Arab Americans, Affirmative Action, and a Quest for Racial Identity
2010; University of Texas School of Law; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1930-2045
Autores Tópico(s)Race, History, and American Society
ResumoI. INTRODUCTION 101 II. THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS 103 A. Post 9-11 Racism, Hate, and Discrimination 105 B. Discrimination, Racism, and Overt Acts of Hate on Campus 106 III. OFFICIALLY WHITE; REALISTICALLY BLACK 108 A. Check it Right, You Ain't White! 112 B. The Mark of Blackness 114 IV. RACE-BASED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND WHY ARAB AMERICANS SHOULD BE INCLUDED 117 A. American Students on Campus 121 B. The Campus Quad and Beyond 125 C. Getting Outside the Box 126 V. CONCLUSION 127 I. INTRODUCTION If I see someone come in and he's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt around that diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over and checked. - U.S. Congressman John Cooksey of Louisiana, September 17, 2001(1) Sand nigger, camel jockey, towel head. Disloyal, threatening, foreign. Billionaires, bombers, belly dancers. Fundamentalist, extremist, militant. Dune coon, raghead, Mohammedan. Dirty, derelict, vermin. Terrorist. Historically Americans2 have been negatively stereotyped in a variety of ways. Today, Americans have essentially been raced as terrorists.3 The classification of Americans as officially in the census, while society perceives Americans as socially black, is problematic. It denies a group that is historically and presently suffering discrimination the benefits and protections of minority status, as well as the benefit of official recognition as a way of conferring identity. The main argument of this Note is that undergraduate colleges and universities should recognize Americans as a minority for purposes of their race-based affirmative action programs since Americans contribute to the diversity rationale as set forth by the Supreme Court. The purpose of this Note is not to analyze the pros and cons of affirmative action or the diversity rationale, but rather to argue that as long as such affirmative action programs exist, Americans should be recognized as contributing to a race-based diversity rationale. This Note first briefly outlines the recent history of discrimination, racism, bias, and stereotypes against Americans, with a focus on discrimination and racism in the context of colleges and universities. Next, this Note describes how society perceives Americans and why classifying Americans as in the census is both arbitrary and harmful. Then, this Note argues that Americans have essentially been given the mark of blackness, rather than a so-called white privilege in today's society. The Note goes on to discuss the diversity rationale for affirmative action as articulated in Grutter v. Bollinger, and to describe how enrolling a critical mass of American students can contribute to diversity. Finally, this Note calls on colleges and universities to recognize American students by giving them their own race box on college applications for purposes of their affirmative action programs, even if the census still officially classifies Americans as white.4 II. THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS Arab spokesmen similarly argue that the world is being branded anti-American because of the extremism of a few. But that's nonsense. In that world, hatred of the U.S. and antisocial international behavior are nearly universal. …
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