The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division warned the Buncombe County Board of County Commissioners on September 4 not to violate the civil rights of county residents. The warning came in the form of a letter from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon to the commissioners, a copy of which the Asheville Watchdog obtained.
The letter followed the commission’s receipt of the final report from the Asheville-Buncombe Community Reparations Commission, which contained dozens of policy recommendations.
Some of the race-based recommendations for the Buncombe County and Asheville governments include:
- “Allocate funding to community-based organizations to support Black people who have been involved in the criminal justice system.” (page 47)
- Create an economic development center “established specifically for Black residents.” (page 48)
- “Establish Business Corridors with commercial space for Black owned businesses and community services” (page 48)
- “Provide grants to Black owned businesses” (page 50)
- A recruitment and retention program exclusively for Black teachers with “robust social, financial, professional, and housing support.” (page 54)
- Higher education financial support exclusively for Black Buncombe County residents (page 59)
Dhillon issued a warning to commissioners:
[M]any of the recommendations, if implemented, would violate federal civil rights laws, including, without limitation, the Fair Housing Act, Title VI, Title VII, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution…
To the extent these recommendations are formally adopted, you are now on notice that my office stands ready to investigate and enforce violations of federal civil rights laws to the fullest extent possible.
When asked about the DOJ letter by the media, a spokesperson for the county demurred:
Our ongoing focus is on transparency and recovery from Tropical Storm Helene and its devastating effect on our community. Buncombe County has been and will always follow the letter of the law and will continue to comply with all federal anti-discrimination regulations.
The county may defer implementing some recommendations until after a new presidential administration is in office, or quietly drop them.
This incident is hardly the first time area elected leaders have gotten into hot water recently over civil rights violations. In late August, the Asheville City Council voted to end racial and identity-based preferences when evaluating applicants to the city’s Human Relations Commission. The vote was not based on a change of heart to end discriminatory practices, but to settle a lawsuit brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of five Asheville residents.
If a local governments want to set policies to address past forms of racial discrimination, they cannot do so by committing new forms of racial discrimination.
