1 February 2008: Affirmative action in the Diario de Yucatan...

1 February 2008: Affirmative action in the Diario de Yucatan...

After discussing the struggles of Mexican minorities and inquiring about what the government was doing to bring forth social justice, I was pointed in the direction of an article recently published in the Diario de Yucatan. The article described the government’s intention to aggressively (its adverb of choice, not mine) expand its social assistance programs during the upcoming year. Of course, published alongside the article were several others that argued against the details of the proposed expansion.

As I discussed these critiques with some of the concerned residents of northern Yucatan, the parallels between this dialogue and the one regarding affirmative action programs back in the US became transparent. And although a plethora of arguments could be made in favor of affirmative action programs, for brevity’s sake, I will limit myself to just one (for a more comprehensive line of thought, see Tim Wise’s book Affirmative Action: Racial Preferences in Black & White) that I believe effectively addresses the subtext of this debate in both the US and Mexico.

Given the de facto reversal of the Brown v. Board of Ed precedent by the US Supreme Court this summer, let’s use affirmative action programs in education as our example. It seems logical to me that under circumstances of equal opportunity, a certain sub-set of the population would be present in higher education in the same percentage as it is in the general population. Thus, if a given minority comprised 15% of the general US population, then it would be expected to comprise 15% of the higher education student body. Needless to say, this is not the case today in either the US or Mexico; in both countries, minorities are present in higher education at consistently lower percentages than they are in the general population. Yet, in light of this disparity, many still continue to claim that equal opportunity in education exists and so affirmative action programs are tantamount to reverse discrimination, tipping the balance in favor of minorities. However, to claim that equal opportunity exists in light of such disparity ultimately reflects a belief that the observed disparity results for reasons – either genetic, biological, or cultural – intrinsic to the minority (hence their sub-par performance).

Of course, such a belief is overtly racist. But in today’s society, as the articles in the Diario de Yucatan underscored, such beliefs are never explicitly stated. Instead, they lie in the subtext of the false rhetoric against affirmative action programs. In fact, it appears that the prevailing power structure of the US has perfected the art of using beguiling but ultimately deceptive rhetoric to deny the need for affirmative action. A quintessential example of this is how the US Supreme Court was able to overturn the precedent set forth in Brown v. Board of Ed by taking the words of Dr. King out of context, stating that it could not support such programs because it feels that children ought not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

And as the dialogue continues, I can only hope that its sub-text as well as the parallels among the struggles of the oppressed become transparent, allowing the voices of minorities in the US resonate with those of Mexico and vice versa, moving them forward in solidarity.