Affirmative White Preference for Black Immigrants

A Black Agenda Radio Commentary

by BAR Executive Editor Glen Ford

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"Intra-Black differences do not shape the policies of elite universities or corporate head-hunters. White people do."

A recent study shows that immigrant Blacks, or the sons and daughters of Black people from the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, now make up about 25 percent of Black enrollment at Ivy League and other elite universities. This, of course, does not happen by accident. Immigrant Blacks are twice as numerous at the most coveted colleges as their proportion in higher education as a whole.

Which naturally causes me to think of Barack Obama. Why? Because the top-heaviness of immigrant-background Blacks at the most selective universities proves only one thing: that they are preferred by white people over home-grown African Americans - just as Barack Obama has become a superstar because of white preference.

Unfortunately, discussion of the new study's findings tends to center on the supposed failures of Black American culture, failings that are claimed to be so profound that these poor, flawed souls cannot even be accommodated by well-meaning college affirmative action programs. There ARE cultural differences between self-selected Black immigrants, who tend to come from more advantaged backgrounds in their home countries, and the masses of Black people who have been here all along. But intra-Black differences do not shape the policies of elite universities or corporate head-hunters. White people do. And, to paraphrase Kanye West, white Americans don't much like African Americans.

"Affirmative action as largely practiced in the United States simply gives white folks more options."

Immigrant Blacks have always gotten at least a partial pass in white society. Not much of a pass, but enough to get very visibly Black Cubans and Dominicans into white baseball long before Jackie Robinson's entrance into the Big Leagues. What people should be studying is not the relative success of immigrant Blacks in higher education and other rungs on the socioeconomic ladder, but what white people bring to the decision-making process that collectively gives preference to Blacks who appear to be different from the natives - and therefore more prepared for success in a white dominated environment.

Affirmative action, originally a response to Black demands that white society make up for centuries of African American slavery and exclusion, soon devolved into a white people's game of "diversity," in which they could pick and choose among various minorities - and women of all backgrounds. Now they have taken the white preference game into the shrinking corner of affirmative action still reserved for Blacks, and are tilting that playing field in favor of African-descended people of non-U.S. backgrounds. Just as they have anointed Barack Obama a Black leader.

The Black struggle was always about power, not the creation of white dominated committees to elevate selected dark-skinned folks to higher corporate and academic status. Affirmative action as largely practiced in the United States simply gives white folks more options to pick and choose their own favorites - and then call it "progress."

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

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