Affirmative action, GOP style

Good people can disagree about affirmative action. It’s controversial, complicated, and often misapplied. While Carpetbagger is wholeheartedly a supporter of affirmative action policies in workplaces and universities, I understand that opponents are not necessarily racists.

But, while I can appreciate differences of opinion on this issue, recent hypocrisy from Republicans is intolerable.

Earlier this year, President Bush announced his administration’s formal opposition to the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policies, which award applicants increased “points” towards admission if they are members of a racial or ethnic minority. Bush’s position, endorsed enthusiastically by a congressional GOP that has long been hostile to affirmative action, was that admissions policies should be “race neutral” and based purely on merit. In other words, the best applicants get accepted regardless of their race or background.

For a variety of reasons, which I think I’ll save for a different post, I disagree with this assessment. But if that’s the position Republicans want to embrace, fine.

Now if they’d only practice what they preach.

U.S. News & World Report noted this week that Republican leaders in Congress are so desperate to hire African Americans and Hispanics to Hill jobs, they’re going way beyond using affirmative action. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, for example, has apparently “strongly suggested” his fellow House GOP members do a better job at hiring minorities as part of a strategy of “expanding” the party’s political base.

The article explained that Hastert “told members this month to build a staff that mirrors the minority mix in their districts. He even said he’s trying to reflect the 25 percent Hispanic population of his Illinois district in his offices. What’s more, he added, if lawmakers can’t find enough GOP blacks and Hispanics in Washington to fill their Capitol Hill offices, they should be imported ‘from back home.'”

The rank hypocrisy on display is sickening. If a university wants to even consider race as part of the admissions process, the GOP insists the policy is unconstitutional. But when those same lawmakers are hiring on Capitol Hill, the GOP not only wants race to be considered, it wants race and ethnicity near the top of the requirement list.

As a practical matter, this means when a white applicant to the University of Michigan gets passed over for an equally qualified African American, the GOP wants to go to federal court. But when a white applicant to the GOP caucus staff gets passed over for an African American, the GOP says it’s part of “expanding the base.” They ought to be ashamed.

All that talk about a meritocracy, about race neutrality, about a color-blind society, was just that — talk.

Oh, and by the way, there’s a name for Hastert’s goal of having Hispanics represent 25% of his staff to mirror the population of his district. The policy is called quotas. Not only are they illegal, but for decades Republicans have described quotas as the most divisive and dangerous civil rights policy imaginable. Some days I wonder how these guys look at themselves in the mirror.