple services like landscaping or janitorial needs, to the more specialized, like IT hardware and cybersecurity consulting.
The new Virginia legislation, HB61 (the “Small SWaM Business Procurement Enhancement Program”), establishes a statewide goal of awarding 42% of government contracts to “certified small SWaM businesses.”
Now, if you are a regular human not well-acquainted with George Orwell-speak, you might be wondering what “SWaM” stands for. If so, you are in good company.
SWaM stands for “Small, Women-owned, and Minority-owned businesses.”
Because in the leftist world, the color of your skin or sex is a more important business consideration than the quality of your product, services, or personal perseverance.
In addition to creating yet another layer of state bureaucracy (the “Division of Procurement Enhancement within the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity”), HB61 effectively bars white men from bidding on state contracts under $100,000.
And then, even if a white male business owner is lucky enough to be competitive on a contract over that already high threshold, the state can still award the contract to a minority business owner whose bid is 5% higher than that of a white male business owner.
In other words, if enacted, this bill would require Virginia state agencies be racist in who they do business with.
We are a long way from 1865.
Depressingly, if Virginia approves this bill, it would not be breaking new ground but joining a bevy of other states with similarly discriminatory government contracting requirements.
Under Ohio’s “Minority Business Enterprise” program (MBE), 15% of all government contracts are set aside for “minority business enterprises,” which is shorthand for “non-white.” Specifically, Blacks or African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics or Latinos, and Asians.
A further 5% of state government contracts in Ohio are set aside for the “Encouraging Diversity Growth and Equity” program (EDGE), which defines disadvantaged not only according to the above racial categories in which non-white is automatically assumed to equal disadvantage, but also women (seemingly, both those with and without the necessary female anatomy).
The situation is equally depressing in Rhode Island, where 7.5% of government contracts must be awarded to MBEs (which here include the groups noted in Ohio, as well as Portuguese and American Indians), and 7.5% must be awarded to “Women Business Enterprises” (WBEs).
To Rhode Island’s credit, it at least appears that the “women” in question must actually be members of the female sex in order to qualify. Small favors.
Of course, the Equal Protection Project (EPP) is keeping an eye on HB61 in Virginia, as well as the laws already in effect in Ohio and Rhode Island.
If you or anyone you know has experienced racial discrimination in state government contracting because of your race or sex, please let us know by submitting your information on the linked form.
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Comments
This racist and unconstitutional proposed law should be challenged in court by Virginia plaintiffs, the minute that it is enacted.
Any legislature or elected official that advances a clearly unconstitutional bill such as this should be immediately removed from office.
If the legislature passes this and the governor signs it, would they all be guilty of conspiracy? Send them all to prison?
Destroy! Steal! Violence!
It’s not just states. The SBA also engages in blatant discrimination in distributing grant monies.
There should be no SBA in the first place.
With communists now in charge of Va. either they will become South Africa or an updated Reconstruction Era Virginia. Democrats have been gradually unnerved and rudderless since the fall of the USSR.
This has been normal in federal contracting for decades. “Small” has no race or gender characteristics so many white male owned businesses apply. But adding the other two checkboxes can benefit your proposal.
In defense contracting, they add veteran-owned, disabled veteran, AAPI, and companies headquartered in disadvantaged communities. We generally have to dole out 34% of our contracts to subcontractors that check one or more of the boxes.
So what if the small business owner is a white biological male who identifies as female?
A loophole!
Watch Virginia suddenly identify chromosomes matter
SWaM is nothing new in the state. Been here since I started in higher Ed in 2012. The thresholds are new but people get around it all of the time by putting a business in their wife’s name.
Every procurement organization in the F500 has this.
Microsoft was over the top proud of waving this category around in internal meetings (I used to work in procurement there… I quit when I was suddenly and immediately a performance/behavior problem getting paper hung on me the week after they hired a black guy for which there was no req for, but they hired anyway) and they used government contracting as the business justification for propping these companies (most of were horribly run) and for filling their own ranks with the preferred skin color and rocketing the preferred skin colors into management positions. I saw that last sentence go into effect in 2013.
They went to the front of the line and were the few that would be put in front of the Indian owned companies.
AWFULs were the source of this too BTW
“AWFULs were the source of this too BTW”
True:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOeaRd5Izoc
This is what happens when voters elect a “democrat socialist” — Orwellian speak for Communist. Duh duh duh dum. Dumb!
Yes, we need to call these people what they are, Communists.
Virginians, meet “Jim Crane.”
History doesn’t always rhyme, but neither does rap.
A cabal of people conspiring to intentionally deprive others of their constitutional rights based on the sex and ‘race’ of those deliberately targeted seems like a bad idea. Especially when the d/prog doing it have a long history of similar actions. That they are attempting this act via legislation makes it even more abhorrent to our Constitution.
without trump we are never even going to have a chance on defeating these pos
trump needs to run for mayor of nyc or chiraq
governor of CA/NY/IL
It’s been more than 30 years since Adarand, in which the Supreme Court said contracting programs with racial preferences were subject to strict scrutiny. Adherence has been very spotty. But this goes way beyond that; to actually legislate to ban white men altogether from certain contracts is so blatantly illegal that I don’t believe this will ever made it to SCOTUS. If it passes in the first place, and a district court upholds it, the fourth circuit will strike it down; it wouldn’t dare uphold it, and have to explain itself to SCOTUS.
I don’t know how prevalent it is but I’ve heard that a lot of men who own small businesses put them in their wife’s name so it’s technically woman-owned. Virginia might be getting a lot of ownership transfers soon. I wonder if one needs a form to change one’s race or if identifying as transracial is good enough.
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