AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND RECESSION - REFLECTIONS ON A BUSH APPOINTMENT
BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX
Federal Reserve Board Chairman says the recession is abating, but you
wouldn't know it by the unemployment rate statistics. With the unemployment
rate at 5.7 percent overall, and 10.1 percent for African Americans, many
Americans are alarmed about their job prospects. With companies like
WorldCom laying off people in the thousands, the Enron and Arthur Anderson
debacles putting at least ten thousand out of work, and with the Levi Strauss
company closing plants and laying off 3000 workers, Alan Greenspan's economic
recovery really hasn't trickled down.
Corporate layoffs bode ill for college students looking for jobs. In
February, the New York Times had a headline "Not Wanted '02
Graduates Seeking Jobs" . It highlighted the rich climate in which students garnered
signing bonuses five years ago, and contrasted it with the climate of today,
one that is characterized by a retrenchment in hiring. Once, college
recruiters beckoned students with incentives. Now, students are lucky to geta
chance to talk to a recruiter.
Law school applications are up 25 percent from a year ago. Other
graduate school applications are on the rise, as well. Students who sniffed
at unpaid internships last summer are excited about them now, mainly because
they might lead to full time jobs. Still others are taking a "year out",
opting for low-wage work and additional study while they consider their
options. Competition is fierce, both for jobs and for graduate school
opportunities, and people are using whatever they have to land in the right
places.
This is a climate in which affirmative action matters. Some folks come
to the table with a portfolio of contacts, a rolodex brimming over with
potential opportunities. Others come with little more than a transcript
which, though solid, is scant completion for that "good old boy" thing. In
the workplace, in higher education, and in the apportionment of contracting
opportunities, affirmative action balances out the "who you know" game. But
the Bush Administration, while singing an equality song, has made stealth
moves to undermine affirmative action through its appointments.
In a recess appointment, Mr. Bush named Gerald A. Reynolds, a 38-year-old
Kansas City regulatory lawyer as head of the Office of Civil Rights in the
Department of Education. Reynolds knows little about educational policy but he
has, according to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Ma.) a "longstanding hostility to
basic civil rights laws". Reynolds' job as Assistant Secretary in the
Department of Education is to enforce civil rights laws affecting schools and
universities, including discrimination complaints, the enforcement of Title IX
mandates on gender and athletics, and access for disabled students. One wonders
how Reynolds can enforce laws he has staunchly opposed in his roles in
conservative think tanks like the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Center
for New Black Leadership.
Bush gave Reynolds a recess appointment because he might not have been
able to get the Senate Education committee to vote him out. The recess
appointment tactic is a tried and true one to end run congress, but it
doesn't give Reynolds a pass for the duration of the Bush Administration. It
only gives him sitting rights in the job until the end of the year.
Ironically, President Bill Clinton also used the recess appointment to end
run a Republican Congress hostile to civil rights. He appointed Bill Lann
Lee as assistant attorney general for civil rights when it became clear the
Senate would not confirm him. To add to the irony, Gerald Reynolds testified
against the nomination of Lee, saying that Lee had a "disdain for the law".
Yet Lee enforced the laws that Reynolds eschews. It would be interesting,
amusing, and the grist for a Greek tragedy were it not for the fact that the
Reynolds appointments affects millions of African American students who still
need affirmative action to level a playing field tilted by "who you know"
and race matters.
Here is how Reynolds describes affirmative action: "Affirmative action
is the big lie. It is a corrupt system of preferences, set-asides and
quotas, a concept invented by regulators and reinvented by political interest
groups seeking money and power". It sounds as if Reynolds is speaking of
lobbyists or perhaps the employees of the Enron Corporation. In any case, if he
is required to enforce laws he calls "the big lie" how vigorously is he
likely to be in his duties?
Rev. Jesse Jackson said "Mr. Reynolds is himself a beneficiary of the
civil rights movement and sadly, he works to turn back the clock and
dismantle this legacy for future generations". It does not serve this nation
to put up a picture of Dr. Martin Luther King in the White House, only to
throw paint on that picture two months later. Civil rights advocates are
outraged, but Mr. Bush is smug in his recess appointment. Giving far more
priority to world events, the Reynolds appointment is little more than a
political nod to those far-right forces who would click their heels three
times and blast back to our nation's racist past. The losers here are
students who find themselves in a more competitive environment, hoping to
secure jobs or graduate school opportunities, finding themselves locked out
because of race, gender, or a thin Rolodex.