AAR OpEd (Killed)
On November 22, 2024, San Diego Union Tribune Opinion Editor Laura Castañeda approved the following for publication and scheduled it for early December;
When MIA checked in with Castañeda be email on December 3rd and 10th, she retaliated by killing the piece, citing “hostility.” Here is the unpublished, unedited OpEd.
This weekend San Diego plays host to the Annual Gathering of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), which, according to its website, is “the largest scholarly society dedicated to the academic study of religion.” The event’s theme this year, decided months ago, is “Violence, Nonviolence, and the Margins.” It is an event that I can not support, despite being an AAR member and California native, because AAR disregards civil rights protections for a marginalized population to which I belong, the United States military.
In 2013, when Vice President Kamala Harris was Attorney General, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 556, adding “military and veteran status” to the jurisdiction of the Civil Rights Department. However, a decade later, groups doing business in our state are given free reign in discriminating against soldiers and veterans. As a labor organization doing business in our state, AAR is supposed to be subject to Cal Gov. Code §12920. So why is AAR allowed to openly defy state law by refusing to protect the (marginalized) community we expect to do violence on our behalf?
When the 2024 Annual Gathering location was announced, I was thrilled to be able to attend such an important professional networking event so close to home. But when I found my participation being throttled, despite being uniquely qualified to opine on violence, nonviolence, and marginalization, I was puzzled. When I started looking into why, I discovered I had been disadvantaged on account of my military service long before I became an AAR member.
AAR’s By Laws contains a policy of Nondiscrimination that does not adhere to state requirements. By excluding “military and veteran status,” the labor organization claiming to represent thousands of scholars creates a tiered membership explicitly forbidden by CA civil rights laws. It is unlawful discrimination to relegate one group to “other” status while elevating approximately 20 other traits, most of which remain unmentioned by Cal. Gov. Code §12920. But it doesn’t end there; AAR also excludes my protected class from representation in its Status Committees, Task Forces, and Working Groups.
By excluding a protected class from its internal policies and governance, the AAR expects me to accept second class membership, a direct and explicit violation of Cal Gov. Code §12940(b). As the community whose sacrifices make civil rights possible, military families should be the first in line for state and federal protections for minorities. Instead, we are made second class citizens expected to ‘shut up and drive on’ so that others may flourish at our expense. With more than a quarter of a million soldiers, veterans, and Dependents calling the city home, San Diego represents one of the largest concentrations of US military personnel and veterans in the world. AAR is not the first organization to force military and veterans into second-class citizenship, but with your help we can make it the last.
Kevin Kish, CCRD
If you support the troops, then write to CalCivilRights Executive Director Kevin Kish and demand AAR be held accountable for violating California military civil rights. You can insist, as I have, that the AAR be barred from doing business in our state until it adheres to civil rights laws. Kevin Kish can be reached at kevin.kish@calcivilrights.ca.gov.
