The recent president Bush announcement to prompt the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the Michigan University admission program that favors ethnic minorities is not the gesture of a compassionate conservative, neither an intelligent measure to earn the sympathy and the vote of the minorities.

Surely, Bush’s announcement must have elated the conservative sector of the Republican Party, already enchanted with his last week plan to eliminate share dividend taxes to benefit the wealthy.

For the minorities, however, this is not good news. The elimination of Affirmative Action is a severe blow to the aspirations of these groups that try to improve their social status through college education.

Bush’s position on this issue is not new. As governor of Texas, he supported the Appeals Supreme Court decision to eliminate a similar admissions program used by that state’s university.
The message, issued a few days before Martin Luther King Day, was considered untimely and even hypocritical by several Latin media in the country. In case you didn’t know it, Affirmative Action was created after protests of thousands marched into Washington headed by the black leader in 1963 demanding full respect for Afro-American civil rights.

At that time the law allowed for blacks to be banned from restaurant, jobs, and universities just for having dark skin. Under pressure by the protesters, in 1964 the U.S. Congress approved the Civil Rights Act, thus ending discrimination.
But, in spite of the progress achieved, segregation has not been totally eradicated in the U.S.
President Bush seems to ignore this reality when he criticizes Affirmative Action because, according to him, “it discriminates against the color of the skin.” With this scheme of deceiving concepts, president Bush pleases the stubborn, fanatic segments of the country once again. But he hides he truth.

The truth is that, in the case of the University of Michigan, one of the most competent and demanding in the nation, students from minority groups are not accepted without a record of proven academic merits. The black and Hispanic students accepted there have accomplished that only after overcoming tremendous difficulties. They continue to be a minority in the place because 70 percent of the student population of that educational institution is still Anglo-American.
The truth, even if president Bush denies it —though he knows it of course— is that this society still favors the white and the rich. They can send their children to private schools and live in selected, flourishing neighborhoods. The inequality in the distribution of national wealth allows these advantages to some groups, and, of course, the whites are favored the most.

On the other hand, minorities don’t have that prerogative. For generations, they have only inherited a world of hardship and difficulties. Nowadays, the number of minority students who make it to college is still very small.

Yes! Race and money count, mister president, and you know it. This is the reason why the University of Michigan’s right to implement an admissions program that promotes racial diversity must be respected. Under this policy, less favored ethnic groups can have access to higher education and the social upgrading that comes with graduation from one of these centers of education.