OPINION
L
Pride And Prejudice
RICHARD M. JOEL
Special to The Jewish News
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at Buchanan has a resolu-
tion for the Republican
Party this year. In an early
January column, he propos-
es that the GOP address "the deeply
ingrained leftist and anti-Christian
bias on elite campuses."
He cites as evidence of this bias the
fact that, at Harvard, "nearly 20 per-
cent of the Harvard College student
body is Asian American, and 25 per-
cent to 33 percent is Jewish, though
Asian Americans make up only 3 per-
cent of the U.S. population and Jew-
ish Americans even less than 3 per-
cent. Thus, 50 percent of Harvard's
student body is drawn from about 5
percent of the U.S. population!"
The situation is just as bad, Mr.
Buchanan says, in other prestigious
schools and in the elite professions
they feed. "There is no doubt who is
going to run America in the 21st cen-
tury," he laments.
Mr. Buchanan has been pressing
this point since fellow conservative
activist Ron K. Unz published a cri-
tique of affirmative action in the Wall
Street Journal last November.
The Buchanan/Unz argument pro-
ceeds as follows:
Affirmative action guarantees
African Americans and Hispanics a
percentage of seats in prestigious
schools. The spots set aside for for-
eigners, alumni children and students
from the "WASP elite" further dimin-
ish the number of open seats. The
remaining open slots are being filled
disproportionately by Jews and Asians.
"It is clear Evangelical Christians,
Catholics, Mormons and Muslims are
the victims of a bigotry so embedded
Harvard cannot see it right in front of
its eyes," Mr. Buchanan writes. Now
we know who really gets the shaft at
Harvard — white Christians."
If affirmative action is to be main-
tained, they say, college berths must
be assigned on the basis of race and
ethnicity, never mind merit. "If pro-
portional representation is the name of
the game," Mr. Buchanan suggests,
"Christian and European" Americans
should get into the game,
aame 5 and demand
their fair share of every pie: 75 per-
,
cent, and no less.)
Such arguments are faulty on
many levels. Most relevant of all is
that they are not founded in fact.
Richard M. Joel is president and inter-
national director of Hillel• The Founda-
tion for Jewish Campus Life.
Messrs. Buchanan and Unz admit
that their analysis is based on fabri-
cated numbers, their own estimates.
Harvard does not maintain a listing
of Jewish students, nor does any
other school.
But let us assume for a moment
that Jews and Asians are "over-repre-
sented" in elite schools and profes-
sions. Are not all Americans guaran-
teed the right to the "pursuit of happi-
ness?" If their academic achievements,
their merits, enable them to enter the
finest academic institutions and pro-
fessions, is that not the American
dream at work?
Mr. Buchanan promotes meritocra-
cy in his campaign against affirmative
action. At the same time, however, he
writes: "A liberal elite is salving its
social conscience by robbing America's
white middle class of its birthright,
and handing it over to minorities.
But where does the Constitution,
the one document that really matters
in this debate, guarantee any ethnic
grouping the "birthright" to lead?
Unfortunately, these writers cannot
be dismissed as fringe zealots. Mr. Unz
is the author of Proposition 227, the
successful California initiative to limit
bilingual education. Mr. Buchanan, is
a television commentator, syndicated
columnist, twice presidential candi-
date and a longtime Republican
activist. These men have a following
and they know how to use the tools of
power successfully.
Messrs. Buchanan and Unz have a
right to their political opinions. But it
is odious to purport to promote a
healthy, democratic and pluralistic
country by stirring up dormant ani-
mosities, invoking ugly stereotypes,
and otherwise engaging in politically
motivated group baiting.
The writers are playing both sides
against the middle. Affirmative action
is not good because it yields too many
African Americans and Hispanics.
Meritocracy is not good because it
yields too many Jews and Asians.
In truth, their polemic is neither an
attack on affirmative action nor an
attack on meritocracy. It is a blunder-
buss rage at sharing ownership of this
country with "outsiders" who don't
conform to some distorted profile of <
true Americans."
However it is dressed up, an exclu-
sionary view of the American
birthright diminishes us all. The
American dream is our shared
birthright.
The Framers would recoil in
shame. E
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