David Bernstein writes:
"Is there anything in the Michigan opinions that explains why Latinos, who, as
discussed in Peter Schuck's great new book on diversity, mostly consider themselves to
be white, have mostly have arrived since 1965, and have high rates of intermarriage
with whites, should be eligible for the same preferences as African Americans? "
The quick answer is that the Michigan program was justified on diversity grounds, not
past discrimination grounds (the Court explicitly rejected the intervenors defense of
the michigan plan as a remedy for the university's past discrimination, concluding
that the school had not justified the plan on that ground.)
Latinos, as a class, have a diverse perspective because of their unique experiences in
this country, and are underrepresented on our nation's campuses, and thus they are
certainly within the state's compelling governmental interest in attaining racial and
ethnic diversity.
IN any event, as a factual matter, Latinos have, as a class, been subject to
pervasive racial discrimination in this country for centuries, regardless of whether
many or most are recent immigrnats. There is an awful lot of critical race theory
scholarship documenting the history of discrimination against Latinos and its effects.
A good reference to start with is the Perea, Delgado, Harris, and Wildman casebook
Race and Races; Cases and Resources for a Diverse America (West 2000), which discusses
the divergent experiences of racial discrimination of several groups,
Afircan-Americans, Asian Americans, Latino -Americans and Native -Americans, and also
cites to a lot of scholarship.
In any event, whether many Latinos think that they are white, whatever that means, is
not relevant. even if true which I doubt. They, as a class, have unique experiences
which contribute to the diversity of educational institutions. I haven't read Peter
Schuck's book, but I would be very suprised if he argued that Latinos were just
another mainstream white ethnic group.
yb
*********************************************
Professor Yvette M. Barksdale
Associate Professor of Law
The John Marshall Law School
315 S. Plymouth Ct.
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 427-2737
(email:) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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> ----------
> From: David Bernstein[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Reply To: Discussion list for con law professors
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 10:17 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Puzzles re: Grutter and Korematsu
>
> Is there anything in the Michigan opinions that explains why Latinos, who, as
> discussed in Peter Schuck's great new book on diversity, mostly consider themselves
> to be white, have mostly have arrived since 1965, and have high rates of
> intermarriage with whites, should be eligible for the same preferences as African
> Americans? (I returned from Israel yesterday, and haven't had time to slog through
> the opinions).
>
> Professor David E. Bernstein
> George Mason University School of Law
> http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste
> blog: http://bernstein.blogspot.com
> ***********************************************
> My latest book, You Can't Say That!
> The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties
> from Antidiscrimination Laws, will
> be published in October
> ***********************************************
>
