Legitimizing a myth

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views June 30, 2003]

In "No Longer 'We, the People'" (Washington Post, 6/29/03), Martha Montelongo, a Mexican-American, tells of her experience at UCLA as a freshman in 1977. She viewed her condition as similar to that of John Boy in television's The Waltons, that is, poor, and the first in her family to attend college. She laments that, with this latest Supreme Court decision on the University of Michigan law school, "We, the People" has been subordinated to "We, the Group," and writes:

The ruling marks a sad day in the history of a country whose basic tenet is equality under the law. It has defiled the concept of affirmative action, which at its noblest was intended to assist those of meager financial means and limited opportunities by giving them a chance to move up the social and economic ladder. "Diversity" of races and ethnicities was not the intention of affirmative action; it is simply an incidental outcome of belonging to a country populated by immigrants. What we shared were our common experiences of becoming and being Americans.

Until now, the Supreme Court's role was not that of a meddling legislator, practicing social engineering to achieve what Justice Antonin Scalia called a "mystical critical mass" at whim, deciding who, at any given time, should have their rights subjugated to those of another in retribution for past inequalities. Rights were expressly guaranteed as individual rights, regardless of the color of one's skin, regardless of one's sex, religion, or social or economic background. Our rule of law had supreme moral clarity and integrity.

Now, with the Michigan rulings, the court has legitimized a pathetic pop-cultural mythology of victimized groups. It has sanctioned the myth of inherent mystical powers achieved by maintaining an illusive and arbitrary critical mass of diverse races and cultures in American institutions. It has compromised equality.

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