Sanchez: Latino students assess their identity

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

The conversation goes like this: A worried mother calls, asking for a list of scholarships to which her budding collegian can apply. Surely there is money for Latino students with good grades.

The request is usually a plea, the mother overwhelmed by the prospect of paying tuition and fees. Then she moves to the real dilemma: Her son or daughter is unenthused about -- in fact, adamantly opposed to -- penning any required essay if they have to discuss race or ethnicity.

Call it the Clarence Thomas syndrome, one from which Sonia Sotomayor does not suffer, and Thurgood Marshall could never have fathomed.

The student does not want to be labeled "a minority." Never mind all the "diversity is good" multiculturalism talk to which this generation has been exposed. Students today are just as influenced by angry commentary about reverse discrimination. Many avoid at all costs having their every accomplishment written off under the taint of affirmative action.

It's a reality under which Latinos are especially challenged. After all, they can often choose to avoid the label and therefore any negative associations. Lighter skin tone? No accent? Latino heritage on the maternal side of the family, so no red flag "z" at the end of the last name? OK. You are free to move along quietly and blend in, no questions asked about whether you actually deserve your position, whether it be a class ranking, a position at work or a Supreme Court nomination.

Here's something I always remind people who complain to me about affirmative action and "diversity" measures: No one moves forward on their own. Some get more help than others -- be they rich kids with connected daddies or poor kids with connected mentors -- and sometimes they truly merit that help and sometimes they don't. It's what a person does after they are afforded an opportunity that matters.

Yet that point gets lost these days more than ever. Quotas and many similar measures have been struck down by courts, yet you couldn't convince most people of that fact. Too often, well-meaning efforts to diversify an office or a university class implode and backfire under the weight of poorly executed plans.

Thomas wrote of deep regret for listing his race on his application to Yale, and shuns all forms of affirmative action. By contrast, Sotomayor has embraced her Puerto Rican background and readily admits that diversity goals aided her entry into the Ivy League. And in his day, Marshall felt a duty to represent his race in court and as a role model.

Barack Obama can talk about diversity and the colors of the multicultural rainbow all he wants. In truth, heavy suspicion falls upon those deemed to have received any sort of "extra help" due to race or ethnicity.

The danger is that promising Latino students might shun the outreached hand that others readily grasp. That's just an opportunity wasted. And that doesn't really feel like progress at all.

McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE