A Colorado business owner filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis this week for setting aside specific coronavirus relief funds only for minority-owned small businesses.
Etienne Hardre, who owns a barbershop, alleged in the lawsuit that the relief earmarked specifically for minorities is “unconstitutional” because access to the aid is based on race, according to the Denver Post.
“We have nothing against minorities, minorities are fantastic,” Hardre, who is white, said in a statement. “However, everybody, all Americans, all Coloradans have been hurt. Business owners of all kinds, whites as well as minorities. We are doing our part to just raise a flag and say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t seem right to carve out the money for only one subsection of the Coloradans who have been hurt and ignore the others.'”
Hardre said his barbershop lost a third of its revenue during the coronavirus pandemic but can’t apply for available state aid because he is white.
The $57 million relief package, passed by the state legislature on Monday, sets aside $4 million specifically for minority-owned businesses.
The rest of the $57 million is earmarked for direct relief payments up to $7,000 that have been affected the most by the pandemic.
Attorney Michael Kuhn, who is representing Hardre’s business, said the state failed to show how the minority-based aid remedies discrimination or racism.
“The Supreme Court has held that if you are going to do race-conscious measures, you are required to specify the past or present discrimination you are remedying,” Kuhn said. “And societal, so-called systemic racism isn’t sufficient.”
Several Colorado Republicans objected to the relief package for various reasons, arguing that it unfairly penalized private businesses while at the same time not providing enough relief.
They did not, however, mention the race-based aid specifically.
