California has now made it possible for some minorities to vault over the affirmative action ban recently renounced. The University of California system allows a language test to improve entrance scores for minorities. Some applaud the state for giving more opportunities to underrepresented ethnic groups. But, the real issue here is that the language test does not extend to all minority groups. Should this selection process be of concern given the fact that California has one of largest populations of Hispanics and other minorities in the country? Most definitely.
Whatever California's educational administrators were trying to do, it doesn't appear to be well thought out. This clearly is a case of educational genocide against groups California sees as less than worthy.
Not long ago, California placed Ward Connerly, chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative, squarely in the middle of Proposition 209. This referendum ended affirmative action in California. Connelly, an African American and California's poster boy for "If I can do it, so can you," strongly opposed systems of preferential treatment. All this in spite of being the recipient of welfare benefits as a youth and affirmative action in college and post-graduate programs. The very system that has helped him is being dismantled, as another system more damaging to African Americans is being erected. It appears it will only benefit enrolling students who have proficiency in a home language or have taken a foreign language in high school. This disproportionately falls on the African Americans in the California school system.
Many of the Hispanics or Asians in California are third or fourth generation immigrants from their homeland. Historically, these ethnic groups have strong family ties, which keep languages alive. In many of these homes, the native tongue is spoken exclusively to deliver messages that are sometimes lost in translation. African Americans do not have this language luxury. Most couldn't tell you what language was spoken in their homeland of Africa. We need not go into a history lesson on how African dialects were strongly discouraged during enslavement.
African Americans' present language heritage is intertwined with America's English language. The colloquial verbiage, so valued in their community, is of no use outside those boundaries. Consequently, if an African American has trouble on the test, they do not have this cultural safety net to fall back on.
In constructing the addition to the test, California administrators had to know the impact this would have on the African American community. Most will begin their post-secondary careers at community colleges, but others may skip college altogether. That appears to be the covert ideology behind this move. The reality is it gives a select group of minorities a chance to go to better schools, leaving the African Americans to fend for themselves.
For those of you who like numbers, the Wall Street Journal reports that the number of students in the graduating class of 2000 who took the SATII language test was approximately 60,000. Languages ranged from Spanish, French, Chinese, Latin, Korean, German, Japanese, Modern Hebrew and Italian. The Korean Americans lobbied hard for an SATII Korean test. They prevailed upon Korean electronic giant Samsung Corp. to pay the college board almost one million dollars to help develop their test. It was introduced in 1997. What does that say for the African American in the California system? There's not an African nation with an economic interest in America to fund such an effort.
Some would argue that Black foreigners who have settled in California have done fine on these exams. The challenge with that is that these foreigners come from nations that were colonized by non-English speaking European nations. For example, Angolans speak Portuguese, Haitians speak French and many Africans speak a myriad of dialects along with several European languages. There is no recognized home language for the African American. I'm not suggesting there be an "EBONICS" section on the test, but it is obvious these students are allowed to use a gratuity African Americans do not have.
California has been seen as the nation's table setter in hot political, economic and environmental issues. If something goes over with few glitches in the Golden State, it moves east like a tidal wave.
The wave actually appears to be the Hispanic population becoming the majority in California and throughout the nation. With more and more of this growing economic power pursuing higher education, dominant culture ideology has a chance to become fundamental. This forms a neo-conservative, something the far Right has welcomed.
America opens its borders to all that desire to live the dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But, as we gaze into the horizon with open arms to foreigners, we have quickly turned our back on an ethnic group that has been very instrumental in the development of this nation. Government cannot work against discrimination if government itself discriminates.
Carlton Hamilton is a sociology and African American studies senior. Reach him at CHICAGO14@prodigy.net.
