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December 3 & 5, 1997
The Civil Rights Project and the
Tomás Rivera
Policy Institute
These research papers are not a final versions; please do not quote
or cite without the permission of the The Civil Rights Project or
their authors.
Comment on The Latino Civil
Rights Crisis: A Research Conference
Raul Yzaguirre and Charles Kamasaki
The papers submitted at this symposium correctly note
the diminution of civil rights protections for Latinos, focusing
principally on the Hopwood decision outlawing race conscious admissions
policies at the University of Texas Law School; Ballot Proposition
209, which overturned all state affirmative action programs in California;
a series of education related developments; and the welfare reform
and immigration reform bills passed in the second session of the
104th Congress, which among other things reduced rights and protections
available to legal resident aliens in the U.S.
Although these and other policy developments undoubtedly
diminish Hispanics' civil rights protections, we argue herein that
Latinos have never enjoyed anything close to the full protection
of the civil rights laws with respect to employment, housing, and
the distribution of public services and benefits, despite serious
and persistent discrimination in these areas. In addition to substantiating
these claims, this comment will also explore broader explanations
for the failure of the civil rights enforcement system to adequately
serve Latinos.
Comment on The Latino Civil
Rights Crisis: A Research Conference
(in PDF Format) 
Bilingual Education and Latino
Civil Rights
Susan Baker and Kenji Hakuta, Stanford University
Bilingual education, or teaching through the native
language, has been an important technique for providing that right
to English language learners. However, the use of this educational
technique has been increasingly criticized and eroded over the past
ten years. To look at this broad issue, we will examine the history
of civil rights for language minority children, the assumptions
behind the attack on bilingual education, and suggest responses
to safeguard the rights of language minority students.
Bilingual Education and Latino
Civil Rights
(in PDF Format)
Affirmative Action as a Wedge
Issue: Prop 209 and The 1996 Presidential Election
Bruce E. Cain and Karin Mac Donald, UC Berkeley
This paper analyzes the "wedge issue" strategy
from both a geopolitical and survey based perspective relying on
the GIS mapping of the Statewide Database and a preelection survey
that oversampled minorities in different types of neighborhood contexts.
We find that although white voters overwhelmingly supported Prop
209, including independent and moderate Democrats, the issue failed
to swing their vote from Clinton to Dole because it was less important
than other more traditional Presidential issues such as the economy.
Nonwhite and the loyal Republicans were more concerned about Prop
209 than others, but their Presidential votes were not in question.
Affirmative Action as a Wedge
Issue: Prop 209 and The 1996 Presidential Election
(in PDF Format)
California Latinos and Collegiate
Education: The Continuing Crisis
Harry P. Pachon, Andrea F. Mejia and Elizabeth Bergman
In order to accurately assess Latino participation
in California's public higher education system we will distinguish
between applications, admissions, and actual enrollment in the UC
and CSU system (Since the community college system admits all who
apply, this system is not included.) It is necessary make this distinction
between each of these categories since they may vary independently
of one another. Depending on the variation, policy prescriptions
may also vary. We begin this paper with an overview of undergraduate
application, admission, and enrollment UC and CSU, including projections
for post-209 Califomia. We then turn to painting a similar picture
for graduate programs in law and medicine. After placing California
higher education in perspective, we examine potential impacts from
"other" admission criteria utilization by UC, as well
as other factors that research has indicated influence admissions
to higher education. Finally, in the last section of the paper we
present findings from exploratory models that we tested, and close
with policy recommendations.
The Hopwood Decision in Texas
as an Attack on Latino Access to Selective Higher Education Programs
Jorge Chapa et al.
This paper begins with a review of the Hopwood decision
which has prohibited Texas colleges and universities from making
any consideration of race or Latino origin in admissions or financial
aid decisions. One of the immediate effects of the Hopwood decision
was to decrease the number of Latino who applied and were admitted
to many of the most selective publicly-funded higher education programs
in the state. The amount of financial aid available to Latino students
was also drastically decreased because of Hopwood. The next section
of the paper argues that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board, the Texas Legislature and the top administrators in the public
higher education systems have taken actions that can be seen as
largely supportive of increasing Latino access despite Hopwood.
Public opinion is generally supportive of diversity but critical
of racial preferences. The paper concludes that the strongest opposition
to Latino access is found in the legal establishment; i.e., the
courts, the Texas Attorney General and some law school faculty.
The Hopwood Decision in Texas
as an Attack on Latino Access to Selective Higher Education Programs
(in PDF Format)
Immigrants, Immigrant Policy,
and Foundation of the Next Century's Latino Politics: The Declining
Salience of the Civil Rights Agenda in an Era of High Immigration
Louis DiSipio, Rodolfo O. de la Garza, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign University of Texas at Austin, The Tomás
Rivera Policy Institute
The fundamental question that we ask in this paper
is whether the public policy needs of immigrant Latinos can be understood
as part of the civil rights agenda. Our tentative answer is that
they are distinct. If this is the case, we indicate that the policy
needs of immigrants will steadily eclipse the civil rights issues
that have galvanized Latino elites and, to a lesser extent, Latinos
as a whole from the 1960s to the present.
We find that the perception of discrimination that
spurs demands for civil rights protections are declining. In part,
they are declining in salience because the patterns of exclusion
and manipulation that spurred the creation of civil rights policies
have declined in frequency and pervasiveness (de la Garza, Menchaca,
and DeSipio 1994; de la Garza 1997). Equally importantly, they are
declining because immigrants do not structure their demands on American
society based on remediating past discrimination. Instead, their
politics, as it emerges, will be shaped by demands for assistance
with settlement. Thus, the question that shapes our inquiry here
is whether settlement can be understood as a civil rights policy.
Immigrants, Immigrant Policy,
and Foundation of the Next Century's Latino Politics: The Declining
Salience of the Civil Rights Agenda in an Era of High Immigration
(in PDF Format)
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