A Conversation With Kan Qiu

Washington State Wire

Kan Qiu helped lead a coalition that organized a successful referendum campaign overturning the legislature’s affirmative action policy late in the 2019 session. Depending on one's perspective, this was a campaign about affirmative action, righting historical wrongs, equality, or what constitutes equality given the social forces shaping the political moment in which we find ourselves. 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.