COLUMBIA — Gov. Henry McMaster told state agencies to stop favoring minority-owned businesses when they award government contracts, saying the 40-year-old practice incentivizes racial discrimination in the procurement process.

In a five-page executive order issued Dec. 3, McMaster said the long-standing provision in state law that seeks to encourage state investment in businesses owned by women and minority groups unlawfully requires directing public funds based on status.

The practice, McMaster said, follows the “false assumption that the solution to perceived historical wrongs is to racially discriminate against individuals in the present.”

He called any state laws requiring quotas and racial set-asides unconstitutional and discriminatory.

“Business with state government should be

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