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Podcast: A Conversation with Kan Qiu

Kan Qiu helped lead the coalition — Washington Asians for Equality — behind the Referendum-88 campaign, overturning the legislature’s affirmative action policy which passed late in the 2019 session. Depending on one’s perspective, this was a campaign about affirmative action, righting historical wrongs, equality, or how equality might be understood differently across community lines.

DJ Wilson spoke with Kan Qiu at the 2019 Re-Wire Policy Conference to discuss how the campaign he led to maintain the illegality of affirmative action came about, how the coalition unified as a response to legislative action, and what the results signify about the Washington State electorate.


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