The Hindu Business Line : Minorities seek distinctiveness

The confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the US Supreme Court caps a creditable life of hard-won progress. She is from Puerto Rico (a US territory in the Caribbean), Spanish-speaking, and from very humble circumstances. She graduated with distinction from premier institutions in the US and has risen to high positions through merit. The Hispanic minority is cheering her on.

How a nation deals with its minority communities is a reflection of its maturity. The minority groups in several nations still have to fight battles (such as in Sudan) for their existence to be recognised. Others have to undertake violent protests (as we saw recently in China) to be heard. The majority always wonders why the minority is not more like them and why they do not try to become ‘integrated’ with the rest of the country.

However, the minority would like to relish and perpetuate its very distinctiveness that keeps it a minority.

Often, the social distinctiveness of a minority works against it in its search for economic equality. Very few are able to overcome historical biases and some countries, such as India, have taken to using physical quotas to spread the opportunities around.

Fixing quotas has often resulted in reverse discrimination, with the majority becoming more resentful, and successful minorities fighting to protect their preferential treatment. The US has avoided going down that route, hoping that minorities get their opportunities while retaining a common standard of merit and qualification. The US Supreme Court, recently, decided on a case where white firemen were refused promotion even after having passed the requisite test, because the concerned fire department found that no black firemen had passed the test. Ignoring the test results, it did not promote anybody.

The white firemen sued on grounds of racial discrimination and in the lower court, Judge Sotomayor who heard the case rejected it. But the Supreme Court, on the eve of her joining them, overturned her decision. Whether race is an issue in decisions always seems to fall in that huge grey area.

Hispanic origin, in her favour

As the US senate pondered her nomination, the fact that she was a Hispanic stood out as a major point working in her favour. Here was the first time a Hispanic had been nominated to the country’s highest court. (Hispanics are people of Latin American descent, and are about 15 per cent of the population. They, in turn, may be white or black, as a race.)

Senator Orin Hatch, a Republican senator who voted against the nomination, said, “I wish President Obama had chosen a Hispanic nominee whom all senators could support.” This makes two things clear.

First, some Republicans do not want to be seen as being against Hispanics, who are the fastest growing minority in the US. Second, Sotomayor’s Hispanic status as being important in her consideration for the position was being acknowledged.

Although there are no official quotas, the Sotomayor case shows that an unofficial quota is very close to the surface in the consideration of minorities. Euphemisms such as ‘diversity’ and being ‘multicultural’ always hint that a quota and affirmative action arguments are perhaps only being restated.

Discrimination complaint, again

The most vociferous minority, blacks or African-Americans, who account for about 13 per cent of the population, have always felt discriminated against. Having been originally brought to the country by force, they have had to fight for their civil rights every step of the way. There is one black judge in the Supreme Court. Now, with a (at least part) black president in place, many were hoping that finally the feeling that a ‘black will never make it to the White House’ had been finally put to rest. Blacks cannot anymore complain about discrimination.

Not true. The media, just recently, was giving front page/lead story coverage for days on end to an incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A white police officer who was checking a report of an attempt to break into a house, ended up in an altercation with the person, a black and a professor at a university, who turned out to be the house owner.

The fracas ended with the police arresting the black professor, who charged that he was being treated that way because of his colour. President Obama, who doesn’t seem to resist the temptation to be in front of the camera commenting on every topic, put his foot in his mouth by observing that the police officer had been ‘stupid.’ He then had to apologise for his remark, and invited both parties to the White House for a social evening. Another racial incident solved!

Sidelined, and how

But there is one invisible minority, politically weak and generally ignored. I refer to the native Americans, who, from a 100 per cent of the population at one time are now less than 1 per cent. Although US citizens, they technically have a kind of sovereignty in geographically designated areas called reservations that has only served to keep them isolated from the rest of the population.

Interestingly, a survey reported by US News and World Report shows that 50 per cent of those surveyed wanted the next judge on the Supreme Court to be a native American. But native Americans do not even have a member in either of the two houses of Congress (i.e., the US parliament), and if you do not have a voice there, the chance that you would get a person into the Supreme Court is next to nil. Their history is one of being cheated and lied to by white settlers and successive governments since the 15th century.

Only last month, an appeals court handed down a judgment that the Interior Department of the federal government must fully account for land royalties owed to the native Americans.

The suit, originally filed 13 years ago by native American plaintiffs, contends that they have been swindled out of $47 billion (Rs 2,23,250 crore) of royalties on their lands being managed by the government.

In spite of the staggering amount and slow progress of justice in this case, reports about it stayed buried deep in the inside pages of national media.

(The author is professor of international business and strategic management at Suffolk University, Boston, US. )

More Stories on : Politics | American Periscope

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
More pain than gain

Assertive address

Minorities seek distinctiveness

Dilemma of rural development

A day of remembrance

Bored, Sir?

Farm policy