Views Expressed Are Those of the Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Cam- Author of Each Article, and Not Necessarily of Bridge Ma 02142-1407

Home , Executive Order 10308, Laurence Tribe, Multiracialism, Victoria Hattam

Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on imperialism Niall Ferguson, Kenneth Pomeranz, Anthony Pagden, Jack Snyder, Akira Iriye, Molly Greene, William Easterly, Robin Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Blackburn, and Henk Wesseling Winter 2005 on professions Howard Gardner, Lee Shulman, William Sullivan, Geoffrey Galt & professionals Harpham, Jeanne Nakamura & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, William Damon, Anne Colby, Kendall Bronk &Thomas Ehrlich, and Winter 2005: on race on race Kenneth Prewitt Racial classi½cation in America 5 Harvey Goldman David A. Hollinger One drop & one hate 18 on body in mind Antonio & Hanna Damasio, A. S. Byatt, Carol Gilligan, Gerald Louis H. Pollak From Dred Scott to Grutter v. Bollinger 29 Edelman, Jorie Graham, Richard Davidson, Raymond Dolan & Ian Haney López Hispanics & the shrinking white majority 42 Arne Öhman, and Mark Johnson Kim M. Williams Multiracialism & the future of civil rights 53 on aging Henry J. Aaron, Paul Baltes, Frank Kermode, Linda Partridge, Victoria Hattam Ethnicity & the American boundaries of race 61 Dennis J. Selkoe, Caleb E. Finch, Sarah Harper, Chris Wilson, Jennifer L. Hochschild Looking ahead: racial trends in the U.S. 70 Jagadeesh Gokhale & Kent Smetters, Hillard Kaplan, and Lisa Berkman Melissa Nobles The myth of Latin American multiracialism 82 George M. Fredrickson Diverse republics: racial pluralism in France on identity Akeel Bilgrami, Wendy Doniger, Stephen Greenblatt, Sidney & the U.S. 88 Shoemaker, Susan Green½eld, Claudio Lomnitz, Carol Rovane, Ian Hacking Why race still matters 102 Todd E. Feinberg, and Courtney Jung poetry Rachel Hadas Inspissation 117 on nonviolence William H. McNeill, Adam Michnik, Jonathan Schell, James & violence Carroll, Breyten Breytenbach, Mark Juergensmeyer, Steven ½ction Sigrid Nunez The naked juror 118 LeBlanc, and others

dialogue Michel Foucault plus poetry by Franz Wright, W. S. Merwin, Charles Wright, Peg & Baqir Parham on Marx, Islam, Christianity & revolution 126 Boyers, Jorie Graham &c.; ½ction by Margaret Atwood, Robert Coover, R. Davis &c.; and notes by Donald Green, Robert F. Nagel, notes Shelley E. Taylor on the psychology of healthy illusions 133 Jeri Laber, Morris E. Fine, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Alvin Goldman, Philip L. Quinn on religious diversity & tolerance 136 Edward D. Lazowska, Norbert Schwarz, Rodolfo Dirzo, Michael Hechter, Joel Handler, Joan Bresnan, Lyman A. Page, Robert J. Sharer, Gustavo Perez Firmat, Lisa Randall &c.

U.S. $13 www.amacad.org

FOUNDED 1780

Inside front cover: Children identi½ed by their ancestry, from a montage created by photogra- pher Eve Fowler for The New York Times Maga- zine, September 29, 1996, to illustrate a story on multiracialism in America. See Kim M. Williams on Multiracialism & the civil rights future, pages 53–60: “It would seem that color blindness in theory bears little resemblance to multiracialism on the ground. . . . The challenge amidst growing racial diversity is to register the reach and durability of the racial divide, while at the same time, to accept that the meanings attached to race itself are changing.” Photographs reprinted with the permission of Eve Fowler. James Miller, Editor of Dædalus

Kenneth Prewitt, Consulting Editor for essays on race

Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications

Janet Foxman, Assistant Editor

Contributing Editors: Robert S. Boynton, D. Graham Burnett

Board of editors

Steven Marcus, Editor of the Academy

Russell Banks, Fiction Adviser

Rosanna Warren, Poetry Adviser

Joyce Appleby (u.s. history, ucla), Stanley Hoffmann (government, Harvard), Donald Kennedy (environmental science, Stanford), Martha C. Nussbaum (law and philosophy, Chicago), Neil J. Smelser (sociology, Berkeley), Steven Weinberg (physics, University of Texas at Austin); ex of½cio: Patricia Meyer Spacks (President of the Academy), Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (Executive Of½cer)

Editorial advisers

Daniel Bell (sociology, Harvard), Michael Boudin (law, u.s. Court of Appeals), Wendy Doniger (religion, Chicago), Howard Gardner (education, Harvard), Clifford Geertz (anthropology, Institute for Advanced Study), Carol Gluck (Asian history, Columbia), Stephen Greenblatt (English, Harvard), Thomas Laqueur (European history, Berkeley), Alan Lightman (English and physics, mit), Steven Pinker (psychology, Harvard), Diane Ravitch (education, nyu), Richard Shweder (human development, Chicago), Frank Wilczek (physics, mit)

Dædalus is designed by Alvin Eisenman Dædalus

Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The labyrinth designed by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete, on a silver tetradrachma from Cnossos, Crete, c. 350–300 b.c. (35 mm, Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque National, Paris). “Such was the work, so intricate the place, / That scarce the workman all its turns cou’d trace; / And Daedalus was puzzled how to ½nd / The secret ways of what himself design’d.”–Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 8

Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every ½eld of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its more than four thousand elected members, continues to provide intellectual leadership to meet the critical challenges facing our world. Dædalus Winter 2005 Subscription rates: Electronic only for non- Issued as Volume 134, Number 1 member individuals–$38; institutions–$81. Canadians add 7% gst. Print and electronic © 2005 by the American Academy for nonmember individuals–$42; institu- of Arts & Sciences tions–$90. Canadians add 7% gst. Outside Diverse republics: French & American responses to the United States and Canada add $20 for racial pluralism postage and handling. Prices subject to change © 2005 by George M. Fredrickson without notice. Inspissation © 2005 by Rachel Hadas Institutional subscriptions are on a volume- The naked juror year basis. All other subscriptions begin with © 2005 by Sigrid Nunez the next available issue. Marx, Islam, Christianity & revolution: dialogue Single issues: current issues–$13; back issues between Michel Foucault & Baqir Parham for individuals–$13; back issues for institu- Excerpted from Foucault and the Iranian Rev- tions–$26. Outside the United States and olution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism Canada add $5 per issue for postage and han- by Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson, pub- dling. Prices subject to change without notice. lished in the United States by the University of Chicago Press. © 2005 by the University of Claims for missing issues will be honored free Chicago. All rights reserved. of charge if made within three months of the publication date of the issue. Claims may be Editorial of½ces: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, submitted to [email protected]. Mem- 136 Irving Street, Cambridge ma 02138. bers of the American Academy please direct all Phone: 617 491 2600. Fax: 617 576 5088. questions and claims to [email protected]. Email: [email protected]. Newsstand distribution by Ingram Periodicals Library of Congress Catalog No. 12-30299 Inc., 18 Ingram Blvd., La Vergne tn 37086. isbn 0-87724-046-9 Phone: 800 627 6247. Dædalus publishes by invitation only and as- Advertising and mailing-list inquiries may be sumes no responsibility for unsolicited manu- addressed to Marketing Department, mit scripts. The views expressed are those of the Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Cam- author of each article, and not necessarily of bridge ma 02142-1407. Phone: 617 253 2866. the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-info@ mit.edu. Dædalus (issn 0011-5266; e-issn 1548-6192) is published quarterly (winter, spring, summer, Permission to photocopy articles for internal fall) by The mit Press, Cambridge ma 02142, or personal use is granted by the copyright for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. owner for users registered with the Copyright An electronic full-text version of Dædalus is Clearance Center (ccc) Transactional Report- available from The mit Press. Subscription and ing Service, provided that the per copy fee address changes should be addressed to mit of $10 per article is paid directly to the ccc, Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Cam- 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers ma 01923. The bridge ma 02142-1407. Phone: 617 253 2889. fee code for users of the Transactional Report- Fax: 617 577 1545. Email: journals-orders@ ing Service is 0011-5266/05. Address all other mit.edu. inquiries to the Subsidiary Rights Manager, mit Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center, Printed in the United States of America by Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2864. Cadmus Professional Communications, Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-rights@ Science Press Division, 300 West Chestnut mit.edu. Street, Ephrata pa 17522. The typeface is Cycles, designed by Sumner Postmaster: Send address changes to Stone at the Stone Type Foundry of Guinda Dædalus, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge ca. Each size of Cycles has been separately ma 02142-1407. Periodicals postage paid at designed in the tradition of metal types. Boston ma and at additional mailing of½ces. Kenneth Prewitt

Racial classi½cation in America: where do we go from here?

In its ½rst national census, the young it should make use of this government American republic not only counted its classi½cation. population; it racially classi½ed it.1 From The second premise depends on 1790 to 1990, the nation’s demographic the ½rst. Without a limited number of base changed from one decennial census bounded groups, it is dif½cult to fashion to the next, and so too did the racial cat- policy with race as a criterion. This is egories on offer. Always, however, the easily seen in comparison. Since 1790 government held fast to two premises: there have been policies based on age– First, it makes policy sense to put every who can vote, own property, be drafted, American into one and only one of a lim- buy alcohol, and claim social security. ited number of discrete race groups, These policies use a small number of with the decennial census being the pri- age groupings with ½xed and knowable mary vehicle by which the counting and boundaries. Though policy can draw the classifying should take place. Second, age boundaries differently as conditions when policy treats Americans differently change (eligible to vote at eighteen rath- depending on what race they belong to, er than twenty-one) there is no dispute about who is in a given age group. Using race as a criterion to de½ne groups was Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie Professor of Pub- never this straightforward, a fact implic- lic Affairs in the School of International and Pub- lic Affairs at Columbia University. A Fellow of 1 This essay has been prepared with support the American Academy since 1979 and past Acad- from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur emy vice president, Prewitt was director of the Foundation, which provided a grant for a work- U.S. Census Bureau from 1998 to 2000. He re- ing group on issues of racial measurement and cently published “Politics and Science in Census classi½cation. The group includes six of the authors represented in this issue of Dædalus–Ian Taking” (2003) and is preparing a book-length Haney López, Victoria Hattam, Jennifer Hoch- treatment of issues discussed in this essay. Among schild, David Hollinger, Melissa Nobles, and the other books he has authored or coauthored are Kim Williams–all of whom critiqued this pa- “Institutional Racism in America” (1969), “The per and, more generally, substantially shaped Recruitment of Political Leaders” (1970), and a my thinking on the issues here discussed. Kath- erine Wallman and Susan Schechter, both of textbook on American government. the Of½ce of Management and Budget, com- mented on earlier versions of this essay, but © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts have no responsibility for the recommenda- & Sciences tions advanced here.

Dædalus Winter 2005 5 Kenneth itly acknowledged by the government In substantial ways the “mark one or Prewitt on as its census added and subtracted cate- more” option was an improvement over race gories from one decennial to the next previous census formats, especially in and as different federal agencies used forcefully rejecting the hypodescent pre- different taxonomies. sumption.4 At issue in this essay is Not until 1977 did the government whether, this improvement notwith- bring order to the country’s racial cate- standing, the country has the statistical gories. Acting under the influence of tools it needs to detect–and enable the civil rights legislation, the Of½ce of government to redress–discrimination. Management and Budget (omb) direct- So where should we go from here? To ed all federal agencies to follow uniform address that question, it will be useful to standards in collecting racial data.2 This recall how the United States ended up achievement was impressive but short- with such a complicated set of racial and lived. Changing political considerations ethnic categories in the ½rst place. led to major revisions only two decades later, when the logic of identity politics, The public face of America’s of½cial with its stress on diversity, began to de- racial classi½cation is its census, and has stabilize the older and more deeply en- been so since the ½rst decennial enumer- trenched American division between ation in 1790. The initial classi½cation white and nonwhite. was implicit in two civil status distinc- What do these developments mean for tions: free or slave, taxed or untaxed. racial and ethnic divisions in America, Applying these distinctions in the census both today and in the future? generated a count of three ancestry In the context of census 2000, I wit- groups (European, African, and [un- nessed the demographic changes and the taxed] Native American), which set the associated political pressures that make foundation for all racial classi½cations to it dif½cult to de½ne and re½ne categories come. From that starting point, the divi- focused solely on redressing past injus- sion of the population by race has been tices rooted in race–the policy purpose repeated in every decennial census, that emerged after the Civil Rights Act of down to the most recent in 2000. 1964. In response to newer political pres- Across two centuries, particular cate- sures, the 2000 U.S. census was the ½rst gories have come and gone in response to permit respondents to record multiple to an ever-shifting mix of political, sci- racial origins. The 1997 revision of the enti½c, and demographic considerations. omb standards for racial classi½cation In 1820, the category “free colored per- allowed for “mark[ing] one or more” of sons” was added to the census. In 1850, the primary racial categories, leading to a census with sixty-three possible racial below, in “Revised Standards for Maintaining, responses.3 Collecting and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity” (October 30, 1997), the omb 2 Of½ce of Management and Budget, Statisti- designated ½ve primary races: “American Indi- cal Policy Directive No. 15, “Race and Ethnic an/Alaskan Native,” “Asian,” “Black/African- Standards for Federal Statistics and Adminis- American,” “Native Hawaiian / Paci½c Islan- trative Reporting,” May 12, 1977. der,” and “White.” The Revised Standards also allow the decennial census form to include a 3 “Mark one or more” appeared on the census “Some Other” option, which does not appear form and I use it here, but statisticians normal- in other federal statistical surveys. ly refer to “select one or more” to encompass phone and personal interviewing. As discussed 4 See David Hollinger in this issue.

6 Dædalus Winter 2005 influenced by a pseudo race-science, the this a nonnegotiable condition for join- Racial census separately counted mulattoes, a ing the Union. The result was a power classi½cation in America category it retained until 1930. In 1870 bonus for Southern states in the new Chinese were ½rst counted, and in 1890, Congress and in the Electoral College. Japanese. In 1920 Filipinos, Koreans, and This bonus, as John Quincy Adams put Hindus appeared on the census form. it, led to “the triumph of the South over Following Hawaii’s statehood, in 1960 the North–of the slave representation Hawaiians were added, though Alaskan over the purely free.”7 The nation’s ½rst statehood did not result in an effort to decision about how to classify the popu- speci½cally identify Aleuts and Eskimos lation racially had immense policy con- for another twenty years. Subcontinent sequences that lasted well into the twen- Indians were counted as Hindu in three tieth century. censuses (1920–1940), but as white in Without discarding the three-½fths the next three censuses. In 1980 they clause, a new era of racial classi½cation were counted as Asian, a status they began in 1820 when the “free colored” retain today. Until 1930 when they got were counted separately from slaves and their own census category, Mexicans free whites. This modi½cation allowed were counted as white. The government citizenship and related civil rights to of Mexico contested that change, and hinge on color rather than on condition Mexicans went back to being counted as of servitude, a policy that heralded near- white until 1970, when Hispanic origin ly a century and a half of race-based became a separate category–this time policies focused on making it dif½cult, if de½ned in terms of language and ethnic- not impossible, for nonwhites to vote, ity rather than race.5 own property, marry across racial lines, In the omb standards ½rst issued in enter various professions, seek advanced 1977, there were four primary racial education, or do much else. groups: Asian or Paci½c Islander, Ameri- Meanwhile, imperialism and immigra- can Indian or Alaskan Native, Black, and tion were radically transforming the White. These standards held that all fed- nation’s demographic base.8 Wars and eral statistics on race should, at mini- the purchase of territory added Mexi- mum, include those four groups as well cans, Native Alaskans, Caribbean Islan- as one ethnic group, Hispanic, whose ders, and Hawaiians to the U.S. popula- members would also belong to one of tion. Permissive immigration policies the four racial groups.6 supplied factory, farm, and mine work- What political and policy purposes lie ers from China, Japan, and eastern and behind this continual shifting of the race southern Europe. The newcomers were categories? grudgingly tolerated, and policies were In 1790, slaves were included in the census count (the three-½fths clause) 7 Cited in Gary Wills, “The Negro President,” because slaveholding states had made The New York Review of Books, November 6, 2003, 45. This essay is drawn from Wills’s 5 For an instructive overview of racial cate- “Negro President”: Jefferson and the Slave Power gories in the U.S. census, see Melissa Nobles, (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003), a book Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Mod- that develops the “slave power” argument in ern Politics (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Universi- impressive detail. ty Press, 2000). 8 Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design (Cam- 6 For more detail, see Victoria Hattam and Ian bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, forth- Haney López in this issue. coming).

Dædalus Winter 2005 7 Kenneth designed to keep them in their place. as the negative goal of nondiscrimina- Prewitt on The low point came in the 1920s, when tion turned into the proactive policy of race the eugenics movement convinced the redress that came to be called af½rmative government to stop immigration of the action. racially undesirable. Census data were Civil rights court cases were argued on used to design the restrictive immigra- the basis of racial differences in employ- tion laws.9 ment patterns, wage rates, college en- The long practice of applying racial rollments, and electoral outcomes. In and ethnic categories to policies of civic a pivotal employment discrimination exclusion began to crumble with World case, Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), the War II, when members of every racial Supreme Court reasoned that Title VII and ethnic group in America fought side of the Civil Rights Act required the “re- by side to defend democracy. Remark- moval of arti½cial, arbitrary, and unnec- ably, however, this monumental policy essary barriers to employment,” and shift from exclusion to inclusion did not proscribed “practices that are fair in alter the two premises noted at the out- form, but discriminatory in operation.” set of this essay. Sorting the population This reasoning shifted the emphasis in into discrete racial groups to make poli- enforcement from individual motivation cy still made sense–the trick was to turn to statistically demonstrated conse- the classi½cation to the advantage of quences, from prejudice to institutional those minorities who previously had suf- racism.10 Statistical disparity worked its fered from its imposition. way into policy and law. A key early step came in a 1947 report Drawing on the categories employed from President Truman’s Committee on in a 1950 government form, the Equal Civil Rights, which used statistics to Employment Opportunity Commission compare health access and educational (eeoc) in 1964 identi½ed four minority opportunities for whites and blacks, giv- groups: Negro, Spanish-American, ing statistical underpinnings to the com- American-Indian, and Asian.11 The mittee’s broad argument that civil rights eeoc’s record-keeping institutionalized were being denied to blacks. the Civil Rights Act and in the process Across every sector of American life ½xed in administrative practice a racial two political questions began to push classi½cation based on the four groups forward: Which racial groups are under- that had been most prominent in ½ght- represented? Does underrepresentation ing racial discrimination for more than a point to discriminatory barriers targeted century. at racial, ethnic, or national origin The 1970 census modi½ed the eeoc groups? classi½cation by changing Spanish- When statistical proportionality came American/Hispanic from a racial to an of age in the 1960s, a new policy era was 10 Alan Freeman, “Antidiscrimination Law born. Social justice policies formulated From 1954 to 1989: Uncertainty, Contradiction, in response to statistical ½ndings were Rationalization, Denial,” reprinted in David widely accepted by the end of the 1960s, Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressive as the ideal of equal opportunity fueled a Critique, 3rd ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1989), demand for more equal outcomes, and 296. 9 Margo J. Anderson, The American Census: A 11 John D. Skrentny, The Minority Rights Revolu- Social History (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer- tion (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Har- sity Press, 1988), chap. 6. vard University Press, 2002), 101–110.

8 Dædalus Winter 2005 ethnicity designation. This was formal- The ease with which this change took Racial omb classi½cation ized by when, in the 1977 Stan- place was consistent with the govern- in America dards, it directed that Hispanic be con- ment’s position that “classi½cations sidered an ethnicity. Hispanics were also should not be interpreted as being scien- instructed to identify on the census with ti½c or anthropological in nature . . . They one of the primary race groups, now have been developed in response to American Indian/Native Alaskan, Asian, needs expressed by both the executive black/Negro, and white. Other racial, branch and the Congress.”13 In the ab- ethnic, linguistic, descent, and national sence of science, classi½cation decisions origin groups (for example, Korean, respond to strong voices expressing Haitian, Arab) would appear in of½cial themselves in the political process. Na- statistics only as subcategories of the tive Hawaiians, a population group that primary races (in this example, Asian, had suffered discrimination and had the black, and white, respectively).12 (statistical) scars to prove it, became the The classi½cation adopted in 1977 and latest of the nation’s of½cial races. used in the 1980 and 1990 censuses That being so, how can we decide on seemed secure and capable of discharg- the ‘proper’ number of races? Is ½ve the ing its purposes in policy arenas. But by right number? Why not six or seven? the middle of the 1990s, the political And what is the right number of ethnic landscape was transformed by demo- groups? Why only one? graphic changes, by the rise of multicul- Leading up to the 2000 census there turalism, and by the multiracial move- was pressure to reclassify persons of ment. New political demands called into Middle Eastern origin from white to question the existing racial and ethnic their own primary race category. This categories–and also the public purposes effort was unsuccessful in part because they were thought to serve. the advocacy groups that engaged the issue could not agree on whether the cat- As noted above, the earlier omb Stan- egory should be Middle Eastern, a geo- dards linked Hawaiians and Paci½c Is- graphic designation, or Arab American, landers with the more general Asian an ethnoracial designation. (The post- race. The persistent Senator Daniel 9/11 treatment of Arab Americans has Akaka from Hawaii and the constituency since led many to doubt the political he led saw matters otherwise. They felt the census should recognize Hawaiian criminated against.” The exception to this and Paci½c Islanders as a separate racial occurred in 1976, when Congress mandated category. After the omb held public that information on Hispanics, who were de- hearings and examined research show- ½ned as an ethnic and not a racial group, be ing that Hawaiian and Paci½c Islanders collected by government agencies in order to did differ from Asians more generally, it “assist state and federal governments, and private organizations in the accurate determina- agreed to the separate category. This tion of the urgent and special needs of Ameri- decision was in keeping with the ration- cans of Spanish origin or descent” (Public Law ale that classi½cation should facilitate 94-311). racially just policies. And so in the mid- 1990s the of½cial primary race groups 13 From the 1977 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, cited in the Federal Register 59 (110) went from four to ½ve. (June 9, 1994): 29834. See also Katherine K. 12 Congress has not involved itself in specify- Wallman, “Data on Race and Ethnicity: Revis- ing America’s race groups, preferring instead ing the Federal Standard,” The American Statisti- language such as “minorities historically dis- cian 52 (1) (February 1998): 31–33. Dædalus Winter 2005 9 Kenneth wisdom of a separate identi½cation for moral ½ber of the nation. Later the cen- Prewitt on this population group.) sus put the “other” category into the race Other advocates urged a different dis- race question in an effort to accommo- aggregation of the white category, point- date multiracialism. But by the 1990s, ing out, for example, that Greek Ameri- multiracial rhetoric was prominent in cans and Anglo-Saxons did not belong in public life, and its advocates were press- the same general category. The failure of ing for an explicit recognition of mul- various efforts (other than the Native tiracialism in federal statistics.14 Hawaiians / Paci½c Islanders) to add to It is telling that the advocates of mul- the primary racial classi½cation can be tiracialism barely made reference to civil traced to incoherent arguments, insuf- rights. Instead, they brought to the fore ½cient political muscle, and failure to demands for af½rmation, recognition, statistically sustain claims of signi½cant choice, and identity. In congressional past and continuing discrimination. testimony, Project Race held that “not all In the future, however, if the advocates Americans ½t neatly into one little box” of such efforts make more compelling and that it is only right that “multiracial arguments and apply more muscle and children who wish to embrace all of more convincing data, on what grounds their heritage should be allowed to do will the federal statistical system declare so.” The Association of MultiEthnic that enough is enough–that four was Americans, though recognizing that the wrong, but ½ve is right? multiple-race option would make it There is no science to turn to, and in harder to enforce civil rights law, never- its absence it is dif½cult to arrive at a theless insisted on “choice in the matter public consensus on how many racial of who we are, just like any other com- and ethnic groups there are in America. munity.” This testimony found it ironic The edi½ce of racial and ethnic measure- that “our people are being asked to cor- ment that emerged from the civil rights rect by virtue of how we de½ne ourselves period was, as social scientists like to say, all of the past injustices of other groups undertheorized. of people.” Of course, correcting past injustices The increase in the number of primary was what the traditional civil rights racial groups in the United States by 20 organizations were all about: their mis- percent in the 1990s went largely unno- sion was thus threatened by talk of ticed because there was a noisier battle choice and identity. Self-expression, underway. The politics of af½rmation they insisted, was not a good reason to marched into the middle of census tak- revise the government’s scheme of racial ing, waving the multiracial banner. and ethnic categories. In its testimony, Those tidy discrete census categories, the naacp pointed out that the current whatever their number, missed a huge racial classi½cation was fashioned “to sociological truth: sex occurs across as enhance the enforcement of anti-dis- well as within racial groups. The census crimination and civil rights law,” and the had recognized this 150 years ago when naacp worried that “the creation of a it ½rst counted ‘mulattoes,’ and then, in multiracial classi½cation might disaggre- 1890, when ‘quadroon’ and ‘octoroon’ gate the apparent numbers of members briefly entered the measurement system of discrete minority groups, diluting in service of the policy argument that bene½ts to which they are entitled as a racial mixing diluted the mental and protected class under civil rights laws 14 See Kim Williams in this issue. 10 Dædalus Winter 2005 and under the Constitution itself.” The At the same time, “mark one or more” Racial classi½cation National Council of La Raza, the power- created a new–and not entirely stain America ful Hispanic organization, weighed in. It ble–statistical reality. In census data, it acknowledged that though concerns allowed for ½fty-seven multiple-race about self-expression were understand- combinations that, when added to the able, the purpose of racial classi½cation six single-race answers (white, the four is “to enforce and implement the law, minority races, and other), generated and to inform lawmakers about the dis- sixty-three possible racial identi½ca- tinct needs of special historically disad- tions. Because for most purposes this vantaged populations.”15 classi½cation is cross-tabulated by His- The issue was joined. What is the poli- panic/non-Hispanic, there are 126 eth- cy purpose of racial and ethnic classi- noracial groups in the 2000 decennial ½cation–to express identity or to en- census data.18 force antidiscrimination law? Perhaps The number of categories could be reflecting the fading power of the civil expanded still further. If a future census rights arguments so compelling forty were to allow for mixed Hispanic/non- years earlier, “mark one or more” was Hispanic descent (if in the census you introduced under the omb’s revised can have a black mother and an Asian standards to the racial classi½cation sys- father, why not a Hispanic mother and a tem in time for the 2000 census.16 non-Hispanic father?) the number of This 1997 decision put to rest the view ethnoracial groupings would jump from that race is a bounded and durable trait. 126 to 189. It challenged the basic premises of racial Even at the more modest 2000 level of classi½cation that had held sway in the 126 ethnoracial groups, we now know United States for two centuries. And it the “mark one or more” census statistics explicitly introduced claims for expres- have a reliability problem; often the sive af½rmation into ethnoracial classi- same individual will give different an- ½cation.17 Though using the census to swers at different times. This problem express identity was itself not new, of- was demonstrated when answers to the ½cially accepting this as a rationale was. race question in the 2000 census were 15 “Federal Measures of Race and Ethnicity matched by household with answers in a and the Implications for the 2000 Census: follow-up quality survey a year later. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Govern- Although the overall proportion giving a ment Management, Information, and Technol- multiple-race answer was reasonably ogy,” April 23, May 22, and July 25, 1997. Serial constant, the internal shifting was unex- No. 105-57 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govern- ment Printing Of½ce, 1998), 309, 324, 382, 286. pectedly high. Forty percent of those who gave multiple-race responses 16 The multiple-race option was to have been changed their minds by the time of the in place across the federal agencies by January follow-up survey. And many who gave of 2003, but as of this writing many agencies, including the Department of Education and the eeoc, have yet to adopt the 1997 revised stan- Recognition: The Census, Race, and the Nation- dards in their compliance reporting programs. al Imagination,” Northwestern University Law In August of 2004, the government announced Review 97 (4) (2003): 1701–1768. a further six-month delay before it could produce reporting guidelines for how agencies 18 Only the census is large enough to accom- were to implement the 1997 standards. modate all these categories. Other government surveys–even the Current Population Survey, 17 For a broad review of the census and identi- the largest among them–cannot provide de- ty creation, see Naomi Mezey, “Erasure and tailed racial breakdowns. Dædalus Winter 2005 11 Kenneth single-race answers in the census de- we ask individuals themselves for their Prewitt on clared a multiple-race identi½cation in views and, Nobles continues, “there are race the follow-up survey. For example, near- no laws, social mores, intellectual agree- ly half (45 percent) of the single-race Ha- ments, or general consensus about what waiian/ Paci½c Islanders in the census constitutes a racial identity.”21 reported in the survey that they were Self-classi½cation poses potential really more than one race after all.19 problems within the policy arena–espe- From the perspective of self-expres- cially to litigation-prone race policy. Be- sion, such shifting around is reasonable. cause only 6.8 million Americans (2.4 The proponent of a “Bill of Rights for percent) gave multiple-race responses in Racially Mixed People” wants “the right the 2000 census, the agencies that en- to change my identity over my lifetime– force nondiscrimination law could de- and more than once.”20 Popular culture vise collapsing rules that prevented dis- daily reminds us that the blending and ruptions to existing policy. Data reliabil- changing of identities has become fash- ity is not yet a major problem, but it will ionable among the young (the under- become one as the size of the multiple- eighteen marked more than one race in race population grows. This growth will the census at twice the rate of the over- occur as rates of out-marriage among eighteen). The race question in of½cial children of recent immigrants from statistics is thus being treated less as a Asia and Latin America approach those demographic fact than as something reached by Italians and Poles in the mid- closer to an attitude toward oneself. twentieth century, and as multiracial Of course race has always had a sub- identi½cation, especially among the jective dimension but, as Melissa Nobles young, is increasingly accepted. notes, “in the past, race appeared more It is not far-fetched to expect oppo- ½xed because there was a range of con- nents of race-sensitive policies to seize straints–political, intellectual, and upon the low reliability of racial statis- social. Undoubtedly, some unknown tics and other data problems as a way to number of Americans questioned race discredit the information that is meant and color as concepts and as identities, to document continuing racial and eth- but there was not much public space for nic discrimination. such questioning.” Race in census taking was until 1960 assigned by enumerators, Beyond the radical changes to meas- whose judgment in such matters was urement introduced in the 2000 census, constrained by instructions as well as by a changing demography challenges the social and political realities. But today current classi½cation. How will new groups of immigrants arriving in large 19 Claudette Bennett, “Exploring the Consis- numbers ½nd their way into a classi½- tency of Race Reporting in Census 2000 and the Census Quality Survey,” paper presented at the cation system designed for a different joint meetings of the American Statistical Asso- demographic and policy moment? ciation, San Francisco, Calif., August 3–7, 2003. Hispanic immigrants pose this ques- The author is an analyst in the racial statistics tion sharply. They have never found a branch of the population division of the U.S. comfortable home in the federal govern- Census Bureau. ment’s scheme of racial and ethnic clas- 20 Maria P. P. Root, ed., The Multiracial Experi- ence: Racial Borders at the New Frontier (Thou- 21 Melissa Nobles, personal communication, sand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1992), 7. August 30, 2004.

12 Dædalus Winter 2005 si½cation. Labeling them an ethnic representing the minority groups recog- Racial classi½cation group does not work well, particularly nized in of½cial statistics. If new immi- in America for Mexican Americans who blend Euro- grant groups want a say in matters of pean with Native Indian descent. Many racial classi½cation, they must either have tried to ½nesse the resulting awk- ½nd their way into this preexisting struc- wardness by taking advantage of the ture or argue for their own advisory residual “other” line on the census form. committee. To deny them their own Nearly half of the Hispanics did so in advisory committee underlines the 2000, most of them Mexican Americans inconsistency between saying, as the who were claiming their nationality as a Census Bureau does, that self-identi½- race, a race not recognized in the of½cial cation determines racial choice but that statistics.22 one’s choice has to ½t into predeter- Immigrant groups that cannot retreat mined categories. New immigrants add to an ethnic category on the census form a complexity and uncertainty to ethno- can be even more hard-pressed to locate racial classi½cation and to the policies themselves in the standard classi½cation that flow from it. system. The recently arrived Islamic My cursory survey of American histo- Ethiopian differs in culture, language, ry suggests that there have been three religion, and even skin color and facial loosely construed policy regimes facili- features from those Americans who tated by the nation’s changing schemes trace their origin to slaves brought from of racial classi½cation. Africa’s Gold Coast. Many of today’s The ½rst used census counts to give African immigrants have no wish to be slave-owning states extra seats in Con- counted as blacks, and some African gress and extra votes in the Electoral American leaders do not welcome them College, shaping power and policy for in any case.23 decades. The second used the data to The Census Bureau currently has ½ve exclude from civic life various racially Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees de½ned groups. The third policy regime, fully instituted only in the 1960s, has 22 See Ian Haney López in this issue. used census data to reverse the policies 23 In a front-page story on August 30, 2004, of the second regime by extending civil The New York Times noted that Alan Keyes, a rights to all equally, regardless of race. black Republican running for the Illinois Senate Are we perhaps on the threshold of a seat, questioned whether his opponent Barack new policy regime? The advent of the Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a white “mark one or more” option on the 2000 American mother, was really an African Ameri- can: “Barack Obama claims an African-Ameri- census suggests that the United States can heritage. Barack Obama and I have the may well be at another historic junc- same race–that is, physical characteristics. We ture–and so does the trend of recent are not from the same heritage. My ancestors Supreme Court decisions. toiled in slavery in this country.” Mr. Obama By the mid-1980s, the Supreme Court retorted that living under white colonialism, as his father had, was not all that different from was limiting the impact of the reasoning the experience of Keyes’s ancestors, and was advanced in its 1971 decision in Griggs v. actually more recent. In the meantime, the wife Duke Power Co. In 1987, Justice Antonin of the Democratic presidential candidate, Tere- Scalia argued that statistical disparities sa Heinz Kerry, who is white, on occasion re- indicating discrimination are at most ferred to herself as an African American, citing evidence of “societal discrimination,” the fact that she was born to Portuguese parents in Mozambique. and are not remedial under antidiscrimi-

Dædalus Winter 2005 13 Kenneth nation law.24 Although in the minority civil rights groups to contest such policy Prewitt on in that case, Scalia was soon to express changes. They will prevail because the race similar views for the majority. Writing politics behind the color-blind move- for the majority in a 1995 ruling, he as- ment are viewed, fairly or not, as a serted that “government can never have throwback to the policies of exclusion a ‘compelling interest’ in discriminating that the majority of Americans have on the basis of race in order to make up ½rmly rejected. for past racial discrimination.”25 And in At the same time, it is increasingly 2003, in a case involving the University doubtful that policies aimed at making of Michigan, the Court upheld the right America more inclusive will center, as of universities to consider race in admis- they did in the 1970s, on numerical rem- sions only by ignoring remedial racial edies using statistical disparities as evi- justice arguments in favor of a diversity dence of discrimination or on af½rma- rationale–and only after the University tive action. Where, then, on the continu- of Michigan had defended its policies on um from no numbers to only numbers qualitative, rather than quantitative, will race-sensitive policy be fashioned? grounds. In an exchange with the Court, Two factors feature in an answer to this university of½cers said that though criti- question. cal mass advanced the educational goal First, the demand for recognition, of diversity, critical mass was not some- choice, and identity expression as her- thing that should be reduced to num- alded by the multiple-race advocates will bers. This ‘you know it when you see it’ continue to reverberate in statistical pol- claim is a long way from the ‘you know it icy making, especially as new immigrant when you’ve measured it’ argument em- groups ½nd political voice. This will lead braced in the 1970s. less to claims for strict statistical proportionality than to demands for visibility So where do we go from here? and representation. For example, if Viet- Despite the efforts of conservatives namese children comprise a quarter of a like Ward Connerly, who in 2003 funded local school’s student body, parents will a California proposition to prevent that expect there to be at least a few Viet- state from collecting any racial or ethnic namese teachers. New African immi- data,26 I do not think we are headed grants will point to their growing popu- toward a policy regime that is ‘color- lation numbers and ask why they are not blind’ and that will prevent the govern- better represented in political of½ce. ment from collecting data about race, And so forth. ethnicity, or national origin. Powerful Second, there remains a key question constituencies, notably in the public that reliable statistics alone can answer health and education ½elds, join with rigorously: How well are different groups doing? Here the focus increas- 24 Discussed in Freeman, “Antidiscrimination ingly will turn from large to smaller Law,” 302. groups. If Hawaiians can break free from the Asian category, why can’t the new 25 Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. African immigrants break free from the 200 (1995), 239. black category, or indigenous Central 26 This proposition, known as the Racial Priva- Americans from the Hispanic category? cy Initiative, was defeated in California’s spe- These groups are not large on the na- cial election in the fall of 2003. tional scene, but they cluster in ways

14 Dædalus Winter 2005 that make them noticeable in many long to.27 This change, too long post- Racial classi½cation towns and cities across the country. It poned, would break with hierarchical in America is in these local jurisdictions that ques- assumptions historically attached to tions arise regarding health care, per- ½xed racial categories. formance in the classroom, and access If this is considered too radical a to the ballot box. change, the government should ac- Whether for purposes of self-expres- knowledge that the term ‘race’ is anach- sion or to detect barriers based on race, ronistic by using it interchangeably with ancestry, ethnicity, or color, the United ‘ethnicity.’28 The census should replace States will continue to have a racial and the current question on race and ethnici- ethnic classi½cation system. But is the ty with one that is subtly but signi½cant- one now in place the right one? In my ly different: view, not exactly–though of course What is this person’s race or ethnic group? there is no one ‘right’ classi½cation. Mark one or more: There are sound reasons to hesitate American Indian or Alaskan Native before recommending measurement Asian changes. Disrupting statistical series, Black/African American especially in an area that has just had a Native Hawaiian/Paci½c Islander Spanish/Hispanic/Latino disruption, is no small matter. Neither is 29 the methodological challenge of assess- White. ing the consequences for data quality of Such a revised question would mini- even small changes, such as how a ques- mally disrupt statistical series. It would tion is worded or where it is placed on a retain “mark one or more” and the vic- form. Few questions are more dif½cult tory for choice that option represents. It to ‘get right’ than those inquiring of race would allow the government to enforce or ethnicity. There are also political con- the Voting Rights Act and other civil sequences that at the margins could increase or decrease a group’s numbers as 27 The Hispanic ethnic question in the census recorded in previous statistics. I know is constructed without the term ‘ethnicity.’ It that it is late in the day to expect a major reads: “Is this person of Spanish, Hispanic or change for the 2010 census. Latino origin?” Yet neither racial measurement nor policy that relies on it is in a settled state 28 In its discussion of the Standards for the Classi½cation of Federal Data on Race and Eth- –and this provides a historical opportu- nicity, the omb notes that “There are no clear, nity for fresh thinking, starting with the unambiguous, objective, generally agreed upon term ‘race’ itself. de½nitions of the terms ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity.’ There is a strong moral case for jetti- Cognitive research shows that respondents are soning the term ‘race’ altogether. Rele- not always clear on the differences between race and ethnicity. There are differences in ter- vant data can be collected without ever minology, group boundaries, attributes, and using the term that echoes a discredited dimensions of race and ethnicity,” Federal Regis- eighteenth-century science that took ter 60 (166) (August 28, 1995): 44680. physiological markers as indicative of moral worth and intellectual ability. The 29 This essay is not the place for technical discussion, and the exact wording of this re- government doesn’t have to ask what formed question would have to be ½eld-tested. racial group we belong to; it could sim- Alphabetizing the list would move away from ply ask what population group we be- current practice that lists “White” as the ½rst

Dædalus Winter 2005 15 Kenneth rights laws that center on the 1977 clas- dents writing in the middle of the eigh- Prewitt on si½cation. It would improve data quality teenth century. race by not forcing many millions of the na- The revised question could be paired tion’s Hispanics to make the kind of with a second, open-ended question32: racial choice that has driven them to the What is this person’s ancestry, nationality, “other” category. Commenting on the ethnic origin, tribal af½liation?33 question format used in the 2000 census, the Census Bureau itself recognizes that In the long run, this question or one “many Hispanics do not relate to the cat- similar to it should replace the race and egories in the race question.”30 Although the Census Bureau is pres- Racial and Ethnic Targeted Test used an experi- ently ½eld-testing ½ve new formats for mental design to test the effects of eight ques- collecting race and ethnicity data in tionnaire formats on race and ethnicity. One of 2010, the revision I am suggesting is not these formats combined the race and the ethnicity categories. As measured by nonresponse, among them. I do not ½nd the reasons a key indicator of data quality, the combined given for this omission persuasive, and I format outperformed all alternatives, and for strongly believe there are statistical as many groups by a substantial margin. See well as moral justi½cations for testing a Charles Hirshman, Richard Alba, and Reynolds question format that, optimally, discards Farley, “The Meaning and Measurement of Race in the U.S. Census: Glimpses into the the term ‘race’ altogether, or that at least Future,” Demography 37 (3) (August 2000): does not hold to the statistically mean- 381–393. ingless distinction between the terms ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity.’31 The omb and the 32 This question should only be included in Census Bureau have a historic opportu- the American Community Survey, which is a continuous sample survey administered to nity to back away from the presumptive- about 15 million households over a ½ve-year ly immutable color-coded categories period and designed to replace the census long inherited from Linnaeus and his stu- form. In my view, the question should not appear on the 2010 census short form, which will go to all of America’s households. Short- option. The format also discards the many sub- form data provide block level counts used to categories that appeared on the census form in redraw congressional and other electoral dis- 2000. It leaves out the residual “some other tricts after each census and to enforce the Vot- race” option, though, by congressional action ing Rights Act pursuant to whether redistrict- in 2004, that is now a required category. This ing reduces electoral opportunities for minority requirement was made in response to the con- candidates. Only data required for these pur- cerns of Hispanic advocacy organizations poses should be made available at the block speaking for a constituency that resists being level. This does not include ancestry or nation- forced to select among the other ½ve options. al origin information. Having such data avail- However, incorporating “Hispanic” into a able at the block level can lead to mischief, per- merged ethnicity and race question would haps serious mischief if the government feels obviate the need for “some other race.” compelled in the war on terrorism to repeat some version of the Japanese American intern- 30 Phyllis Singer and Sharon Ennis, “Census ment during World War II, which made use of 2000 Content Reinterview Survey: Accuracy census information from small geographic of Data for Selected Population and Housing areas. Characteristics as Measured by Reinterview,” U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Evaluation 33 This question is presently being ½eld-tested B.5, September 24, 2003, xxiii. by the Census Bureau. It is designed to accom- modate as many as nineteen illustrative cate- 31 Such a question was tested by the Census gories, a slight increase over the sixteen used in Bureau in 1996 and it performed well. The large the 2000 census ancestry question.

16 Dædalus Winter 2005 ethnicity question altogether. That two centuries after the Constitution Racial classi½cation change would truly reflect that these are started the nation down the road of ra- in America matters of self-identi½cation, and that cially classifying its population, there self-identi½cation is inconsistent with remain, unfortunately, compelling rea- forcing people into prescribed cate- sons to design the most policy-relevant gories. But from the perspective of racial classi½cation scheme possible. On moral justice, it is premature to discard the and methodological grounds, the clas- of½cial categories now used to adminis- si½cation used in census 2000 can and ter antidiscrimination laws. should be improved. The open-ended question nevertheless points us to the policy frontiers of the twenty-½rst century.34 Details of the sort provided by the open-ended question would show whether speci½c groups, especially recent immigrant groups, are experiencing discriminatory barriers to jobs, schooling, or home ownership–barriers that a nation committed to a policy of inclusiveness is ob- ligated to remove. There remain strong reasons for of½cial statistics that can detect patterns of discrimination, and our classi½cation scheme needs to catch up with the ways in which discrimination occurs across a very diverse population. Many thoughtful Americans, myself included, wish that antidiscrimination law were not necessary. We want a society that is truly color-blind. But if we are ever to create such a society, we need to know what is actually happening to various population groups across the country. Accepting inclusiveness as a central policy narrative for the nation requires statistics robust enough both to keep track of whether groups historically excluded are overcoming the legacy of of½cial discrimination and to indicate whether more recently arrived groups are being unfairly held back. More than

34 Current data-capture technology can reliably record responses to such a question. Opti- cal scanning and intelligent character recognition were very successfully used in the 2000 census, recording open-ended written responses at exceptionally high levels of accuracy.

Dædalus Winter 2005 17 David A. Hollinger

The one drop rule & the one hate rule

Two portentous practices within the black. Comparativists have long noted public discussion of ‘race’ in the United the peculiar ordinance this mixture- States since the late 1960s are rarely ana- denying principle has exercised over the lyzed together. One is the method by history of the United States. Although it which we decide which individuals are no longer has the legal status it held in ‘black.’ The other is our habit of conflat- many states during the Jim Crow era, ing the mistreatment of blacks with that this principle was reinforced in the civil of nonblack minorities. Both practices rights era as a basis for antidiscrimina- compress a great range of phenomena tion remedies. Today it remains in place into ostensibly manageable containers. as a formidable convention in many set- Both function to keep the concept of tings and dominates debates about the race current amid mounting pressures categories appropriate for the federal that threaten to render it anachronistic. census. The movement for recognition Both invite reassessment at the start of of ‘mixed race’ identity has made some the twenty-½rst century. headway, including for people with a The prevailing criterion for deciding fraction of African ancestry, but most who is black is of course the principle of governments, private agencies, educa- hypodescent. This ‘one drop rule’ has tional institutions, and advocacy organi- meant that anyone with a visually dis- zations that classify and count people by cernable trace of African, or what used ethnoracial categories at all continue to to be called ‘Negro,’ ancestry is, simply, perpetuate hypodescent racialization when they talk about African Ameri- 1 David A. Hollinger, a Fellow of the American cans. Academy since 1997, is Preston Hotchkis Professor This practice makes the most sense of American History at the University of Califor- when antidiscrimination remedies are in nia, Berkeley. He has written extensively on the view. If discrimination has proceeded on history of American science, religion in America, and the changing role of racial and ethnic factors 1 For a more extensive account of the historic role of the principle of hypodescent, see my in the country’s history. His two most recent books “Amalgamation and Hypodescent: The Ques- are “Postethnic America” (1995) and “Science, tion of Ethnoracial Mixture in the History of Jews, and Secular Culture” (1996). the United States,” American Historical Review 108 (5) (December 2003): 1363–1390, from © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts which several paragraphs in this essay are & Sciences drawn.

18 Dædalus Winter 2005 the basis of the one drop rule, so too impoverished European ethnics, and The one drop rule should antidiscrimination remedies. But gays and lesbians, were less successful & the one even when antidiscrimination remedies in gaining entitlements during the so- hate rule are not at issue, most Americans of all called minority rights revolution be- colors think about African American cause they were not perceived as vic- identity in either/or terms: you are tims of white racism. Yet the of½cials black, or you are not. It is common for who designed entitlement programs for people to say, “I’m half Irish and half the purposes of remedying white racism Jewish” without one’s listener translat- often homogenized those descent groups ing the declaration into terms other than colloquially coded as black, brown, red, the speaker’s. One can even boast, “I’m and yellow. There was a good reason one-eighth Cherokee” without causing for this. White racism was real, had ex- the listener to quarrel with that fraction pressed itself against every one of these or to doubt that the speaker is basically a color-coded groups, and was a problem white person. But those who say things in American life that demanded correc- like “I’m half Irish and half black” are tion. generally understood really to be black, The notion that all descent groups and “I’m one-eighth African American” whose ancestry could be located outside is not part of the genealogical boasting Europe were like blacks, however, had that infuses American popular culture. not been prominent previously in the The second portentous practice is the proclaimed self-conception of these treating of all victims of white racism nonblack minority groups, nor in much alike, regardless of how differently this of what public discussion there was of racism has affected African Americans, their history and circumstances. The Latinos, Indians, and Asian Americans, histories of each of these communities to say nothing of the subdivisions within were almost always presented to their each of these communities of descent. own members as well as to the society at When federal agencies developed af- large in terms that took their differences ½rmative action programs in the late into account, including the speci½c ways 1960s, they identi½ed Asian Americans, in which whites had abused them. These Hispanics, and Indians along with Afri- histories, moreover, were usually about can Americans as eligible groups. As particular descent groups, such as Chi- John Skrentny has shown, entitlements nese Americans or Mexican Americans, for nonblack groups were predicated on rather than about what came to be called the assumption that such groups were ‘panethnic’ groups, such as Asian Ameri- like blacks in their social experience.2 cans and Latinos.3 Japanese Americans Other disadvantaged groups, including women, impoverished Anglo whites, 3 For two overviews of the development of 2 John D. Skrentny, The Minority Rights Revolu- ‘panethnicity,’ see Jose Itzigsohn, “The Forma- tion (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Har- tion of Latino and Latina Panethnic Identities,” vard University Press, 2002). For a vigorous cri- and Yen Le Espiritu, “Asian American Paneth- tique of this book, see Victoria Hattam, “The nicity: Contemporary National and Transna- 1964 Civil Rights Act: Narrating the Past, Au- tional Possibilities,” in Nancy Foner and thorizing the Future,” Studies in American Politi- George Fredrickson, eds., Not Just Black and cal Development 18 (Spring 2004): 60–69, fol- White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives lowed by a generally convincing response by on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United Skrentny, “Policy Making is Decision Making: States (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, A Response to Hattam,” 70–80. 2004), 197–216, 217–234.

Dædalus Winter 2005 19 David A. had been subject to property-owning black model’ to their own group they Hollinger on restrictions and had been incarcerated had a better chance of getting the sym- race without due process during World War pathetic attention of of½cials and courts. II, and all but a few immigrants from White racism thus ironically came to be Asia had been denied naturalization assigned the same capacity traditionally until 1952. Immigrants from Mexico had assigned to one drop of black blood: the always been able to achieve citizenship capacity to de½ne equally whatever it touched, and were not included in the miscegena- no matter how the affected entity was tion laws that prevented nonwhites from constituted and what its life circum- marrying whites, but these immigrants stances might have been. We have been and their descendants had been subject living by a principle of white racist hy- to other abuses, including school segre- povictimization: we can call it the one gation and exclusion from juries in many hate rule, with the understanding that jurisdictions until courts eliminated the colloquial use of ‘hate’ follows the these practices in the decade after World language conventions of recent years, War II. Mexican Americans, moreover, when we speak of ‘hate speech’ and despite their overwhelmingly immigrant ‘hate crimes.’ origins, did come from a country that Both the one hate rule and the one had lost territory to the United States, drop rule have recently come under in- and sometimes de½ned themselves as a creasing pressure. But before I take up conquered people, like the Indians. The these pressures and suggest some of the Indians themselves had their own story, potentially deep changes in American featuring deaths on a horrendous scale race discourse they might produce, I through disease and genocide. But be- want to clarify the historical circum- yond emphasizing these and many other stances that have endowed these rules differences, spokespersons for these with such force. nonblack groups sometimes partook of the antiblack racism of the white majori- The property interests of slaveholders ty. As late as the early 1960s, for exam- and the social priorities of Jim Crow rac- ple, spokespersons for Mexican Ameri- ism are central to the principle of hypo- cans in Los Angeles made a point of say- descent. Keeping the color line sharp ing that their community wanted little facilitated the enslavement of children to do with blacks in the same city. begotten upon slave women by white Utterances of this latter kind dimin- men. The offspring of these couplings ished rapidly in the late 1960s as political would grow up as slaves in a race-spe- alliances were forged between black ad- ci½c slave system. The principle was vocacy organizations and organizations sharpened under Jim Crow, when oppo- speaking for other descent groups. The sition to social equality for blacks was idea that Asian Americans, Latinos, and well served by a monolithic notion of Indians were indeed like blacks gained blackness accompanied by legislation ground and was marked vividly with a that outlawed as miscegenation black- designation especially popular in the white marriages but that left less strictly 1980s: ‘people of color.’ The downplay- regulated any nonmarital sex in which ing of the differences between nonblack white males might engage with black minorities and blacks was practiced ½rst females. Some slave-era and Jim Crow by of½cials and then by activists who governments did employ fractional clas- came to understand that by applying ‘the si½cations, providing distinctive rights

20 Dædalus Winter 2005 and privileges for ‘octoroons,’ ‘qua- But what about nonblack victims of The one drop rule droons,’ and ‘mulattoes,’ but this frac- white racism? Awareness of the reality & the one tional approach was hard to administer, of discrimination against nonblacks led hate rule invited litigation, and blurred lines that to the conclusion that all ethnoracially many whites preferred to keep clear. de½ned victims of white racism might ‘Mulatto’ was dropped from the federal as well be made the bene½ciaries of the census after 1920, and more and more same new set of entitlements being de- state governments went the way of Vir- veloped in the civil rights era, even in the ginia, whose miscegenation statute as absence of anyone’s having lobbied for revised in 1924 classi½ed as white only a that result. (Indians, to be sure, were person “who has no trace whatsoever of always subject to an additional, separate blood other than Caucasian.” set of programs following from the dis- The combination of these miscegena- tinctive constitutional status of Indian tion laws with the principle of hypodes- tribes.) When the Equal Employment cent consolidated and perpetuated the Opportunity Commission (eeoc) de- low-class positions of African Ameri- signed its precedent-setting employer re- cans in much of the United States. By porting form (eeo-1) in 1965, the eeoc marking all offspring of white-black included Indians, Asian Americans, and couplings as bastards, governments in Latinos along with African Americans as many jurisdictions prevented these off- the groups to be counted in relation to spring from inheriting the property of a its mission. In fact, the eeoc was almost white father. Although the legendary entirely concerned with African Ameri- Virginia statute, along with all other ra- cans: what percentage of those employ- cial restrictions on marriage, was invali- able were actually employed in a given dated in 1967 by the U.S. Supreme Court labor market? At the public hearing de- in the case of Loving v. Virginia, the one signed to collect reactions to this report- drop rule classically formulated in the ing form, no voice mentioned even in Virginia statute was not affected in passing the situation of the nonblack its capacity as a convention operating minorities.4 throughout American society. Tradition- Virtually everyone in power at the al white racism perpetuated this conven- time assumed the nonblack minorities tion, but so, too, did the social solidarity to be so tiny a part of the picture as to re- of an African American community quire no discussion and to entail no poli- whose borders had been shaped by that cy dilemmas for the future. Support for racism. It is no wonder that the of½cials, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and for the courts, and advocacy organizations that speci½c mission and methods of the designed and defended af½rmative ac- eeoc established under its terms was tion measures showed no interest in deeply informed by a popular under- mixture. Even if ‘light-skinned blacks’ standing of the history of the victimiza- had sometimes experienced a less con- tion of African Americans in particular, sistently brutal style of discrimination and not by any comparably deep under- than that experienced by the darkest of standing of the acknowledged mistreat- African Americans, there was no doubt ment of Latinos and Asian Americans. that any person perceived as having any To call attention to this truth about the black ancestry whatsoever was rightly civil rights era is not to downplay the included in the antidiscrimination rem- reality of white racism against nonblacks edies being developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 4 I owe this information to John D. Skrentny. Dædalus Winter 2005 21 David A. in American history right up to the time hate rule and stimulated a genuine effort Hollinger on of½cials and courts acted. Rather, the to confront the distinctive history and race point is that remedying the abuse of needs of the several nonblack groups on nonblacks was almost an afterthought each group’s own terms. But the system to remedying antiblack racism. then in place created a huge disincentive for such a rethinking: the black model Nothing illustrates this fact more dra- was working quite well. It helped get the matically than the lack of sustained attention of of½cials and courts, en- public debate on the eligibility of immi- abling them to recognize and under- grants and their offspring for af½rmative stand the victimization of nonblack action. This silence resulted partly be- minorities. As early as 1968, the Chicano cause the Latino and Asian American youth activists in Los Angeles were de- populations were still small (about 4.5 claring “Brown and Black” to be one and percent and 1 percent, respectively, in the same. As the most careful scholar of the census of 1970), and because the Im- that episode has observed, writers in the migration and Nationality Act of 1965 Chicano movement’s magazine La Raza, that eventually transformed the ethnora- even while surrounded by older Mexican cial demography of the United States, Americans whose group advocacy had and revolutionized the meaning of eth- been based on the af½rmation of white noracially de½ned entitlements, was not identity, “asserted that Mexican identity, expected to signi½cantly increase immi- when measured in terms of history, ge- gration from Latin America and Asia. ography, oppressions, and dreams, was Yet the numbers of Latin American functionally black.”5 Hence the one hate and Asian immigrants mounted in the rule was quietly enacted by a variety of 1970s, yielding more and more nonblack nonblack advocacy groups as well as by Americans who were not the descen- of½cials and courts. dants of those Chinese American, Japa- Neither the eeoc nor anyone else de- nese American, and Mexican American signing and approving af½rmative action families that had been abused in the programs predicated on the ideal of pro- United States, and who were thus less portional representation seems to have analogous than were nonimmigrant anticipated what could have happened if Latinos and Asian Americans to the de- one or another of the designated groups scendants of enslaved Americans. In- came to be overrepresented instead of deed, the number of new immigrants underrepresented. In the late 1960s and between 1970 and 2000 who were eligi- very early 1970s, there were very few ble for at least some af½rmative action Asian Americans, Latinos, and Indians bene½ts came to about 26 million, the in most of the same employment and same number of eligible African Ameri- educational spaces in which African cans as measured by the census of 1980. Americans were underrepresented in re- More strikingly yet, many of the new lation to their percentage in the total immigrants and their children proved population. Instead of inquiring into the able, especially in the Asian American speci½c causes of the underrepresenta- case, to make their way around racist tion of the various groups, one could as- barriers in education, business, and the sume with some justice that behind all workforce that continued to inhibit the cases was white racism of one degree or progress of African Americans. 5 Ian Haney López, Racism on Trial: The Chicano This emerging social reality might Fight for Justice (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap have triggered a rethinking of the one Press of Harvard University Press, 2003), 167. 22 Dædalus Winter 2005 another. The one hate rule was good ing rigor the different historical circum- The one drop rule enough. At least for a while. stances of the various American ethno- & the one But as the numbers of Asian Ameri- racial groups popularly called ‘minori- hate rule cans increased dramatically through ties’ or ‘people of color.’ That literature chain migrations in the 1970s and 1980s, recognized, for example, the unique leg- and began to affect the public face of acy of slavery and Jim Crow for African American society especially in Califor- Americans, and assessed the pre-immi- nia, a striking challenge to the one hate gration social position and commercial rule appeared. It became hard to over- experience for many Asian Americans.6 look that Asian Americans, even if sub- Bengali engineers and Chihuahuan agri- ject to discrimination as ‘foreign’ and cultural laborers really did bring differ- thus ‘not really American,’ were over- ent pre-immigration experiences and represented rather than underrepresent- skills to the United States. Not innate ed in many universities and professions ‘racial’ characteristics, but empirically and among high-income householders. warrantable social conditions could illu- Well before the end of the 1980s, the minate the contrasting destinies of dif- Census Bureau reported that average ferent descent communities in the Unit- family income for Asian Americans, ed States. Yet public policy discussions even when the income for recently ar- did not take much advantage of the invi- rived immigrants from Southeast Asia tation offered by Asian American suc- was included, was higher than that for cess to rethink the one hate rule. Far non-Hispanic whites. Asian Americans from it. were quietly dropped from some private af½rmative action programs (not from A mark of the persistence of the one those operated by the federal govern- hate rule is its dominance of President ment), but what public discussion there Clinton’s Initiative on Race, as displayed was of the success of Asian Americans in One America in the 21st Century: Forging was clouded by the problematic concept a New Future, the 1998 report of the Ini- of ‘the model minority.’ The idea that tiative’s advisory board. Although the African Americans, Latinos, and Indians impeachment of Clinton distracted at- had something wrong with them struc- tention from this document at the time turally–some genetic inferiority or of its release, it is the only major presi- deeply embedded cultural de½ciency dent-sponsored assessment of race since from which the wonderful Asians were the Kerner Commission’s report of thir- free–was sometimes implied, and was ty years before. The very banality of One of course vigorously contested. America in the 21st Century renders that Given the prior assumption that all document all the more revealing a de- ethnoracial minorities were more or less pository of publicly acceptable ‘race equally the victims of white racism, how talk’ in the United States at the turn of could one talk about the success of Asian the twenty-½rst century. Americans without appearing to deny Central to that talk is the assertion that the power of white racism or to engage, any differences between the particular however subtly, in a racist discourse varieties of ‘racial’ discrimination and against African Americans, Latinos, and 6 See, for example, Grace Kao, “Asian Ameri- Indians? That this pitfall could indeed cans as Model Minorities? A Look at Their be avoided was proved by a growing aca- Academic Performance,” American Journal of demic literature exploring with increas- Education 103 (February 1995): 121–159.

Dædalus Winter 2005 23 David A. abuse are incidental to what those vari- groups. Not a single one of the advisory Hollinger on eties have in common, and the assump- board’s recommendations speaks to the race tion that the same set of policies can deal speci½c claims of African Americans on with virtually all those varieties of disad- the national conscience. Yet blacks, and vantage. The advisory board does point blacks alone, inherit a multi-century (with a series of “signposts of historical legacy of group-speci½c enslavement episodes,” which they distinguish from and hypodescent racialization long car- the “comprehensive” history they dis- ried out under constitutional authority claim) to a handful of particular experi- in the United States. ences: the conquest of the Indians, the The contrast between the Asian Amer- enslavement and segregation of black ican experience in recent years and the people, “the conquest and legal oppres- African American experience during the sion of Mexican American and other same period is systematically deempha- Hispanics,” the “forced labor of Chinese sized by One America in the 21st Century. Americans,” and the “internment of Only in a footnote and in one easily Japanese Americans.” Even “new immi- missed chart does the advisory board grants” from Southeast Asia “continue acknowledge that by the end of the to feel the legacy of discriminatory laws 1980s Asian Americans had achieved against Asian Paci½c Americans because an average annual family income higher they continue to be perceived and treat- even than that of non-Hispanic whites, ed as foreigners.” In keeping with this and almost twice that of blacks and His- last observation, which incorporates the panics. Repeatedly, the advisory board most recent of voluntary immigrants tries to shoehorn the Asian American into the same frame with the descen- experience into the space prescribed for dants of slaves and of the conquered and it by the one hate rule. In a single sen- ruthlessly slaughtered indigenous popu- tence, the advisory board praises law lation, the advisory board offers the fol- enforcement agencies for investigating lowing summary of the salient history: both the decapitation of a black man in “Each of the minority groups discussed Texas and the death threats to sixty above share in common a history of Asian American students at a campus in legally mandated and socially and eco- California. A statement in the text to the nomically imposed subordination to effect that “criminal victimization rates white European Americans and their are signi½cantly greater for minorities descendants.”7 and people of color than for whites, es- This perspective informs the entire pecially with regard to violent crime,” document, especially the advisory makes no distinctions between the board’s recommendations. All but ½ve groups. But if one turns to the footnote of the more than ½fty recommendations documenting this statement, one learns are general to all victims of racism. Four that while the homicide rate is 58 per of the ½ve exceptions deal with the spe- 100,000 for African Americans and 25 cial problems of Indians and Alaskan per 100,000 for Hispanics, it is only 8 per natives, and the ½fth calls for better 100,000 for Asian Americans, which is data-gathering on nonblack minority close to the 5 per 100,000 for whites. Thus the proximity of Asian Americans 7 Advisory Board to the President’s Initiative to non-Hispanic whites in one statistical on Race, One America in the 21st Century: Forging a New Future (Washington, D.C.: Government sector after another is downplayed, ig- Printing Of½ce, 1998), 37–38. nored, or concealed. Many of the charts

24 Dædalus Winter 2005 in the report that show inequality by school diploma, only 31 percent of The one 9 drop rule ethnoracial group omit Asian Ameri- Hmong Americans do. How recent the & the one cans altogether. This is true of charts immigration and how strong or weak hate rule showing rates of college enrollment, the class position of the group prior to median weekly earnings of male work- immigration clearly make an enormous ers, and employment–all of which con- difference. This is true not only for Asian trast whites to blacks and Hispanics. Americans but also for Hispanics. For The advisory board is understandably instance, sociologists have explained re- determined to refute the myth that “the peatedly that recent illegal immigrants problem of racial intolerance in this from Mexico encounter the United country has been solved,” but in its re- States and its white racism differently luctance to particularize and measure than do Cuban Americans whose fami- the dimensions of this problem and to lies have been in the country for several deal directly with the reasons why some decades, or than do descendants of earli- Americans mistakenly believe the prob- er generations of migrants from Mexico lem to be solved, it ends up weakening who have more opportunities to learn its case.8 Asian American success in English and to take advantage of what- overcoming the worst consequences of ever educational opportunities are at white racism is the elephant in the advi- hand. sory board’s room. So great is the variety of experience At stake is the more precise location among Hispanics that the Census Bureau of the barriers that inhibit Americans of would do well to think carefully about various communities of descent from the basis for continuing to treat Hispan- participating more fully in the life of the ics as a single category at all. The census nation. The more con½dent we can be might drop this quasi-racial category about the social location of those barri- and count instead those inhabitants who ers, the more likely we are as a nation to identify with descent communities from develop policies that target remedy to Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Domini- wrong in the effort to achieve a more can Republic, Haiti, and other such de- equal society. If economic and social ½ning points of origin. Instead of count- conditions antecedent to immigration ing ‘Asians,’ the census might count are signi½cant factors in explaining the people who trace their descent to China, relative success many Asian American Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, Iran, the groups have achieved, that suggests that Philippines, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, white racism does not always have the etc. Any public or private agency that same effect on everything it touches, but wished for any reason–including the rather affects those objects differently design and implementation of antidis- depending on how those objects are con- crimination remedies–to treat all His- stituted. panics or Asians as a single group could Even One America in the 21st Century easily reaggregate the groups counted approaches this insight when it distin- separately by the census. Or a given guishes between the different destinies agency might conclude, on the basis of of Asian American groups, noting in a what it learns about the social and eco- footnote that while 88 percent of Japa- nomic circumstances of particular nese Americans between the ages of descent communities, and on the basis twenty-½ve and twenty-nine have a high of its analysis of where responsibility for

8 Ibid., 46, 48, 65, 71–72, 75, 81, 128, 131. 9 Ibid., 126. Dædalus Winter 2005 25 David A. a given case of disadvantage lies, that Conley has found that when blacks and Hollinger on some groups need af½rmative action and whites with the same property holdings race others do not. Breaking down Hispanic (as opposed merely to the same income, into the actual descent groups that exist which is a less substantial indicator of in the United States would facilitate this. economic position) are compared, the So, too, with Americans of Asian de- gap between black and white perfor- scent. Neither Hispanics nor Asian mance on Graduate Record Examina- Americans have an experience as uni½ed tions and in several other arenas of as that of African Americans, and the achievement diminish to a point of sta- Census Bureau needs a better justi½ca- tistical insigni½cance.12 Class position, tion than it has offered until now for the when accurately measured, makes a for- use of these panethnic, ‘racial’ catego- midable difference. What our social sci- ries. By rejecting racial and quasi-racial ence is telling us today is not that white categories, the census can liberate itself racism has disappeared, nor even that it from de facto responsibility for deciding is unimportant, but that it interacts with who is eligible for this or that pro- a variety of other realities to create the gram.10 patterns of inequality that social policy Analysis of different segments of the must address. black population, too, yields more precise information about the location It is in the context of these social scien- of the barriers to full participation in ti½c ½ndings that the status of ‘under- American life. Black immigrants from represented minorities’ invites reexami- the Caribbean and their descendants nation with an eye toward better under- are more likely than the American-born standing those patterns of inequality. heirs of the Jim Crow system to advance When the ideal of proportional repre- in education and employment and to sentation entered af½rmative action marry outside their natal community. So directives and jurisprudence in about too are black immigrants from Africa, as 1970, a major objective was to get be- the public has recently been reminded yond ‘intentional’ discrimination in or- by the remarkable career of Illinois poli- der to confront prior, structural condi- tician Barack Obama, elected to the U.S. tions producing inequality. But by pro- Senate in 2004.11 Moreover, Dalton moting the idea that the mere fact of underrepresentation constituted evidence 10 This suggestion about the census is a variation on proposals made during the 1990s by a of discrimination, however indirect, number of demographers and social scientists. of½cials and courts deflected attention See, for example, Margo Anderson and Stephen from any and all possible speci½c expla- E. Feinberg, “Black, White, and Shades of Gray (and Brown and Yellow),” Change 8 (1) (1995): 15–18, esp. 18. The substitution of the racial the questions that story raises about black categories with more speci½c demographic cat- identity and the dynamics of black progress in egories would provide individuals greater op- the United States today are explored in Scott portunity to declare their cultural identity Malcomson, “An Appeal Beyond Race,” The while also enabling public and private agencies New York Times, August 1, 2004, IV, 5, and to pursue antidiscrimination remedies on more William Finnegan, “The Candidate,” The New empirically warranted grounds. Yorker, May 31, 2004, 32–38.

11 Obama, the keynote speaker at the Demo- 12 Dalton Conley, Being Black, Living in the cratic National Convention in July of 2004, is Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America the son of a black immigrant from Kenya and a (Berkeley: University of California Press, white mother from Kansas. His life story and 1999).

26 Dædalus Winter 2005 nations for why a particular descent Jewish Americans, South Asian Ameri- The one drop rule group might be underrepresented in a cans, and Japanese Americans in the do- & the one particular employment or educational mains of American life where African hate rule sector. What was lost in the process was Americans and Latinos are underrepre- an ability to deal forthrightly with the sented? The failure to pursue this ques- appearance of Asian Americans as an tion implicitly strengthens largely un- overrepresented minority. expressed speculations that Jews and Underrepresentation and overrepre- Asians are, after all, superior genetically sentation constitute a logical syndrome. to African Americans, Latinos, and Should we not expect the same princi- American Indians–the groups whose ples of causation to apply to both sides underrepresentation is constantly at of the phenomenon? Might what we issue. learn about the overrepresentation of Yet the grounds for avoiding talk about particular descent groups–Korean the overrepresentation of Jewish Ameri- Americans and Jewish Americans, for cans and some groups of Asian Ameri- example–help us to understand the un- cans diminish, if not disappear, once the derrepresentation of others, and vice relevant statistics are explained by tak- versa? This might seem obvious, but the ing full account of the conditions under analysis of overrepresentation, and of which the various descent communities the historical processes by which ethno- have been shaped.13 Avoiding the forth- racial groups that were once underrepre- right historical and social-scienti½c sented have become overrepresented, study of the question perpetuates the usually stops with the white color line. mysti½cation of descent communities The Irish, the Italians, the Poles, and the and subtly fuels the idea that the ques- Jews, we say, became white. But invok- tion’s answer is really biological, and if ing whiteness does not carry us very far. made public will serve to reinforce in- Appalachian whites are not overrepre- vidious distinctions between descent sented in the medical profession and in groups. The open discussion of overrep- the nation’s great universities, and some resentation will not be racist if it pro- ‘people of color’–Chinese Americans ceeds on nonracist assumptions. We will and South Asian Americans, for exam- not understand patterns of inequality in ple–are. the United States until overrepresenta- Jewish experience since 1945 is the tion and underrepresentation are stud- most dramatic single case in all Ameri- ied together and with the same methods. can history of a stigmatized descent The one hate rule is an obstacle to such group that had been systematically dis- inquiries. But if the overrepresentation criminated against under the protection of African American males in prisons of the law suddenly becoming overrepre- can be explained, as it often is, with ref- sented many times over in social spaces erence to slavery, Jim Crow, and the larg- where its progress had been previously inhibited. The experience since 1970 of 13 For an exploration of this terrain, see my several Asian American groups is a sec- “Rich, Powerful, and Smart: Jewish Overrepre- ond such dramatic case. These cases of sentation Should Be Explained Rather Than success invite emphasis and explanation Mysti½ed or Avoided,” Jewish Quarterly Review in relation to explanations for the social 94 (Fall 2004): 596–602. The most ambitious and convincing study of Jewish success is Yuri destiny of other descent-de½ned groups. Slezkine, The Jewish Century (Princeton: Prince- What explains the overrepresentation of ton University Press, 2004).

Dædalus Winter 2005 27 David A. er history of the institutionalized descent racialization of the latter came to Hollinger on basement of black people, so, too, can be more widely recognized as an index race the overrepresentation of Jewish Ameri- of the unique severity of antiblack rac- cans and Korean Americans in other ism in the United States. No wonder social spaces be explained by historical some frustrated African American activ- conditions. ists campaigned for group-speci½c repa- rations. Hence the weakening of the one So the one hate rule, however sensible hate rule and the development of a criti- it may have seemed when informally cal perspective on the one drop rule pro- adopted in the 1960s and 1970s, is in- ceeded dialectically. The more fully we creasingly dif½cult to defend. And the understand the unique invidiousness of less blinded we are by it the more able the principle of hypodescent as applied we are to see the unique invidiousness to ‘blacks,’ the weaker the hold of the of the one drop rule, its ironic twin. The one hate rule; and the weaker the hold practice of hypodescent racialization has of the one hate rule, the more able we entailed an absolute denial of the reality are to confront at long last the excep- of extensive white-black mixing. It has tionally racist character of the one drop embodied a total rejection of blackness rule.14 and it has implied a deep revulsion on the part of empowered whites. This va- 14 For critical suggestions based on an earlier draft, I am indebted to Victoria Hattam, Jen- riety of white racism was cast into bold nifer Hochschild, Joan Heifetz Hollinger, Ian relief in the 1980s and 1990s by the dra- Haney López, Rachel Moran, Robert Post, Ken- matic upsurge of immigration from neth Prewitt, John Skrentny, Werner Sollors, Latin America and Asia. The ½rst of Eric Sundquist, and Kim Williams. For other these immigrations displayed from the assistance I want to thank Jennifer Burns. start an acknowledged and often celebrated mixture of European and indigenous ancestry, and produced children who married Anglos at a rising rate and who were not subject to hypodescent racialization as Latinos. The new immigrants from Asia married Anglos at a considerably higher rate than Latinos did, and their offspring were not socially coerced to identify as 100 percent Asian. Only a few years earlier, when af½rmative action and the allied initiatives that eventually came to be called ‘multiculturalism’ got started, the assumption had been that all the standard minority groups were clearly bounded, durable entities, kept in place by the power of white racism and by the internal adhe- sives of their communities of descent. But the experience of nonblack minorities was suf½ciently different from that of African Americans that the hypode-

28 Dædalus Winter 2005 Louis H. Pollak

Race, law & history: the Supreme Court from "Dred Scott" to "Grutier v. Bollinger"

JL start from two points of departure : that drawing district lines with an eye to The first I draw from the contrasting voters' political affiliations was permis contentions of counsel in a redistricting sible. But race was different, Lewin ar case argued in the Supreme Court in gued : "We think politics is part of the 1976.x The case addressed the validity political process. Race is not part of the of a 1974 New York statute that redrew political process. Race is an impermissi state senate and assembly districts in ble standard."2 Brooklyn with a view to enlarging the The very able lawyer representing the number of districts with "substantial United States, Solicitor General Robert nonwhite majorities." The attorney Bork, responded: "I was astounded general of the United States, exercising when Mr. Lewin said that race is not a a supervisory authority vested in him part of our political process. Race has by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, had been the political issue in this nation assented to the statute. In the Supreme since it was founded."3 Court, Nathan Lewin, the very able at My second point of departure relates torney for the white petitioners chal to W. E. H. Lecky, the Dublin-born lenging the statute, argued that drawing scholar whose works ornamented Brit district lines with race in mind was un ish historiography in the second half of constitutional. In response to a question from the bench, Lewin acknowledged i This essay, delivered as the 2004 Robert P. Anderson Lecture at Yale Law School in April of 2004, was written in tribute to Charles Ham Louis H. Pollak, a Fellow of the American Acade ilton Houston, William Henry Hastie, and Thurgood Marshall. I am indebted to two good my since 1972 and former dean of the Yale and friends - Frank Goodman and Victor Brudney - University of Pennsylvania Law Schools, has been who reviewed this essay in draft and offered a federal judge in Philadelphia since 1978. He was valuable criticisms and suggestions that have one of the cohort of young lawyers who assisted measurably strengthened the final product. Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues of the NAA CP Legal Defense Fund in developing the 2 United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, Inc. v. Carey, No. 75-104 (U.S. Sup. Ct., October legal strategy in "Brown v. Board of Education" 6, 1976), transcript of argument, 33. and "Boiling v. Sharpe. " 3 Ibid., 62.1 note, by way of full disclosure, ? 2005 by the American Academy of Arts that, representing the NAACP as an intervenor, & Sciences I too participated in the argument.

D dalus Winter 2005 29 Louis H. preme Court's work has suffered be Pollak the nineteenth century. Lecky, so we are on told, was invited to one of those vast cause ma persons in positions of apparent or race norial weekends in which, even as actual late official as authority have skewed the the Gladstone and Salisbury eras, adversarialthe process, inappropriately urg great aristocratic houses were wont ing to the Court to decide what need not spread themselves. Lecky was unac and should not have been decided, or quainted with his hostess, the duchess supplying the Court with grievously in of something-or-other, but at dinner complete, he and hence slanted, informa nevertheless found himself seated totion. her left. After Her Grace had exhausted Incon its proper decisions about race, on versation with the guest seated to herthe other hand, the Court appears to right, she turned to Lecky: have been aware of the relevant history, has neither departed from nor embel "Oh, Professor Lecky, you must remind lished it, and has, on occasion, made it me. What is it you do ? " "Well, Your Grace, I'm a historian." a building block in those decisions. "Goodness, Professor Lecky, that is too bad." X begin, as one would expect, with Dred Scott. "I beg your pardon, Your Grace, but I'm In Dred Scott, it will be recalled, the not sure that I understand. Why is it too bad that I'm a historian?" Supreme Court, in the early months of 1857, was charged to determine the sta "Well, Professor Lecky, I do think that tus of a slave taken by his army-surgeon it's so much better to let bygones be master from the slave state of Missouri bygones." to military posts in the free state of Illi nois and in federal territory where, un Xerhaps some bygones can be left, like der the Missouri Compromise of 1820, cuttings from the garden, to be raked slavery was forbidden. Dred Scott had into small heaps, gathered, and wheel sued to gain freedom in the federal cir barrowed to the compost pile. But not cuit court in Missouri, but that court had the bygones of race. Not in America. ruled against him. The circuit court's Not yet. adverse decision was based on two facts : Particularly, I suggest, this is of impor the Missouri Supreme Court, applying tance for those who labor in the vine Missouri law, had ruled against Scott in a yards of the law. From our nation's be nearly identical state court suit; and the ginnings, the ways in which we treat United States Supreme Court had ruled persons of color have been the knotti some years before that in suits to gain est - the hardest to unravel - of the long freedom the law of the state in which threads that make up the law's fabric. suit was brought was dispositive. Part of my submission in this essay is Accordingly, it appeared that Scott's that the law's most flagrant failures - appeal to the United States Supreme those instances in which our highest Court from the adverse decision of the court has most dismally misused its au federal circuit court would be fruitless, thority - have been characterized by fla and, furthermore, that the Court would grant judicial misreadings of our history. have no occasion to announce any new On some occasions these misreadings and significant legal principles. have been bolstered by the myopia of ra But a funny thing happened on the cial prejudice. Also, on occasion, the Su way to the courthouse. In February of

3O D dalus Winter 2005 i857, two months after the second argu to Taney, not only slaves but also free The Supreme blacks could never be a part of the Amer ment (the case had been argued in April Courtfrom of 1856 and reargued in December), ican political community. They were for "Dred Scott" James Buchanan, the South-leaning ever to be outsiders because the thirteen to "Grutter v. Bollinger" Pennsylvania Democrat who had just states that agreed to the Constitution been elected president and was to take would never have "regarded... as fellow office in less than a month, wrote to two citizens and members of the sovereignty, of his friends on the Court - Justices Cat a class of beings whom they had thus ron and Grier - intimating that it might stigmatized."5 In making his demon be helpful if the Court were to resolve stration, Taney took particular note that the most important issue on the national Chief Justice David Daggett of Connecti political agenda : the scope of congres cut (who, it deserves mention, was one sional authority to regulate slavery in the of the three founders of the Yale Law territories.4 That political issue could be School) had ruled in 1834 that blacks treated by the Court as a legal issue be were not part of the political communi cause counsel for Dred Scott's putative ty. "God forbid that I should add to the owner had argued that the Missouri degradation of this race of men," Dag Compromise was unconstitutional. gett had instructed a Connecticut jury, Buchanan's improvident intervention "but I am bound, by my duty... to say in the judicial process was the curtain that they are not citizens. "6 raiser for what were to be four of the Justice Curtis, one of two dissenting worst years in the annals of the presi justices, made patient demonstration dency. And it was also the curtain-raiser that Taney was quite wrong in asserting for the worst decision in the annals of that free blacks were without political the Court. For the justices obligingly rights when the Constitution was adopt changed course. Rather than disposing ed. When the Articles of Confederation of Dred Scott's appeal with a brief reit were ratified, Curtis noted, "all free eration of principles of no novelty, the native-born inhabitants of the States of Court, speaking through Chief Justice New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Taney on March 6,1857, two days after York, New Jersey, and North Carolina, Buchanan's inauguration, announced though descended from African slaves, that Congress had no authority to regu were not only citizens of those States, late slavery in the territories - thereby but such of them as had the other neces discarding a regular pattern of nation sary qualifications possessed the fran al legislative action dating back to the chise of electors, on equal terms with Northwest Ordinance, enacted in the other citizens." Curtis quoted Article very summer and the very city in which IV of the Articles of Confederation (the the Constitution was written. forerunner of the privileges and immu For good measure, Chief Justice Taney nities clause in Article IV, ? 2 of the Con also ruled that Dred Scott had no right stitution) : "The free inhabitants of each to bring a lawsuit in the federal court be of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and cause he was not a "citizen" within the fugitives from justice, excepted, shall be meaning of the Constitution. According 5 Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 416 4 Don E. Fehrenbacher, The "Dred Scott" Case : (1857). Its Significance in American Law and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 307, 309, 6 Crandall v. State of Connecticut, 10 Conn. 340, 311-313 347 (1834).

D dalus Winter 2005 31 Louis H. Pollak entitled to all the privileges and immuni process - forever. "Great cases," Justice on ties of free citizens in the several HolmesStates." was to say some forty years lat race Curtis then pointed out that when er,Arti "like hard cases make bad law."8 cle IV of the Articles of Confederation Dred Scott made bad law. "And the war was being considered by Congress came."9 in 1778, a South Carolina motion to modi fy the opening words to read "The /\fter free the Civil War, America moved white inhabitants" was defeated eightswiftly to add three amendments to the states to two, with one state's delegation Constitution : in 1865 the Thirteenth divided. Curtis then inquired, "Did Amendment, the abolishing slavery; in 1868 Constitution of the United States de the Fourteenth Amendment, conferring prive them [the free inhabitants who citizenship on " [a]ll persons born or were not white] or their descendants naturalized of in the United States" (and citizenship?" And in lawyerly fashion thereby overruling the citizenship aspect he answered that question : of Dred Scott) and requiring every state to That Constitution was ordained and assure es to "any person within its jurisdic tion the equal protection of the laws" ; tablished by the people of the United and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment, States, through the action, in each State, guaranteeing to (male) blacks the right of those persons who were qualified toby vote. its laws to act thereon, in behalf of them selves and all other citizens ofthat State. At first the Supreme Court evinced a In some of the States, as we have seen, clear col understanding of the genesis and ored persons were among those qualified weighty purposes of the amendments. In 1873, in the Slaughter-House Cases, Justice to act on this subject. These colored per Samuel Miller spoke for the five justices sons were not only included in the body of the majority: of "the people of the United States," by whom the Constitution was ordained We repeat, then, in the light of this reca and established, but in at least five of pitulation of events, almost too recent to the States they had the power to act, be and called history, but which are familiar to doubtless did act, by their suffrages, usupon all; and on the most casual examination the question of its adoption. It would ofbe the language of these amendments, no strange, if we were to find in that instru one can fail to be impressed with the one ment anything which deprived of their pervading purpose found in them all, lying citizenship any part of the people of atthe the foundation of each, and without United States who were among those which by none of them would have been even whom it was established.7 suggested; we mean the freedom of the slave race, the security and firm establish In December of 1856, after the argu ment but before the decision, Alexander ment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly-made freeman and citizen H. Stephens, Georgia's leader in Con from the oppressions of those who had gress, termed Dred Scott a "great case," hoping the Court would respond in the South's favor. And so the Court did, 8 From un the dissenting opinion in Northern Se curities Co. v. United States, 193 U.S. 197, 400 dertaking to enshrine slavery in the ter (1803). ritories beyond the reach of the political 9 Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 7 6o U.S. (19 How.) at 575 - 576. March 4, 1865.

32 D dalus Winter 2005 The formerly exercised unlimited dominion necticut or North Carolina could secure over him. some sort of redress in a state court, Supreme Courtfrom those justices were inhabiting a dream uDred Scott" But within a few years the Court to "Grutter world. The law that Justice Bradley and changed course : first in 1883, in the Civil v. Bollinger" his colleagues struck down was, at least Rights Cases, and next in 1896, in Plessy v. as it related to inns and public convey Ferguson, the Court contrived to margin alize the Thirteenth Amendment and to ances, the very remedy that Congress had fashioned to secure for blacks the gut the equal protection clause. equal protection of the laws. The Civil Rights Cases invalidated the Justice Bradley offered a general 1875 Civil Rights Act in which Congress, preachment: seeking to enforce the newly liberating amendments, required "inns, public When a man has emerged from slavery, conveyances on land or water, theaters and by the aid of beneficent legislation and other places of public accommoda has shaken off the inseparable concomi tion" to serve all comers without regard tants of that state, there must be some to race. The Thirteenth Amendment did stage in the progress of his elevation when not support the requirement, the Court he takes the rank of a mere citizen, and felt, because the racial discriminations ceases to be the special favorite of the the 1875 act prohibited were not aspects laws. of slavery. Nor did the Fourteenth In this sonorous sentence, there are two Amendment help : that amendment arresting phrases. First : "the rank of a addressed discriminations imposed mere citizen." That is the very rank that by state law, and the Court, speaking Taney and his colleagues of the Dred through Justice Joseph Bradley, per ceived no discriminations that states Scott majority had worked so hard to deny to black Americans. Second: "the had authorized. Quite the contrary, so special favorite of the laws." What sense Justice Bradley observed: "Innkeepers of his country's history or of his con and public carriers, by the laws of all the states, so far as we are aware, are bound, temporary society could have driven to the extent of their facilities, to furnish Justice Bradley to the notion that the ex-slave had in the eighteen years since proper accommodations to all unobjec bondage become the law's special favor tionable persons who in good faith apply for them."10 ite ? A private memorandum the justice appears to have written to focus his own Justice Bradley's recital of the general thinking sheds some light: obligation of innkeepers and public con veyances in every state to serve all com The law in question was passed to prevent ers was unexceptionable - it traced back discrimination on account of race and col in the common law for centuries, per or. So far it is right.... haps to Falstaff s time and before. But if It may be said generally that those Justice Bradley and his colleagues of the things which are essential to the enjoy majority entertained the notion that in ment of citizenship may be guarantied 1883, or in 1875, or in 1868 when the against discrimination on account of race Fourteenth Amendment became part of and color. the Constitution, a black person refused But what are essentials to the enjoyment a room at an inn in New Jersey or Con of citizenship? Is the white man's theater such an essential, if the colored person is ?o Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883) at 25.

D dalus Winter 2005 33 Louis H. free to have his own theater? Is the white Pollak Harlan's dissenting opinion is a on man's carriage or railroad car such an lengthy, es and frequently redundant, dis race sential, if the colored man has a suitable course - a veritable anthology of obser car provided for him ? Is the white man's vations, some legal, some historical, hotel an essential, if he can have his own some cultural. At its best, the opinion hotel and public accommodations ? speaks with quiet force : It never can be endured that the white My brethren say, that when a man has shall be compelled to lodge and eat and emerged from slavery, and by the aid of sit with the negro. The latter can have his beneficent legislation has shaken off the freedom and all legal and essential privi inseparable concomitants of that state, leges without that. The antipathy of race there must be some stage in the progress cannot be crushed and annihilated by ofle his elevation when he takes the rank of gal enactment. The constitutional amend ments were never intended to aim at sucha mere citizen, and ceases to be the special favorite of the laws, and when his rights as an impossibility.11 a citizen, or a man, are to be protected in One justice - John Marshall Harlan the of ordinary modes by which other men's Kentucky, a former slave owner - dis rights are protected. It is, I submit, scarce sented in the Civil Rights Cases. He read ly just to say that the colored race has been the word "slavery" in the Thirteenth the special favorite of the laws. The statute Amendment more spaciously than his of 1875, now adjudged to be unconstitu colleagues. Likewise with "citizen" in tional, is for the benefit of citizens of ev the Fourteenth Amendment - a term ery race and color. What the nation, that, broadly read, infused the equal prothrough Congress, has sought to accom tection clause, and also, of course, gave plish in reference to that race, is - what muscle to the privileges and immunities had already been done in every State of clause. (As to privileges and immunities, the Union for the white race - to secure Harlan was evidently prepared to de and protect rights belonging to them as part from the narrow orthodoxy of the freemen and citizens ; nothing more. It Slaughter-House majority, which, speak was not deemed enough "to help the fee ing through Justice Miller, had given blethe up, but to support him after. " The one concept of citizenship - i.e., the consti underlying purpose of congressional legis tutionally enforceable rights attendant lation has been to enable the black race to on being a citizen of the United States take - the rank of mere citizens. The diffi the narrowest possible scope. If that in culty has been to compel a recognition of volved the risk of Miller's posthumous the legal right of the black race to take the disapprobation, Harlan had, neverthe rank of citizens, and to secure the enjoy less, the comforting prospect that Bruce ment of privileges belonging, under the Ackerman and the late Charles Black law, to them as a component part of the would ultimately come to his aid.12) people for whose welfare and happiness government is ordained. x3 il Quoted in Charles Fairman, Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864 - 88, vol. 2 (New York: Mac millan, 1971 -1987), 564. (New York : New York University Press, 2001) ; Charles L. Black, Jr., "The Lawfulness of the 12 Bruce Ackerman, "Opinion," in Jack M.Segregation Decisions," Yale Law Journal 69 Balkin, ed., What "Brown v. Board of Education" (i960): 421. Should Have Said : The Nation s Top Legal Experts Rewrite America s Landmark Civil Rights Decision 13 109 U.S. at 61.

34 D dalus Winter 2005 Harlan wrote his dissent with the pen solely because the colored race chooses to The put that construction upon it.16 Supreme that Chief Justice Taney had employed Courtfrom in writing the Court's opinion in Dred "Dred Scott" ScottM Justice Brown was in one respect to "Grutter unique - he is the only justice in the v. Bollinger" Court's history to have studied law at JLn 1896, thirteen years after the Civil both Yale and Harvard, albeit not for Rights Cases, came Plessy v. Ferguson, the long enough to have received a degree debacle that, notwithstanding the Four from either institution. But in a more teenth Amendment, imposed humilia important respect Justice Brown was a tion-by-law on black Americans for half typical member of the white establish a century. ment: "Brown accepted.. .without res The question presented was the validi ervation" the "late nineteenth century ty of Louisiana's 1890 statute - one of prevailing opinion... that the Negro and the Jim Crow laws that spread across the Caucasian races were distinctly separate, South in the 1880s and 1890s - requiring, with the Caucasian race assumed to be with criminal penalties for violation, superior."17 And so it was easy for that black and white railroad passengers Brown to reason his way to the conclu be seated in separate cars, with an excep sion that "separate but equal" facilities tion for "nurses attending children of satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment. the other race." Because the railroad Justice Harlan, once again in dissent, travel in question occurred within Lou had a different view of the provenance isiana, the statute was not open to chal and impact of the Louisiana statute. He lenge as a burden on interstate com recognized that laws of that kind "pro merce.15 So counsel for Homer Plessy, ceed [ed] on the ground that colored citi a pale-skinned man who declined to sit zens are so far inferior and degraded that in the black car, based his case on the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amend they cannot be allowed to sit in public ments. coaches occupied by white citizens. That, as all will admit, is the real mean Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote ing of such legislation."18 Thus, Harlan, the Court's opinion. The heart of the a border-state lawyer, acknowledged the opinion was the following memorable contemporary social realities - the orig pronouncement:

We consider the underlying fallacy of the i6 163 U.S. at 551. plaintiffs argument to consist in the as 17 In the issue of the Harvard Law Review cele sumption that the enforced separation of brating that journal's one hundredth birthday, the two races stamps the colored race with the late Leon Higginbotham noted that "four of a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not the seven Justices who joined in the majority by reason of anything found in the act, but opinion [in Plessy] attended either Harvard or Yale Law School." A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., "The Life of the Law : Values, Commitment 14 John V. Orth, "John Marshall Harlan," in and Craftsmanship," Harvard Law Review 100 Kermit L. Hall, editor in chief, The Oxford Com (1987) : 795, 812. The three justices other than panion to the Supreme Court of the United States Brown were Chief Justice Melville Fuller and (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), Justices Horace Gray and George Shiras, Jr. Har 361-362. lan learned his law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. 15 See Hall v. DeCuir, 95 U.S. 485 (1877) ; cf. Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946). 18 163 U.S. at 560.

D dalus Winter 2005 35 Louis H. Pollak inal intent, if you will, of Jim Crow upon - the grievous shortcomings of those on that his colleagues failed to confront. two Supreme Court decisions upholding race Harlan, with the insight of Cassandra, the government's opprobrious World concluded: War II treatment of Japanese Americans Our Constitution is color-blind, and nei residing on the West Coast - first the humiliating curfew, and then the long ther knows nor tolerates classes among months of arduous detention of upwards citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citi of one hundred thousand American citi zens are equal before the law. The hum zens. The constitutional bankruptcy of blest is the peer of the most powerful. The the two decisions was made plain in law regards man as man, and takes no ac 1945, only a year after Korematsu was de count of his surroundings or of his color cided, by Eugene Rostow of Yale in his when his civil rights as guaranteed by the celebrated article, "The Japanese Amer supreme law of the land are involved. It is, ican Cases - A Disaster."231 can add therefore, to be regretted that this high tri nothing to our late colleague's searing bunal, the final expositor of the funda judgment of the record as it was then mental law of the land, has reached the known. conclusion that it is competent for a State This postscript to Rostow addresses to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of the fact - not uncovered until the 1980s their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. - that the justifications for the curfew and detention regimes offered by the In my opinion, the judgment this day government and accepted by the courts rendered will, in time, prove to be quite were profoundly flawed. The justifica as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case.1^ tions involved recitals of potential acts of sabotage by Japanese Americans in Harlan was not a great judge (Holmes, furtherance of a Japanese invasion, and who served with him during his last of the infeasibility of distinguishing loy years, said that his senior colleague al "hadfrom disloyal Japanese Americans. To a powerful vise the jaws of which validatecould these recitals, the government n't be got nearer than two inches to put each principal reliance on a document en other"20), but in these two unhappy titled "Final Report, Japanese Evacua cases Harlan's vision, and his alone, tion was from the West Coast," whose stated true.21 author was Lieutenant General J. L. De Witt, the commanding general on the IN ext I turn to Hirabayashi and Koremat West Coast who issued the regulations su.2-2. Here my purpose is not to enlarge imposing curfews and requiring Japa nese Americans to report to assembly 19 Ibid., 559 points for transfer to inland detention camps. But the War Department did not 20 Quoted in Paul A. Freund et al., Constitution al Law, 4th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977), xi. tell the Justice Department, let alone the federal courts, that there was an original 21 Cf. Justice Harlan's dissent in Berea College v. DeWitt report whose explanation of the Kentucky, 211 U.S. 45, 58 (1908). But see Gumming military need for detention was so mea v. Richmond County Board of Education, 175 U.S. ger that it had to be editorially enhanced 528 (1899). in Washington. Further, the Justice De 22 Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 1 (1943); Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 14 (1944). 23 Yale Law Journal 54 (1945) : 489.

36 D dalus Winter 2005 The partment, in its Korematsu brief to the trict Court for the Northern District of Supreme Supreme Court, refrained from advising California in the concluding paragraph Courtfrom the Court that some of the risks cited in of her opinion setting aside Korematsu's uDred Scott" to "Grutter the "Final Report" were contradicted by conviction : uKorematsu... stands as a v. Bollinger" information assembled by the FCC and caution that in times of distress the the FBI that the Justice Department in shield of military necessity and national turn credited.24 security must not be used to protect gov The belated disclosures that the War ernmental actions from close scrutiny and Justice Departments had massaged and accountability." history with a view to gulling the judicial branch led Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred 1 aken as a chapter in the Supreme Korematsu, late in their honorable lives, Court's treatment of race, the 1943 de to seek to remove the stain of criminali cision in Hirabayashi and the 1944 deci ty imposed four decades earlier. Relying sion in Korematsu seem, in retrospect, on the venerable writ of coram nobis, not only profoundly wrong at the time each petitioner succeeded in persuading they were decided, but also jarringly out the judicial branch to undo injustice by of harmony with the way other aspects setting aside his conviction.25 The gov of the law of race were by then begin ernment offered only token opposition, ning to unfold. The Court's actions in mainly trying to limit collateral damage. setting aside the capital convictions in Indeed, in Hirabayashi's case, the Ninth the Scottsboro Cases - Powell v. Alabama in Circuit noted that " [t]he government 1932 and Norris v. Alabama and Patterson agrees... that General DeWitt acted on v. Alabama in 1935 - signaled the justices' the basis of his own racist views and not dawning understanding that blacks on the basis of any military judgment caught in the toils of the criminal pro that time was of the essence."26 cess in state courts (particularly, but by What emerges from this sorry episode no means exclusively, in the South) of was well summarized by Judge (now ten found due process to be in short sup Chief Judge) Marilyn H. Patel of the Dis ply. And thus there began to be Supreme Court recognition that sustained federal 24 The solicitor general's brief dealt with this judicial scrutiny was called for. problem by not including the contradicted re Also initiated in the 1930s was the citals among those it expressly asked the Court NAACP's twenty-year campaign against to take judicial notice of, and by adding in a footnote that '"The Final Report of General Plessy - to challenge it frontally or to en DeWitt'... is relied on in this brief for statis force "separate but equal" so stringently tics and other details concerning the actual as to bankrupt its defenders. The archi evacuation and the events that took place sub tect of the campaign was Dean Charles sequent thereto. We have specifically recited in Hamilton Houston of Howard Law this brief the facts relating to the justification for the evacuation, of which we ask the Court School. Houston's 1938 victory in Mis to take judicial notice, and we rely upon the souri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, forcing open Final Report only to the extent that it relates the doors of the Missouri Law School to such facts." Quoted in Korematsu v. United to a black applicant, suggested that, at States, 584 F. Supp. 1406,1418 (N.D. Cal. 1984). least with respect to graduate education,

25 Hirahayashi v. United States, 828 F.2d. 591 some members of the Court might not (9th Cir. 1987) ; Korematsu, 584 F. Supp. 1406. be unreceptive to chipping away at the Plessy edifice. In 1944 just a few months 26 Hirabayashi, 828 F.2d. at 601. prior to Korematsu, Houston's young

D dalus Winter 2005 37 Louis H. Pollak Surrogates, William Henry Hastie argument and was in the fall of 1952. In June on Thurgood Marshall, won a victory of of 1953 the Court ordered reargument for race enormous importance in the political the following term and directed counsel arena : in Smith v. Allwright, Hastie to and address a series of questions. The first Marshall persuaded the Court that two the questions sought guidance from so-called white primary, under which counsel with respect to the meaning of the Democratic Party maintained the Fourteenth Amendment as under whites-only hegemony throughout stood the by its framers and ratifier s. What one-party South, unconstitutionally evidence ex was there that the framers and cluded blacks from effective participa ratifiers "contemplated or did not con tion in the political process. The stage template, understood or did not under was then set for Marshall, Houston, stand" and that the amendment "would Hastie to attack racially restrictive abolish cov segregation in public schools?" enants, and they triumphed in Shelley If there v. was no understanding that the Kraemer and Hurd v. Hodge. Thereafter, amendment "would require the imme Marshall and Robert Carter, now diateunder abolition of segregation in public the banner of the NAACP Legal Defense schools," did the framers and ratifiers Fund, resumed the attack on segregation nonetheless contemplate that, pursuant in graduate and professional schools to the in amendment, a future Congress Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklaor the courts, "in light of future condi homa State Regents. tions," might abolish public school But Plessy remained a brooding doctri segregation? nal presence until, in Brown v. Board I doof not recall any instance before or Education (a consolidation of public since when the Court expressly directed school cases arising in Kansas, Virginia, the parties to conduct a prescribed ex South Carolina, and Delaware) and ploration in of history. What lawyers and the companion District of Columbia historians conducting that research case, Boiling v. Sharpe, the Court, onin theMay summer of 1953 could not have 17,1954, ruled that "in the field of known public was that inside the marble walls education the doctrine of 'separate a parallel but inquiry was being conducted equal' has no place."27 In the next in-house sever - by Justice Frankfurter's con al years, a series of per curiam decisions28 spicuously able law clerk, Alexander in the wake of Brown were to establish Bickel.3? that Jim Crow likewise had no place in the public beaches and golf courses and parks, in the municipal buses and Atlanta, air 350 U.S. 879 (1955) ; New Orleans City ports and auditoria, and in the court Parks Improvement Ass'n v. Detiege, 358 US. 54 (1958) ; Gayle v. Browder, 352 US. 903 (1956) ; houses, that together make up the mo Turner v. City of Memphis, 369 US. 350 (1962) ; saic of community.29 Schiro v. Bynum, 375 US. 395 (1964) ; Johnson v. Like Dred Scott, Brown and Boiling Virginia, were 373 US. 61 (1963). argued on the merits twice. The first 30 The Bickel memorandum, which Frank 27 347 U.S. at 495 (i954). furter circulated to his colleagues shortly be fore the December 1953 reargument, was the 28 See Ernest Brown, "Process of Law," Har launching pad for Bickel's celebrated article, vard Law Review 72 (1958) : 77. "The Original Understanding and the Segre gation Decision," Harvard Law Review 69 (1) 29 Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City v. (1955). See Richard Kluger, Simple Justice : The Dawson, 350 U.S. 877 (1955) ; Holmes v. City of History of "Brown v. Board of Education " and

38 D dalus Winter 2005 The In the event, the historical materials nouncement that the "badge of inferior Supreme adduced by counsel put the Court's ity" was prompted "not by reason of Courtfrom questions in somewhat sharper focus, anything found in the act, but solely be "Dred Scott" to "Grutter but they did not answer those questions. cause the colored race chooses to put v. Bollinger" As the Court, speaking through Chief that construction upon it." What the Justice Warren, explained, the "discus Court in Brown did not do, and has been sion [by counsel on reargument] and our faulted for since, was to state flatly own investigation convince us that, al that racial segregation was imposed though these sources cast some light, by whites on blacks in order to degrade it is not enough to resolve the problem them. We now know - what was not with which we are faced. At best they hard to conjecture in 1954 - that Chief are inconclusive."31 The Court therefore Justice Warren understood that he could turned its attention to "the effect of seg not rally a unanimous Court behind an regation itself on public education" ; but opinion indicting white Southerners. it recognized that " [i]n approaching The chief justice thought that unanimi this problem, we cannot turn the clock ty - the unanimity that the Court had back to 1868 when the Amendment was not achieved in Dred Scott, or in the Civil adopted, or even to 1896 when Plessy v. Rights Cases, or in Plessy, or in Korematsu Ferguson was written." - was worth a very great deal. It is hard And so the Court decided the issues to say persuasively that he was wrong. before it on the basis of a factual finding Nonetheless, the feeling that a more of the three-judge district court that had powerful opinion could, and perhaps tried the case brought on behalf of Linda should, have been written has persisted. Brown by her father Oliver Brown in To What may have been the first of those peka, Kansas. That district court had de revisionist efforts was mine, in response cided the case against Linda because it to the expressed inability of the late Her felt bound by Plessy's "separate but bert Wechsler to locate a sound ground equal" formula. But the district court ing for Brown - a critique that was a cen had, nonetheless, made the following tral ingredient of Wechsler's famous finding on the basis of the testimony it 1959 Holmes Lecture, "Toward Neutral had heard: "Segregation of white and Principles of Constitutional Law."33 colored children in public schools has a The centerpiece of my version of detrimental effect upon the colored chil Brown was an extended quotation from dren. The impact is greater when it has 33 Harvard Law Review 73 (1) (1959). For those the sanction of law; for the policy of sep strongly committed to the Tightness of Brown, arating the races is usually interpreted the dubitante posture of Herbert Wechsler was a matter of serious concern. "Wechsler was, as denoting the inferiority of the negro group."32 The Supreme Court quoted after all, a person of liberal persuasion who fully subscribed to the precepts of equality that and adopted that finding. undergirded Brown. More importantly, Wech What the Court had done was cut the sler was a lawyer and a scholar at the pinnacle heart out of Justice Brown's Plessy pro of achievement and influence in our profession. As Judge [Richard] Posner, himself a figure of commanding professional status, put it in 1995 Black America 's Struggle for Equality (New York : in Overcoming Law : '[T]here is no longer any Knopf, 1975), 655 one in the legal profession who has the kind of stature that a Wechsler achieved.'" From Louis 31 Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US. at 489. H. Pollak, "From Cardozo to Dworkin : Some Variations on Professor Nelson's Theme," Saint 32 Ibid., 494. Louis University Law Journal 48 (2004): 860.

D dalus Winter 2005 39 Louis H. Pollak C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career suspect that Jack Balkin and his col on of Jim Crow. " [T]he Jim Crow laws," leagues, I who have crafted such a re race quoted from Woodward, markable group of alternative Brown opinions,35 would not disagree. But I applied to all Negroes - not merely to the will add here what I went on to say : rowdy, or drunken, or surly, or ignorant ones. The new laws did not countenance Professor Wechsler, sympathetic to the re the old conservative tendency to distin sult but skeptical of the rationale, is frank guish between classes of the race, to en ly uncertain of history's verdict: "Who courage the "better" element, and to willdraw be bold enough to say whether the it into a white alliance. Those laws backed judgment in the segregation cases will up the Alabamian who told the disfran be judged fifty years from now to have chising convention of his state that no advanced the cause of brotherhood or to Negro in the world was the equal of "the have illustrated Bagehot's dictum that the least, poorest, lowest-down white man I 'courage which strengthens an enemy and ever knew. "... The Jim Crow laws put whichthe so loses, not only the present battle, authority of the state or city in the voice but many after battles, is a heavy curse to of the street-car conductor, the railway men and nations.'" But some are bold brakeman, the bus driver, the theater ush enough - or fool-hardy enough - to make er, and also into the voice of the hoodlum the prophecy Professor Wechsler eschews : of the public parks and playgrounds. They the judgment in the segregation cases will gave free rein and the majesty of the law as the decades pass give ever deeper mean to mass aggressions that might otherwise ing to our national life. It will endure as have been curbed, blunted, or deflected. long as our Constitution and our demo The Jim Crow laws, unlike feudal laws, cratic faith endure.36 did not assign the subordinate group a Fifty years after Brown - and notwith fixed status in society. They were con standing the gravity of the race issues stantly pushing the Negro farther down. that are still unresolved -1 remain of And to the Woodward quote I added that - view. for the Court that I had allowed myself Ten years later, in 1969, a remarkable to impersonate : "We see little room thing for happened: Herbert Wechsler doubt that it is the function of Jim changed Crow his mind. The occasion was a laws to make identification as a Negro speech a to a Texas bar group on develop matter of stigma. Such governmental ments in the law relating to civil liberties denigration is a form of injury the andCon civil rights.37 In the course of his re stitution recognizes and will protect marks, Wechsler noted that he had "spo against." ken elsewhere of my difficulties with the Having written my revision of Brown, I summoned up the pretentious humility sler," University of Pennsylvania Law Review i (1959): 108. to add that a "draft opinion, prepared in

hindsight by one who has no responsi 35 Balkin, What "Brown v. Board of Education" bility to decide, is only an academic ex Should Have Said. ercise designed to prove a point. The fateful national consequences of Brown v. 36 Pollak, "Racial Discrimination and Judicial Board of Education stem from the opinion Integrity," 30-31. and judgment actually rendered."341 37 Herbert T. Wechsler, "The Nationalization 34 Louis H. Pollak, "Racial Discrimination and of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights," Texas Quar Judicial Integrity : A Reply to Professor Wech terly 12 (1969): 10. 40 D dalus Winter 2005 The School opinion [Brown]." And then what Brown stands for, but it is not what Wechsler said : Supreme Brown forthrightly said. Courtfrom The forthright judicial acknowledg uDred Scott" The decision is, however, more acceptable to "Grutter ment of the history that John Harlan and when its principle is seen to be that any v. Bollinger" Vann Woodward understood only came racial line, implying an invidious assess in 1967 when the Court, in Loving v. Vir ment, may no longer be prescribed by law ginia, invalidated Virginia's antimisce or by official action. That principle, it genation law. That law, captioned as in should be noted, means that race may still tended to "Preserve Racial Integrity," be made a factor in decision if the ground criminalized marriage between a "white is not invidious in implication, as in striv person" and anyone other than another ing for a racial balance to correct inequali "white person." The law left all persons ties of opportunity that may be found.38 of color free to marry any person of their same or any other color.40 The Court, in changing his mind, Wechsler ex speaking through Chief Justice Warren, plained himself in terms that support the author of Brown and Boiling, ruled the Court's most recent important deci that " [t]here is patently no legitimate sion on racial matters, Grutterv. Bollinger. overriding purpose independent of in In this 2003 case, the Court ruled that vidious racial discrimination which jus factoring race into the admissions deci tifies this classification. The fact that sions of the University of Michigan Law Virginia only prohibits interracial mar School was compatible with the Consti riages involving white persons demon tution. To be sure, Justice O'Connor's strates that the racial classifications opinion for the Court in Grutter was must stand on their own justification, keyed to deference to the school's per as measures designed to maintain White ception of its compelling educational in Supremacy."41 terest in assuring a diverse student body, Race and law and history had, at long rather than to "striving for a racial bal last, come together. ance to correct inequalities of opportu nity." vard Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Brown But I suggest that in the years to come, v. Board of Education, Harvard Law School, April Grutter may also be perceived as a con 17, 2004. duit to the more widely applicable uses of affirmative action adumbrated in 40 The Virginia legislature that enacted the antimiscegenation law relaxed its rigor in one Wechsler's sober second thought. Those respect. A person with "one-sixteenth or less are the uses that will be seen to be rooted of the blood of the American Indian and... in Brown - a Brown to be read not simply no other non-Caucasic blood" was statutorily as an essay about public schools, but deemed "white." The Registrar of the State Bu rather as a recognition of a fundamental reau of Vital Statistics explained that the pur pose of this accommodation was "to recognize fact of our nation's history, namely, that, as an integral part of the white race the descen as Laurence Tribe has recently put it, dants of John Rolfe and Pocahontas." 388 U.S. "the social meaning" of racial segrega at 5 n. 4. tion "was white supremacy."39 That is 38 Ibid., 23. In fairness to Wechsler, I should 41 Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). note that he did not express any policy enthusi asm for remedial programs of this sort.

39 Remarks of Laurence Tribe at a panel enti tled "Looking Forward," concluding the Har D dalus Winter 2005 41 Ian Haney López

Race on the 2010 census: Hispanics & the shrinking white majority

At our country’s founding, we made sioned a polity comprised of whites– race the constitutional test for those they would be, as the Census Bureau capable of self-government. Our na- put it in 1852, “the governing race.”3 tion’s organic document allocated con- And whites have remained politically, gressional seats among the states in pro- economically, and socially dominant, portion to “the whole Number of free notwithstanding the Reconstruction Persons . . . excluding Indians not taxed amendments that ended the explicit [and] three ½fths of all other Persons.”1 allocation of political representation The Constitution then commanded that along racial lines. The modern census a census divine those racial numbers shows that by almost every relevant so- every ten years. From its ½rst enumer- ciological measure, whites continue to ation in 1790, the decennial census occupy the superior position in Ameri- formed part of the process by which the can society. racial state elaborated itself and society, But a demographic revolution is un- race and democracy. derway, partly as a result of a long his- In the two centuries plus since, every tory of U.S. expansion, colonial incur- census has tabulated the number of sions, and gunboat diplomacy through- “white” persons in the United States.2 out the Western Hemisphere. Latin The original Constitution clearly envi- Americans for several decades have composed the largest immigrant group

Ian Haney López is professor of law at the Univer- 1 U.S. Const., art. I, § 2, cl. 3. sity of California, Berkeley. His most recent book, “Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice” 2 Melissa Nobles, Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics (Stanford, (2003), uses the legal history of the Mexican Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2000), 28, 44. American civil rights struggle to explore the rela- The 1850 and 1860 censuses constitute partial tionship between legal violence and racial identity. exceptions: “white” did not appear on the cen- His previous book, “White by Law: The Legal sus schedule, but enumerators were instructed Construction of Race” (1996), examined a series “in all cases where a person is white [to] leave the space blank.” of court cases determining who was white and on what grounds under U.S. naturalization law. 3 Quoted in Clara E. Rodríguez, Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts the United States (New York: New York Univer- & Sciences sity Press, 2000), 76.

42 Dædalus Winter 2005 in the United States, and this trend will This tectonic shift heralds more than Hispanics continue, if not accelerate. Not even a mere decline in relative numbers. The & the shrinking closing the border would signi½cantly increasingly nonwhite population brings white disrupt this development. Domestic real pressure to bear on the advantages majority births currently outpace immigration as previously reserved for whites. Observe the primary source of Latino population electoral politics, where the major par- growth, with births to Hispanic mothers ties increasingly see their futures bound outnumbering all other deliveries com- up in attracting Hispanic votes. Or con- bined in bellwether California. The U.S. sider cultural politics and Sam Hunting- Latino population increased 58 percent ton’s most recent screed decrying the between 1990 and 2000, and this group, threat ostensibly posed by Latino immi- the largest minority in the country, now grants to our alleged “core Anglo-Protes- accounts for more than one of every tant culture.”6 And then there are the eight Americans.4 The Census Bureau structural concerns, like the distribution conservatively estimates that by 2020 of wealth and economic power; access Latinos will number 17 percent of the to employment, government bene½ts, country. and health care; and patterns of residen- What, then, of the white population tial and school segregation. Swelling La- in 2020? The Census Bureau projects tino numbers make each of these poten- that whites will still constitute a com- tial flash points of conflict, with even fortable majority at 79 percent. But it greater strife looming in the future as an gets this ½gure only by including ‘His- increasingly brown workforce shoulders panic whites,’ those Latinos who identi- the burden of supporting a predomi- fy as racially white on the census. With- nantly white retired class. out those Latino millions, the Bureau One thing is clear: the declining per- estimates that in the next ½fteen years centage of whites in America imperils whites will fall to just sixty-four of every continued white dominance. This may hundred Americans.5 sound like good news to those otherwise So there it is: if Latinos are not count- dedicated to ending racial hierarchy. But ed as white, then whites within a few for those comfortable with the status years will barely comprise three-½fths quo, and for those who recognize that of all Americans, and not too long after change often brings conflict, there’s that, probably before 2050, a numerical cause to worry. The “governing race” is minority. in jeopardy–depending, partly, on how Latinos are counted. 4 U.S. Bureau of the Census, The Hispanic Popu- lation: Census 2000 Brief (May 2001), 2. During the nineteenth century, most whites regarded Latin Americans as 5 The population projections are taken from mongrels debased by their mixture of U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Projec- tions Program, Population Division, Projections Spanish and Native American (and of the Resident Population by Race, Hispanic Ori- sometimes African and Asian) blood. gin, and Nativity: Middle Series, 2016 to 2020 The perception that Hispanics were (accessed turn encouraged by Manifest Destiny, January 13, 2000), and U.S. Bureau of the Cen- sus, Current Population Reports: Population Projec- 6 Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?: The tions of the United States by Age, Race, and Hispan- Challenges to America’s National Identity (New ic Origin: 1995 to 2050 (1996), 13. York: Simon & Schuster, 2004).

Dædalus Winter 2005 43 Ian the Monroe Doctrine, and U.S. expan- almost half a million Mexican residents Haney López sion into Latin America. Yet paradoxical- –nationals and U.S. citizens alike– on ly, conquest and colonialism also led the south across the border. race United States to categorize Latinos of½- Intense lobbying by Mexican Ameri- cially as white. When the United States cans and the Mexican government, as annexed Mexico’s northern half in the well as the executive branch’s desire to mid-1800s, and again when it claimed secure alliances in the face of impending sovereignty over Puerto Rico at centu- war in Europe, led the Census Bureau to ry’s end, Congress preferred to grant cit- reverse course in 1940. For the next thir- izenship to supposed inferiors rather ty years, census takers classi½ed Mexi- than to transform the United States into can Americans and, after 1950, Puerto an explicitly imperial power ruling over Ricans as white, unless they appeared to subjugated peoples. The net effect was be “de½nitely . . . Negro, Indian, or some an of½cial presumption that Latin Amer- other race.” Even so, the census contin- icans were white, combined with state ued to collect data on Mexican Ameri- policies and popular beliefs that treated cans as a distinct population. In 1940, the them as racial failures. Bureau counted persons who reported Prior to 1930, census takers followed Spanish as their mother tongue; in 1950, the of½cial presumption of whiteness, it began disaggregating “white persons counting Latin Americans as white.7 But of Spanish surname.”8 Also in 1950, it the early twentieth century saw increas- began collecting data on persons who ing antagonism toward the foreign-born, identi½ed Puerto Rico as their birth- just as immigration from Mexico surged. place. In 1924, Congress instituted administra- Under pressure from Latino groups, tive changes to curtail Mexican migra- President Nixon in 1970 ordered that the tion, effectively creating the modern census include a national question about border patrol. Legal Mexican immigra- Hispanic ethnicity. Because millions of tion that had previously averaged almost questionnaires had already been printed sixty thousand persons a year dropped to without this item, the Bureau included it three thousand in 1931. In this xenopho- only on the long form, asking the 5 per- bic context, the Census Bureau in 1930 cent who received this more detailed classi½ed Mexicans as a distinct non- questionnaire to choose whether their white race. This classi½cation helped le- “origin or descent” was Mexican, Puerto gitimize federal and state expulsion cam- Rican, Cuban, Central or South Ameri- paigns between 1931 and 1935 that forced can, or other Spanish. The 1980 census was the ½rst to ask all persons whether 7 On the census and Hispanics, see generally they were of “Spanish/Hispanic origin Rodríguez, Changing Race; Sharon M. Lee, “Ra- or descent.” In doing so, it formally cial Classi½cations in the U.S. Census, 1890– adopted the practice of conceptualizing 1990,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 16 (1) (1993): 75–94, esp. 75, 78; Jorge Chapa, “Hispanic/ Hispanics in ethnic terms, separating Latino Ethnicity and Identi½ers,” in Margo J. this item from the question about race. Anderson, ed., Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census Coincidentally, in 1980 the Bureau for (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly the ½rst time shifted from having census Press, 2000); U.S. Bureau of the Census, Histor- takers make racial determinations to ical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790–1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970–1990, asking respondents to classify them- for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States (September 2002), table 1. 8 Rodríguez, Changing Race, 102.

44 Dædalus Winter 2005 selves. The combination of self-report- race question and upped the number of Hispanics ing plus the new Hispanic ethnicity item references to race in the latter item by & the shrinking produced a startling result: the numbers yet one more. The proportion of Latinos white in the “other race” category, a ½xture of choosing the “other race” category ½- majority every census since 1910, virtually explod- nally declined–but only from 43 to 42.2 ed, increasing tenfold. In 1980, more percent. Again, Latinos represented 97 than 7.5 million persons listed them- percent of that category. selves under the “other race” designa- The census uses the “other race” cate- tion–and they were almost all Latinos. gory as a reserve, a catchall for outliers. The Census Bureau, studying these It does not treat those who identify as numbers, concluded that the difference “other” as a distinct group, but instead between ethnicity and race confused disaggregates them by imputing their Hispanics. In another 1980 innovation, numbers to the remaining races follow- the Bureau attempted to distance itself ing a complicated formula. This ap- from racial categorization by eliding ex- proach worked well when “other” actu- plicit references to race, asking obliquely ally functioned as a residual category, “Is this person ?” and providing op- but since 1980, “other” has become a tions like “white” and “black” before Latino phenomenon. Virtually all per- ending with “Other–specify.” Revers- sons choosing “other” are Hispanic, and ing course, in 1990 the Bureau made sure this group now constitutes 6 percent of those considering “other” got that it the nation’s population. More than one meant race. Under “Race” neatly printed in twenty Americans is a Latino who de- in boldface, the census worked “race” scribes him or herself as racially “other” into the “other” option four times: “If on the census. other race, print race” the form com- It is not likely that the large number of manded, with an arrow to a blank box, Hispanics choosing “other” are rebelling under which the form repeated for em- against race altogether. Admittedly, data phasis, “Other race (print race).” from 1990 show that many Hispanics in Not only did the “other race” ½gure fact left the race item blank–but this not decline, it increased–and by a lot. still came to only about 4.5 percent of The number of racial others jumped by Latino respondents, a far smaller group 45 percent between 1980 and 1990, mak- than that which identi½es as “other.” ing that category the second-fastest- No, it’s emphatically the case that con- growing racial group in the country. sistently almost half of all U.S. Latinos Again Latinos drove the increase: 97.5 believe they’re members of a race that’s percent of those choosing “other race” not white, black, Native American, identi½ed as Hispanics, while the pro- Asian, or Paci½c Islander–the principal portion of Latinos opting for the “other choices on the census. But if so, what race” designation rose to 43 percent. But race are they? And how should the cen- the Bureau refused to be defeated. In sus treat this group? both 1980 and 1990, the Hispanic question was the seventh item on the short Latinos may be divided into three ra- form, well after the race question at cial camps.9 First, there are black His- number four. Perhaps the order and panics, who identify as Latino ethnically lack of propinquity proved just too con- 9 This discussion draws on census data analy- founding. In 2000, the Bureau put the sis from John R. Logan, How Race Counts for Hispanic query immediately before the Hispanic Americans (Albany, N.Y.: Lewis Mum-

Dædalus Winter 2005 45 Ian and as black racially. This group, steady Black, white, and Latino are not the Haney López at just under 3 percent of the Latino pop- only racial identities embraced by His- on ulation since 1980, numbers almost a panics, but they are the principal ones race million in the United States. Next come (in the 2000 census, 1.2 percent identi- white Hispanics, who grew from 9 mil- ½ed as American Indian, and 0.3 percent lion in 1980 to just shy of 18 million in as Asian). These primary racial identities 2000. This doubling did not, however, correspond to important differences keep pace with the growth of the Latino among Hispanics, for example in nativ- population as a whole; the proportion of ity and language. Racial differences Latinos claiming to be white has steadily among Hispanics also shape life chances declined, from 64 percent in 1980, to 54 as measured by income, employment, percent in 1990, to just fewer than 50 poverty, and segregation. Along all four percent in 2000. measures, a gradient traces the positions Then there are Latino Hispanics, who of Hispanics, with white and black identify as Hispanic on the ethnicity marking the extremes, and Latino His- question and as “other” on the race panics consistently in between. For in- item, most often writing in “Latino,” stance, in 2000 the unemployment rate “Hispanic,” or a national origin term. rose from 8 percent for white Hispanics, This population has steadily gained to 9.5 percent for Latino Hispanics, to among all Latinos, from 34 percent in 12.3 percent for black Hispanics–which 1980, to 44 percent in 1990, to 47 percent exceeded the black unemployment rate in 2000–just shy of the number who of 11 percent. Similarly, the proportion identify as white Hispanics. It’s these of persons living below the poverty level nearly seventeen million respondents, rose from less than a quarter of white Hispanics who claim Latino not only as Hispanics to nearly a third of black His- an ethnicity but also as a race, who cause panics–again exceeding the rate for the Census Bureau so much consterna- non-Hispanic blacks. One demographer tion. argues that racial dissimilarities among Latino Hispanics actively consider Latinos may be so great that “there are themselves a race. And their numbers now better reasons to classify black His- may be much greater than the “other” panics as black than as Hispanic.”11 category indicates. The census numbers imply that slightly fewer Latinos think With so many Latinos thinking of they’re racially distinct than consider themselves as a race, and yet with race themselves white. But a major survey, dividing Hispanics so powerfully, how using more intensive questioning, should the census count Latinos? Ken- strongly suggests that in fact a signi½- neth Prewitt has suggested one solution: cant majority of Latinos believe they’re a race, while only one in ½ve identi½es as white and a much smaller number claim ry of Findings (December 2002), 31. “What race to be black.10 do you consider yourself to be?” Posing this and a series of follow-up questions to nearly three thousand Latinos, this survey found that ford Center for Comparative Urban and Re- 56 percent of Hispanics consider themselves gional Research, University at Albany), July 14, racially Latino, while only 20 percent accept a 2003. white racial identity.

10 Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foun- 11 Logan, How Race Counts for Hispanic Ameri- dation, 2002 National Survey of Latinos, Summa- cans, 10.

46 Dædalus Winter 2005 First, combine the race and ethnicity comparability should remain high for Hispanics questions in a format that allows respon- all racial groups (save, of course, for the & the shrinking dents to select more than one option. “other race” and the new Latino race white Second, follow up the race and ethnicity categories), since the choose-one-or- majority item with a question encouraging re- more option ensures that race and eth- spondents to specify their ancestry, na- nicity will remain complements rather tionality, ethnic origin, and/or tribal af- than become mutually exclusive. Thus, ½liation.12 no one would be forced to choose be- The modern census collects personal tween, for instance, identifying as His- data for two principal reasons: to track panic or white. Finally and importantly, the changing lives of our country’s resi- because race and ethnicity are already dents and to facilitate effective gover- effectively fungible under antidiscrimi- nance. For the latter, an accurate census nation law, combining these questions plays various roles. But chief among on the census would not have a deleteri- these governmental functions is amass- ous effect on civil rights enforcement. ing the statistics necessary to enforce But perhaps the real promise of Pre- and measure the ef½cacy of civil rights witt’s proposal lies in joining the race laws. and ethnicity item with a subsequent These fundamental purposes provide question on nationality, ancestry, eth- a basis against which to judge proposed nic origin, and/or tribal af½liation. changes to how the census counts races. Despite its various drawbacks, the Measured this way, Prewitt’s suggestion census short form actually gathers racial promises a dramatic improvement. and ethnic data in a manner that allows Those Latinos who think of themselves a more sophisticated parsing of Latinos in separate ethnic and racial terms–as than of other groups. Hispanics under white or black Hispanics–could indi- the current system can be disaggregated cate this by marking multiple categories. along lines of race and national origin, Their sense that Hispanic constitutes an providing insight into signi½cant differ- ethnicity would be preserved, while they ences within that group. As we’ve seen, could also identify racially as they wish. Hispanic lives differ dramatically in At the same time, racial Latinos who un- ways that correspond to whether indi- der the current bifurcated census system viduals identify as racially white, black, identify as racially “other” could mark or Latino. Similarly, national origin “Hispanic” alone to signal that this con- drives profound sociological differences stitutes both their ethnic and racial iden- among Latinos; the census shows, for tity. example, that 36 percent of Dominicans In terms of sociological accuracy, cre- but only half that proportion of Cubans ating a taxonomy in which virtually all Latinos can locate themselves racially would constitute a major advance. No while simultaneously allowing respondents to longer would the census disregard the pick more than one identity. One result was 6 percent of Americans who consider that the number of Hispanics identifying as themselves racially Latino.13 Moreover, white fell to 13.7 percent; another was that the number choosing “other race” plummeted to 12 See Kenneth Prewitt in this issue of 0.4 percent. Charles Hirschman, Richard Alba, Dædalus. and Reynolds Farley, “The Meaning and Mea- surement of Race in the US Census: Glimpses 13 In 1996 the Census Bureau studied the ef- into the Future,” Demography 37 (2000): 381, fect of combining the race and ethnicity items 389.

Dædalus Winter 2005 47 Ian live below the poverty line in the United ship, and so forth in terms of race sup- Haney López States. In this intragroup diversity, Lati- plemented by color, the results would be on nos are entirely typical. No racial group truly eye-opening. Indeed, they would race is internally homogenous; whites, almost surely force not only a major re- blacks, Native Americans, Asians, and consideration of what we mean by rac- Paci½c Islanders all vary along internal ism in the United States, but also an fault lines. overhaul of civil rights laws, which, as Race is comprised by various forms of they stand, ineffectively respond to color social differentiation, including nation- discrimination.14 And measuring color ality, ancestry, ethnic origin, tribal af½l- wouldn’t be all that dif½cult to do. A iation, and, I would add, color. In turn, census color item could elicit self-de- these overlapping forms of identity es- scriptions (“Would you describe your tablish internal differences and, often, skin color and features as very dark, hierarchies within racial groups. Yet the dark, medium, light, or very light?”), or census captures such variation poorly it could rely on interviewer evaluations with respect to Latinos, with still less of the sort developed in psychology accuracy for Asians and Native Ameri- studies. Whether in terms of sociologi- cans, and not at all for whites and blacks. cal insight or effective civil rights laws, The most egregious omission is color, a gathering data on not only race but also crucial component in shaping how race color would greatly improve current is experienced. Without a question on practices. color, the census can hardly hope to measure, even remotely, the full impact But let’s be clear: the census isn’t going of race on American lives. to gather data on color anytime soon. In- The census should move toward great- deed, it’s much more likely to bow to er re½nement in collecting racial data by pressure in the other direction and elim- following Prewitt’s suggestion and ask- inate questions on race entirely. George ing each person not only a race and eth- Will recently insisted that “because His- nicity question, but also a follow-up on panics have supplanted blacks as Ameri- national origin, ethnic background, ca’s largest minority, it is time to remove ancestry, and/or tribal af½liation. And it the race question from the census form. should also have a question on color. I This would . . . fuel the wholesome revolt do not mean one whose answer would against the racial and ethnic spoils sys- require a literal skin color test, such as a tem that depends on racial and ethnic melanin count. Color here means somat- categorizations.”15 Which should re- ic details that translate in racially signi½- mind us: the census remains just as cant ways–hair color and texture, facial much a weapon in struggles over race features, skin tone, and so on. Few stud- now as in 1790 or 1930. Technical argu- ies have tracked the influence of color on ments about census reform should not intragroup differences among minori- blind us to this larger reality. ties, and no study that I know of exam- 14 See generally Taunya Banks, “Colorism: A ines color among whites. Yet existing Darker Shade of Pale,” ucla Law Review 47 studies con½rm a remarkably consistent (2000): 1705–1746; Trina Jones, “Shades of and pernicious dynamic: light color cor- Brown: The Law of Skin Color,” Duke Law Jour- relates to privilege, dark to disadvantage. nal 49 (2000): 1487–1557. Were the census to track socioeco- 15 George F. Will, “Race, Now an Anachro- nomic position, education, homeowner- nism,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 2003.

48 Dædalus Winter 2005 No one believes that today’s census of- thing about them is their race and eth- Hispanics ½cials crudely calculate the best way to nicity.”17 A census without these items & the shrinking bend their power in the service of racial presumably would convey Glazer’s pre- white supremacy. Just the opposite, many cen- ferred message that the government majority sus technocrats embrace the census’s thinks race and ethnicity unimportant. civil rights role and would ½ght to pre- It’s certainly true that the census implic- serve it. Nevertheless, racial politics will itly communicates a state-sanctioned inform, directly and indirectly, the aca- understanding of race, and that reform- demic discussions, intense lobbying, ad- ers should weigh the symbolic aspects of ministrative wrangling, and executive racial data collection. But largely elimi- and congressional politicking that will nating race from the census, as Glazer ultimately shape the 2010 census. And so proposes, would hamstring the govern- we return to where this essay began, for ment’s ability to measure life chances or surely a looming question behind the enforce civil rights laws–that is, would maneuvering is this: will Latinos and defeat the modern census’s central pur- other minorities soon swamp the white poses. Communicating a preferred ra- race? cial message can hardly justify this re- One response is to obfuscate any de- sult. Does Glazer really think we should mographic change. Nathan Glazer’s overthrow racial counting and all that it recent proposal to end the collection achieves in both telling us about and im- of racial data regarding all groups but proving life in the United States, because blacks can certainly be read in this it suggests to Americans that race mat- light. With only blacks counted, and ters? that population steady at about 12 per- But Glazer also adduces another argu- cent, whites would implicitly remain the ment: the “irrationality” of the census overwhelming majority. “Underlying the categories. “Are there really so many proposal [is] an ideological or political races in Asia that each country should position,” Glazer admits, “that it is nec- consist of a single and different race, essary and desirable to recognize and en- compared to simply ‘white’ for all of courage the ongoing assimilation of the Europe and the Middle East?” he asks.18 many strands that make up the Ameri- By irrational does Glazer mean incoher- can people.”16 Does he not mean, on ent? If so, what else would one expect of some level, that ceasing to count non- a set of ideas and practices formed over black minorities is desirable because it centuries through the clash of compet- would super½cially fold them into and ing social forces? The different treat- thus perpetuate a majority that is im- ment the census accords the Asian and plicitly white? white races doesn’t represent some in- Glazer does not make this argument, tellectual failing among census bureau- instead defending his proposal by point- crats or, as Glazer later implies, the wily ing to the census’s symbolic role: “The machinations of self-interested minori- census contains a message to the Ameri- ties. It reflects instead changes in U.S. can people, and like any message it edu- racial ideology during the ½rst half of the cates to some end: It tells them that the twentieth century, when newly closed government thinks the most important borders and the exigencies of the Great 16 Nathan Glazer, “Do We Need the Census 17 Ibid., 22. Race Question?” Public Interest (Fall 2002): 21, 23. 18 Ibid., 23.

Dædalus Winter 2005 49 Ian Depression and World War II separated increasingly popular. I suspect calls for Haney López for whites but not for others the previ- eliminating race from the census gain on ously conjoined notions of race and na- traction not on their merits but because race tion, resulting in the monolithic white they resonate with an emergent racial identity we’re familiar with today.19 ideology–color blindness. “The concept of race,” the Census Bu- reau explained in de½ning that term in Invoking the early civil rights move- 1950, “is derived from that which is ment’s formal antiracism, color blind- commonly accepted by the general pub- ness calls for a principled refusal to rec- lic.”20 The census has always relied on ognize race in public life. This ideology culturally rooted concepts in measuring espouses a deep commitment to ending the impress of race–and after 1950, even racial hierarchy, but in fact wages war the Bureau recognized this to be so. Gla- not so much against white dominance as zer mistakes an increasingly common- against the idea that white dominance place insight for a compelling critique: persists. By rejecting all race-conscious that race is socially constructed does not government action, even that designed amount to an argument that it should be to end subordination, color blindness jettisoned. The census has no choice but prevents the state from addressing struc- to rely on incoherent categories if it tural racial inequality. Moreover, by es- hopes to measure race in the United chewing all talk of race, color blindness States–not because Bureau technocrats forecloses debate regarding racism’s are incapable of designing commensu- continuing vitality. Color blindness pro- rate categories, but because race arises tects racial supremacy from both politi- out of (fundamentally irrational) social cal intervention and social critique. practices. Despite this, or rather because of it, Glazer’s arguments, taken at face val- color blindness is rapidly gaining as the ue, are quite weak. He would be far more most powerful way of (not) seeing race convincing if he opposed the census’s in America. Let’s be clear, then, about use of race by forthrightly addressing its its political and racial valences: color principal justi½cations, explaining di- blindness is powerfully conservative, by rectly why he thinks it no longer impor- which I mean that as a current practice tant to document race’s social impact, (rather than as a distant ideal) it con- or why he believes the census should no serves the racial status quo. And in this, longer concern itself with assisting in it takes on a racial cast, inasmuch as pre- or measuring the ef½cacy of civil rights serving the present works best for those laws. But despite their inanition, the currently racially dominant. In short, sorts of arguments Glazer makes are whatever its antiracist pretensions, color blindness primarily serves the political 19 See Mathew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the and racial interests of whites. Alchemy of Race (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard It should come as no surprise that col- University Press, 1999); Mae Ngai, Impossible or blindness and concern over the His- Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern panic presence sometimes merge, as America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Ward Connerly recently demonstrated. Press, 2004). Connerly, the prime backer of the voter 20 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of the Pop- initiative that ended af½rmative action ulation: 1950, Population Characteristics of the in California, recently campaigned for Population (1953), vol. 2, pt. 1, 35. what he termed the Racial Privacy Initia-

50 Dædalus Winter 2005 tive, which would have prohibited Cali- skewing life chances, and for the utility Hispanics fornia from collecting racial data. He of civil rights laws in ameliorating rac- & the shrinking vociferously promoted the initiative, ism. So long as racism strongly persists white which lost, as a step toward color blind- in the United States, race deserves a cen- majority ness. But in a less guarded moment, he tral place on the census. also admitted that he intended through Some opponents of racial counting, the initiative to prevent Latinos from including Glazer, urge the Census Bu- claiming the status of racial minorities. reau to replace race with another con- “In California,” Connerly explained to a cept, for instance ancestry or ethnici- Washington Post reporter, “those of Mexi- ty.22 Such alternatives necessarily oper- can descent will soon be a majority. . . . ate not as full proxies for but in tension They want to see af½rmative action pol- with race, and would produce distorted icies remain so they can take advantage census data. What does ancestry mean of them. They want to claim minority for blacks in the United States, for in- status when, in fact, they will soon be a stance, when they have been stripped of majority in California. They want to hide family and ancestral history? How do behind the term ‘Latino’ and ‘people of whites conceive of ethnicity, when iden- color,’ but most of them check the white tities like Irish and Italian returned to box [on the census form] anyway.”21 vogue only recently in response to black At the precise historical moment when gains during the civil rights movement? race has become a tool for undoing rac- The census asks people to identify them- ism and when, in addition, the nonwhite selves. If we want to know about race, population seems ½nally poised to sur- then the census must pose its questions pass the white group, color blindness has in terms that respondents will recognize emerged as a new racial ideology. Its ad- easily as racial. Technocrats and soma- herents wield it mainly to forestall any tologists may entertain themselves with recognition of, or response to, racism’s new or substitute constructs, but the deep and continuing legacy. In the con- census can only gather data effectively if text of Latino demographics and racial it uses a broadly intelligible vocabulary. counting, however, its partisans see in To gather racial data, the census must color blindness a means of obscuring the ask directly about race–there is no other rapidly approaching shift from a white- way. majority to a white-minority country. Calls for a nostrum in which the cen- Our country faces dramatic racial sus abandons racial categories should be change on two fronts, one demographic regarded with strong suspicion. Certain- and the other ideological. The increasing ly not everyone who argues that the cen- Latino numbers and the spreading poli- sus should abandon race proceeds from tics of color blindness make it dif½cult to a commitment to freezing current hier- discern the racial future. Nevertheless, archies. But even among those who do not espouse color blindness, opposing 22 Glazer, “Do We Need the Census Race the census’s use of race entails an im- Question?” 23. See also David Hollinger in this plicit disregard for the role race plays in issue of Dædalus, as well as American Anthro- pological Association, “American Anthropolog- ical Association Response to omb Directive 15: 21 Quoted in Darryl Fears, “California Activist Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics Seeks End to Identi½cation by Race,” The Wash- and Administrative Reporting” (September ington Post, July 5, 2003, A1. 1997), .

Dædalus Winter 2005 51 Ian two things are clear. First, we’re in a mo- Haney López ment of dramatic racial flux. Race will on surely look profoundly different in 2050, race and maybe even as soon as 2020. Second, the census will have a central role in this racial revolution. Partly and importantly, as racial ideas evolve over the next decades, the census will help us track whether racial inequality dimin- ishes or increases. But the census will do more than measure society; over the next decades, it will directly foster racial change. How the census counts race in 2010 will shape conceptions of race in 2020 and so on into the future, making the census itself an important battle- ground. The racial questions asked by the census reflect triumphs and defeats in this society’s long engagement with racism–sometimes in battles fought immediately over the census and its racial data collection. Debates about the 2010 census must forthrightly engage the larger racial dynamics in which the census, for good or ill, remains deeply embedded.

52 Dædalus Winter 2005 Kim M. Williams

Multiracialism & the civil rights future

Spurred by a small group of activists in legislation between 1992 and 1998 to the 1990s, the American system of racial add a multiracial category to state forms. classi½cation changed recently in a con- During the same period, legislators in- ceptually bold way. With moving refer- troduced multiracial category bills in ence to the self-esteem of their children, ½ve additional states, while two other along with the moral conviction that states added a multiracial designation multiracial recognition could help the by administrative mandate. entire nation beyond an impasse, mul- The multiracialists’ best-known cam- tiracial advocates were astonishingly paign would have added a multiracial successful in the 1990s. category to the 2000 census. While the Yet at the height of activity, the mul- group did not get exactly what it wanted, tiracial movement involved no more its efforts led to the creation of an un- than a thousand individuals, mainly liv- precedented “mark one or more” option, ing on the East and West Coasts. Only a allowing individual Americans to identi- handful of leaders pushed the multira- fy with as many racial groups as they saw cial category effort forward, in ½ts and ½t. Throughout the prolonged review by starts, throughout the decade. Despite the Of½ce of Management and Budget its small size, the group that advanced (omb) culminating in this 1997 decision, the cause did not agree on much beyond the priorities of traditional civil rights the belief that forcing multiracial Ameri- advocates were twofold. First, they cans into monoracial categories was in- strongly opposed a stand-alone multira- accurate and inappropriate. Still, with cial category, fearing that it would jeop- only the slightest nudging by this poor- ardize civil and voting rights enforce- ly ½nanced and increasingly fractious ment by diluting the count of minorities. handful of activists, six states passed Having successfully averted this outcome, but faced with no alternative to Kim M. Williams is assistant professor of public multiple check-offs, civil rights propo- policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Govern- nents secondly strove to ensure that ment at Harvard University. Her current research multiple-race responses would be tab- concerns the rise of the multiracial movement in ulated to a minority group. America. The omb met both demands. It rejected a stand-alone multiracial category © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts and arrived at a tabulation scheme that & Sciences

Dædalus Winter 2005 53 Kim M. has actually increased the tally of minor- The Census Bureau’s biggest problems Williams ity groups in some contexts, since any- since 1970 in one way or another have on race one who checks off boxes for both white revolved around race. In an effort to and a minority race counts as part of the avoid conflicts and lawsuits like those latter for civil rights purposes. From one surrounding the prior three censuses perspective, the technical ½x adopted by (most of which concerned the under- the federal government–intended to count and its controversial remedy, sam- balance the tension between growing pling), the omb requested that Congress racial fluidity on the one hand, and on- hold hearings on the standards for racial going racial and ethnic data needs on the and ethnic classi½cation to be used in other–amounted to symbolic appease- 2000.2 ment. Federal-level multiple-race data During the ½rst round of hearings serve no statutory purpose, and the tab- conducted in 1993, the omb announced ulation guidelines stipulate a systematic plans to begin a comprehensive review process by which to convert multiple- of the statistical standards used through- race responses into single-race data. This out the federal government for gathering is necessary because, to enforce civil and and reporting data on race and ethnicity. voting rights laws, we must be able to Concerns about whether the govern- distinguish between those who are ment was “keep[ing] pace with changes members of minority groups and those in our nation’s population”3 topped the who are not. list of the omb’s stated motives for initi- Only 2.4 percent of the population, ating this review. Another clearly press- about 6.8 million people, identify with ing, if less public, incentive involved the multiple races, as measured in 2000. At hard-to-defend procedures employed by ½rst glance, this might seem insigni½- the Bureau to classify people who disre- cant. Given that civil rights enforcement garded the one-race census instructions depends heavily on patterns, and that in 1990. The Bureau received about half ‘multiple-race’ is not a protected class, a million multiple-race responses that the consensus has been that the multiyear. In cases where respondents marked ple-race option is probably irrelevant to two or more boxes, former Census Bu- civil rights claims involving the size and reau director Kenneth Prewitt is report- the characteristics of minority groups.1 ed to have heard, the box with the dark- But is the “mark one or more” format est mark was counted. Sharon Lee notes merely symbolic? Is the symbolism po- a similarly arbitrary, if systematic, pro- litically irrelevant? cess for write-in responses: “respondents who wrote ‘black-white’ were On both counts, I think the answer is no. Consider the circumstances under 2 The director of the Census Bureau is a presi- which a handful of disorganized activists dential appointee who reports to the secretary of commerce. The omb, which reviews and de- could mount such a successful campaign cides upon budget requests from the Bureau, in the ½rst place. exerts further control.

1 But see Roderick J. Harrison, “Inadequacies 3 Katherine K. Wallman, Suzann Evinger, and of Multiple-Response Race Data in the Federal Susan Schechter, “Measuring Our Nation’s Di- Statistical System,” in Joel Perlmann and Mary versity: Developing a Common Language for Waters, eds., The New Race Question: How the Data on Race/Ethnicity,” American Journal of Census Counts Multiracial Individuals (New York: Public Health 90 (11) (November 2000): 1704– Russell Sage Foundation, 2002). 1708.

54 Dædalus Winter 2005 counted as blacks; those who wrote School is often the place where parents Multi- ‘white-black’ were counted as whites.”4 ½rst face questions from the state about racialism & the civil Questionable at best, indefensible at the racial identity of their children. Ac- rights future worst, these makeshift remedies were cording to a 1997 survey conducted by not solutions. By the mid-1990s, the con- the Department of Education as part of troversies that engulfed every census the broader omb review, thirty-one since 1970 (against a backdrop of rapid states reported receiving requests over demographic change over the same peri- the prior ½ve years to add a multiracial od) opened political opportunities for category on state forms.6 Repeatedly multiracial activists. Although these ac- confronted with paperwork demanding tivists had no control over the outcome, only one racial designation, parents the omb review itself represented a vic- complained that children from a grow- tory from their perspective, as almost all ing number of interracial unions were the major issues identi½ed for explora- being forced to choose one parent and tion related directly to their concerns. deny the other. Eventually, the multiracial issue became Contrary to the situation at the federal the driving force of the multiyear review. level, neither funding nor the composi- The clear advantage of a prolonged re- tion of legislative districts was at risk in view was prolonged attention. the states. (Federal and state agencies Meanwhile, a flurry of legislative are not barred from collecting racial and activity was underway in the states. By ethnic data in more detail, provided that, 1988, enough multiracial organizations when necessary, the data can be reduced had gradually branched out from Cali- to the mutually exclusive categories fornia to create the nationwide Associa- required by the government.) With little tion of MultiEthnic Americans (amea). at stake materially, and reallocation Soon after the founding of amea, two again being deployed by government other multiracial organizations ap- agencies to reconcile multiracial re- peared–A Place for Us (apfu) and sponses with single-race data needs, Project race (for “Reclassify All Chil- state-level multiracial category legisla- dren Equally”)–both claiming national tion seemed like a symbolic gesture. In memberships. A linked network of col- eleven states, lawmakers (nine Demo- lege-based organizations emerged as crats and two Republicans) sponsored well, along with a proliferation of peri- multiracial category legislation, appar- odicals, conferences, summit meetings, ently viewing it as a goodwill gesture and so forth. All these groups operated toward minorities.7 on shoestring budgets. At odds with amea’s Washington- 6 Nancy Carey, Cassandra Rowand, Elizabeth Farris, and Shelley Burns, project of½cer, State focused strategy from the beginning, Survey on Racial and Ethnic Classi½cations, nces Project race director Susan Graham 98-034 (Washington, D.C.: National Center for believed that “a better way to get to the Education Statistics, 1998), 12, table 8. federal government” would be to go “school to school, state by state.”5 7 For the most part, the measures passed with little controversy. For some lawmakers, 4 Sharon Lee, “Racial Classi½cations in the it seems to have served as a low-cost means to U.S. Census: 1890–1990,” Ethnic and Racial signal their stance on ‘new’ versus ‘traditional’ Studies 16 (1993): 83. approaches to race and civil rights. Perhaps other state legislators saw it as racial sensitiv- 5 Susan Graham, personal communication ity on the cheap. Passed: Ohio (1992), Georgia with author, April 16, 1998. (1994), Indiana (1995), Michigan (1995), Illinois

Dædalus Winter 2005 55 Kim M. This is interesting for at least two rea- en generally took the lead. Consequently Williams on sons. First, the few petitioners in the and counterintuitively, most grassroots race states were white women! (Note the par- leaders of the multiracial movement in ent-driven dynamic of the grievance.) In the 1990s were white women married to ½eldwork, I discovered that most of the middle-class black men. Multiracial cat- people involved in multiracial organiza- egory legislation in the states was, in tions near the height of the movement’s each instance, practically a one-woman activity did not identify as multiracial. crusade headed up by the white mother Instead, about 80 percent of the local of a multiracial child. Perhaps it was leaders in the universe of adult-based parents, more than children, who were groups identi½ed as either white or most uneasy with the preexisting op- black.8 Group leaders reported that this tions. pattern extended to their wider mem- A second point of interest is that the berships. Cumulatively, leaders estimat- state outcomes stood in sharp contrast ed that 52 percent of their members to the more partisan situation at the identi½ed as white, 37 percent as black, federal level. The pattern of support in 7 percent as multiracial, 2 percent as La- Washington was mostly the reverse of tino, and 2 percent as Asian American. the bill sponsorship story in the states: Thus, the multiracial movement at the congressional Democrats were opposed grassroots was comprised almost entire- to a multiracial category; congressional ly of black-white couples, who repre- Republicans favored it. Yet recognition sented about 90 percent of its total adult ultimately came from the Clinton ad- membership base in 1997–1998. ministration. Think of it this way: some In general, black men are much Democrats wanted multiracial recogni- more likely than black women to marry tion without adverse civil rights conse- whites.9 Multiracial organizations in the quences; some Republicans wanted mul- 1990s mirrored this gender/race dynam- tiracial recognition with adverse civil ic. These groups consisted predominant- rights consequences. The appeal within ly of white women married to black the latter camp was that a multiracial men. Following the gender gap in fami- category would have complicated litiga- ly-oriented, local support groups, wom- tion and protection in the civil rights arena. In Race Counts, I document a pattern of right-wing interest in multiracial (1996), and Maryland (1998). Implemented by administrative mandate: North Carolina (1994) activism as a means of capitalizing on and Florida (1995). Introduced: California the prevailing confusion about race. (1996), Minnesota (1997), Oregon (1997), Consider a few of the highlights. As Massachusetts (1997), and Texas (1997). the 1993 round of hearings was ending, Republicans gained control of the House 8 Kim M. Williams, Race Counts: American Mul- of Representatives for the ½rst time in tiracialism and Civil Rights Politics (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006). forty years. Having served as the lone Republican on the subcommittee re- 9 From 1980–1998, 30 percent of all black- sponsible for conducting the 1993 in- white intermarriages involved white males and quiry, Representative Thomas Petri of black females; 70 percent involved black males Wisconsin was among the ½rst to act and white females. U.S. Bureau of the Census, “Marital Status and Living Arrangements,” upon the possibilities: during the 104th Current Population Reports, Series P-20-514 Congress, he introduced h.r. 3920 as an (March 1998). amendment to the Paperwork Reduction

56 Dædalus Winter 2005 Act. It would have forced the omb to (anti–af½rmative action) fame, the new Multi- racialism add a multiracial category on the 2000 initiative took its rationale for disman- & the civil census had it not done so on its own vo- tling race-conscious public policy to a rights future lition.10 He reintroduced the bill in the different strategic level. In Proposition next session as h.r. 830, calling it the 209, conservatives attacked race-con- Tiger Woods Bill. Despite repeated at- scious public policy. In Proposition 54, tempts to bring him on board, Tiger they attacked the idea of race itself. To Woods himself refused to join or en- drive the point home, proponents of the dorse the multiracial cause. Nonethe- latter initiative exploited the new census less, mention of golf runs thick in con- data. “Surely, the government doesn’t servative commentary on the subject. believe 58 new races have emerged since Alongside Petri’s efforts, Newt Gin- 1970,” chided the of½cial website pro- grich, then Speaker of the House, is- moting racial privacy. “The new race sued a series of statements in support classi½cations were invented by differ- of a multiracial category in the months ent groups trying to get in on America’s leading up to the 1997 decision. Gingrich racial spoils system.”12 contacted Franklin Raines, head of the That Proposition 54 was defeated tells omb, to declare his support of it, sub- us something about the state of popu- mitted favorable testimony in congres- lar thinking about racial categories in sional hearings, and announced ten America–but given the extraordinary practical steps for building a better circumstances of that extraordinary America, including “adding a multi- vote, it tells us less than we need to racial category to the census” and “do- know. Had the vote taken place when ing away with af½rmative action.”11 In originally scheduled–in a March 2004 short, the members of Congress most primary instead of alongside the dra- supportive of a multiracial category matic recall of Democratic Governor were conservative Republicans who saw Gray Davis–it probably would have it as a step toward getting rid of racial been closer than 36–64.13 In the end, categorization and, thus, race-conscious Proposition 54 opponents stressed the public policy altogether. deleterious consequences of privatizing Proposition 54, California’s so-called health data that incorporates race as a Racial Privacy Initiative, took this even factor in what Butch Wing, California further. With a few exceptions, Propo- state coordinator for Jesse Jackson’s sition 54 would have barred the state Rainbow Push Coalition, called a “per- from collecting racial and ethnic data on fect storm.”14 In other words, a conver- grounds that it is illogical and counter- gence of improbable but propitious productive to do so, if our collective goal events contributed to the defeat of the is to diminish racial polarization. Backed initiative. by Ward Connerly of Proposition 209 12 (accessed January 23, 2003). 10 A Bill to Amend the Paperwork Reduction Act, 104th Congress, 2nd sess., h.r. 3920, Con- 13 Los Angeles Times exit poll, (accessed March 25, 2004). H8982. 14 Butch Wing, “The Coalition that Kicked 11 Steven A. Holmes, “Gingrich Outlines Plan Proposition 54 Out of the California Door,” on Race Relations,” The New York Times, June John F. Kennedy School of Government, Har- 19, 1997, B12. vard University, March 9, 2004.

Dædalus Winter 2005 57 Kim M. he “mark one or more” format is not states’ favorable response to it. A pre- Williams T on merely symbolic. Future census conflict sumption of frivolity is also impractical, race is to be expected, if the past forty years considering that multiracial advocates of census taking is any indication. But based their claims, for the most part, on the David and Goliath story of the mul- the self-esteem of their children. All the tiracial movement will probably give facts suggest that interracial family life is hope to other aspiring racial groups as at least as challenging for parents as it is it leaves its imprint on future successful for children. Either way, we should be bids. Against a backdrop of immigrant- willing to accept that the multiracial ex- driven demographic change, multiracial- perience takes a toll on both parent and ism now holds an institutional foothold, child. Put differently, while the legitima- one that conservatives seek to exploit. cy of multiracial claims can and should Under the circumstances, viewing the be interrogated, dismissal on grounds of symbolism as irrelevant would seem to false consciousness or negligible suffer- cede ground to the Right, which has taking is unhelpful. In any case, the self- en the early lead in de½ning for Ameri- esteem claim cannot be dismissed as cans what multiracial is. trivial without also bringing into ques- With all of this in mind, the prevail- tion other applications of its use. Self- ing civil rights response to multiracial esteem, after all, was a primary rationale claims seems out of proportion. Accord- of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board ing to Jesse Jackson, the multiracial cate- of Education.17 gory proposal was “a diversion, designed The more justi½ed criticism is that to undermine af½rmative action.”15 It multiracial advocates developed no could be a “plot to create a ‘Colored’ antiracist agenda, even as they claimed, buffer race in America,” warned Ebony in one way or another, that the recogni- magazine.16 The implication, reiterated tion of racial mixture was the next logi- in a range of forms and venues, is that cal step in civil rights. This ideological multiracial identi½cation is either frivo- tour de force is perhaps explained in the lous or a right-wing conspiracy, or both. fact that many of the local leaders, dis- I believe that it is neither. While mod- proportionately well-educated, affluent ern-day federal racial categories were white women, reported having paid little designed to monitor and act against rac- to no attention to racial dynamics until ism, not to validate identity, multiracial they married and had children. Argu- identity claims were not and are not ably, a midlife realization of racial dis- without power. To emphasize the incon- crimination is better than none at all; at sistencies in multiracial thought (and the same time, the patterns and parame- there are many, including how its stron- ters of multiracial activism should be gest proponents advanced a working understood with this grassroots disposi- de½nition of multiraciality largely de- tion and limitation in mind. Multiracial pendent on the idea of monoracial bio- organizations have been deafeningly si- logical groups) does little to explain the lent on inequality, and their leaders only recently inclined to acknowledge (more 15 Jerelyn Eddings and Kenneth T. Walsh, “Counting a ‘New’ Type of American,” U.S. 17 But see Lani Guinier, “From Racial Liberal- News and World Report, June 14, 1997, 22. ism to Racial Literacy: Brown v. Board of Educa- tion and the Interest-Divergence Dilemma,” 16 Lynn Norment, “Am I Black, White, or In The Journal of American History 91 (1) (June Between?” Ebony, August 1995, 110. 2004): 92–118.

58 Dædalus Winter 2005 or less) that their ‘right’ to self-identi½- immigrants and their descendants over Multi- 18 racialism cation might involve costs. the course of the twentieth century.” & the civil At the other end of the spectrum, what rights future While civil rights forces united in the little black-white intermarriage there is ½ght against creating a multiracial cate- they attribute in part to “higher levels of gory, black civil rights advocates came to acceptance of foreign-born than native- symbolize that opposition. At worst, the born blacks by native-born whites.”19 message from black advocates and insti- Blacks represent the outlier in intermar- tutions was that people championing riage trends and are the least inclined multiracialism were racial defectors who among minorities to identify with more wanted to be white, or at the least, to es- than one race. If interracial marriage and cape blackness. Latino advocates could multiple-race identi½cation are gauges not plausibly make analogous claims, of social distance, then black and, per- and indeed, they did not. Latinos, as an haps more speci½cally, native-born black ethnic group whose membership spans isolation stands out amidst otherwise the racial spectrum, already had much of generally positive trends. Civil rights op- the latitude newly available to everyone position to multiracial recognition be- else via the multiple-race option. With came principally associated with black this flexibility, almost half the Latino institutions, but the action in the mul- population in 2000 identi½ed racially as tiracial trend is elsewhere. white. Latino advocates, with less to lose and little to gain, opposed multiracial The “mark one or more” format adopt- recognition nonetheless. Asian groups ed by the omb in 1997 has set a prece- joined their Latino and black counter- dent whose meaning the government parts in opposing the multiracial option. has been unwilling to interpret. There is One senses fragility in Latino and no legal purpose for the multiracial data Asian groups’ of½cial demeanor toward collected through the new format, but multiracial recognition, however, con- its very existence naturally leads one to sidering that intermarriage rates ap- conclude that it must refer to meaning- proach 30 percent in these groups. Ac- ful multiracial populations. (This data cording to Frank Bean and Gillian Ste- shows, for example, some measurable vens’s calculations from the Current differences in the Asian-white popula- Population Survey, 27.2 percent of tion compared to the white or Asian Asians and 28.4 percent of Latinos are population alone.) Yet the new omb intermarried; 86.8 and 90 percent of protocol offers no interpretive content. these intermarriages, respectively, in- We are partly creating it for ourselves. volve a white spouse. In contrast, only Civil rights institutions cannot ignore 10.2 percent of blacks are intermarried, multiraciality and they cannot viably and within this small population only deal with it as they did in the 1990s. 69.1 percent are married to whites. Considering the trends in Asian and Thinking about it the other way around, Latino intermarriage, it is dif½cult to see whites are least likely to marry blacks and most likely to marry Latinos, with Asians at a close second. 18 Frank Bean and Gillian Stevens, America’s Newcomers and the Dynamics of Diversity (New At this rate, per Bean and Stevens, the York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003), 195. intermarriage patterns of Asians and La- tinos “will parallel those of European 19 Ibid., 192.

Dædalus Winter 2005 59 Kim M. what about racial mixture the advocacy Nor would the groups be so heavily Williams on organizations representing these groups dominated at the grassroots by black- race can continue to oppose. Black advocates, white couples who, nine out of every ten if for different reasons, will probably times, explained that such couples pre- have to recalibrate their stance as well. dominate in the groups because they The symbolism of civil rights all but de- experience the most discrimination. mands it. The civil rights movement It would seem that color blindness in drew its power from the bedrock princi- theory bears little resemblance to mul- ples of goodwill across the races and full tiracialism on the ground. The asymme- citizenship for all Americans. It brilliant- try in the multiracial trend is a sign that ly exposed the immorality of segregation larger problems of racial alienation per- and insisted that we were all in this to- sist. Among other things, black isolation gether. That a multiracial movement may well grow as the color line shifts. could materialize at all is a complex tes- The challenge amidst growing racial tament to civil rights success. diversity is to register the reach and Now recall the estimation of multira- durability of the racial divide, while at cial motives advanced by California’s the same time, to accept that the mean- leading advocates of racial privacy: “the ings attached to race itself are changing. new race classi½cations were invented As a wedge into a broader debate about by different groups trying to get in on what has changed–and what has not– America’s racial spoils system.” By this the symbolism of racial mixture is in- logic, multiracial groups were not trying separable from the ongoing quest for to dismantle race-conscious public pol- racial justice. icy at all; rather, they wanted to be included among its bene½ciaries. A partial truth–multiracial advocates wanted many things. There is no coherent multiracial agenda, or closer to the point, the claims of that agenda are conflicted and evolving. In spite of their many disagreements, the activists who spurred the recent census change shared one fundamental conviction: multiracialism enables individuals to think differently, and more hu- manely, about racial boundaries. Beyond that, the details were vague. Recall, however, that these same people sought out support groups to cope with racial tension and polarization. Overwhelmingly, members said they joined these multiracial advocacy groups to carve positive space for their families that they could not ½nd elsewhere. If American society were so prepared to move beyond race, then this primarily support-oriented infrastructure would not exist as such.

60 Dædalus Winter 2005 Victoria Hattam

Ethnicity & the boundaries of race: rereading Directive 15

Most of the racial and ethnic cate- white. Where that line is drawn, who is gories current in American life can be designated as an ethnic, establishes the traced to an obscure government edict: terms within which racial politics is Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, prom- waged in the United States.2 ulgated by the Of½ce of Management To comprehend the political choices and Budget (omb) on May 12, 1977.1 Al- at hand, we need to recover the some- though the directive was of½cially limit- what arcane history of Directive 15. Re- ed to federal statistics and administra- tracing the omb race categories is no tive reporting, its categories quickly be- simple antiquarian delight; it is required came the de facto standard for American currency for following contemporary de- society at large, setting the terms ever bates over racial classi½cation and poli- since for racial and ethnic classi½cation tics in the twenty-½rst-century United in the United States. States. The omb categories–speci½cally the Directive 15 was initially created as a Census Bureau’s use of them–are cur- means of standardizing the racial and rently being renegotiated. Stripped of ethnic categories used in government important particulars, the question on statistics. These data took on new polit- the table is whether Hispanics, to use the ical import after the passage of several Census Bureau term, will continue to be civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act classi½ed as an ethnic group and not as a of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, race. Ethnicity has long served to estab- the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Equal lish the boundaries of race by marking the dividing line between black and 1 See “Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Stan- dards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting,” Federal Register 48 (87) (May 4, 1978): 19269–19270. The directive is accessible Victoria Hattam is associate professor of political electronically as an appendix in “Standards for science at New School University. The author of the Classi½cation of Federal Data on Race and “Labor Visions and State Power: The Origins of Ethnicity,” Federal Register 59 (June 9, 1994): Business Unionism in the United States” (1993), 29834–29835. All citations to the directive will she is currently completing a book about ethnic be to the 1994 reprint. and racial politics in twentieth-century America. 2 I use the term ‘Hispanic’ throughout because this was the term initially adopted by the omb. © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts The omb did not use the term ‘Latino’ until the & Sciences 1997 revision of the directive.

Dædalus Winter 2005 61 Victoria Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, the n ½rst reading, Statistical Policy Di- Hattam O on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 rective 15 appears to be quite straightfor- race –all required the federal government to ward. The two-page document speci½es monitor discrimination in a variety of that all federal agencies are to collect da- policy domains. In order to assess dis- ta under four racial and one ethnic head- criminatory practices, agencies ½rst had ing. The four racial categories are black, to specify the relevant protected groups, white, American Indian or Alaskan Na- which in turn required stipulating racial tive, and Asian or Paci½c Islander. The and ethnic categories. Throughout the one ethnic category is Hispanic. (In 1997, late 1960s and early 1970s, key civil the omb added Native Hawaiian or Oth- rights bureaucracies established their er Paci½c Islander as a ½fth racial catego- own terms in order to comply with these ry.4) new legislative mandates. This dispersed Two aspects of the directive’s taxono- multiagency process of data collection my are especially noteworthy: the mutu- proved unwieldy–hence federal govern- al exclusivity of the four racial catego- ment efforts to standardize the racial ries, and the sharp distinction the direc- and ethnic categories via an interagency tive draws between race and ethnicity. committee whose report the omb codi- Even though the directive variously spe- ½ed in Statistical Policy Directive 15.3 ci½es race as origin, geography, nationality, culture, and cultural identi½cation, it 3 The federal interagency Committee on Edu- nevertheless stipulates that census re- cation was established in June of 1974. The spondents must choose only one race. committee’s report, published in April of 1975, Someone of mixed race is instructed to lays out almost all the features later promulgated by the omb in Directive 15. For the direc- select the “category which most closely tive’s history, see “Standards for the Classi½ca- reflects the individual’s recognition in tion of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity,” his community.”5 This instruction was 29831–29832; Barry Edmonston, Joshua Gold- strongly contested in the 1990s, leading stein, and Juanita Tamayo Lott, eds., Spotlight the omb to revise the directive and on Heterogeneity: The Federal Standards for Racial and Ethnic Classi½cation (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1996); Katherine K. Wallman, “Data on Race and Ethnicity: Revis- and the Evasion of Politics (Washington, D.C.: ing the Federal Standard,” The American Statis- Brookings Institution Press, 2000); Darryl tician 52 (1) (February 1998): 31–33. For useful Fears, “The Roots of ‘Hispanic’: 1975 Commit- secondary sources on the directive, see Mi- tee of Bureaucrats Produced Designation,” The chael Omi, “Racial Identity and the State: The Washington Post, October 15, 2003, A21. Dilemmas of Classi½cation,” Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice 25 (1) (1997): 7– 4 The ½ve omb race categories post 1997 are 23; Margo J. Anderson and Stephen E. Fienberg, “American Indian or Alaskan Native,” “Asian,” Who Counts? The Politics of Census-Taking in “Black or African American,” “Native Hawai- Contemporary America (New York: Russell Sage ian or Other Paci½c Islander,” and “White.” Foundation, 1999); David Hollinger, Postethnic The 1997 revision also allowed respondents to America: Beyond Multiculturalism, postscript “check one or more” races for the ½rst time. (New York: Basic Books, 2000); Melissa However, the 1997 revisions did not change the Nobles, Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Cen- distinction between race and ethnicity. See sus in Modern Politics (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford “Revisions to the Standards for the Classi½ca- University Press, 2000); Clara E. Rodriguez, tion of Data on Race and Ethnicity,” Federal Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the His- Register 62 (210) (October 30, 1997): 58781 tory of Ethnicity in the United States (New York: –58790. New York University Press, 2000); Peter Sker- ry, Counting on the Census: Race, Group Identity, 5 See Directive 15, 29834.

62 Dædalus Winter 2005 adopt the “mark one or more” race op- of being reported in that category.”7 All Ethnicity tion in 1997.6 & the of this underscores the directive’s pre- boundaries The ways in which the directive distin- sumption that race and ethnicity be con- of race guishes ethnicity from race have by com- sidered separate phenomena. To be sure, parison received little attention–despite the directive allows for a “combined for- this distinction’s centrality to debates mat” in which the race and ethnic cate- over the race question for census 2010 gories are presented in a single question. and for changes underway in contem- But even here the omb intends to keep porary American racial politics more the social phenomena distinct. broadly. It is to this second aspect of the directive that I attend. Why were Hispanics designated as an The directive explicitly recommends ethnic group rather than as a race? The that agencies “collect data on race and distinction has deep roots in American ethnicity separately.” The four racial cat- culture that make debates over question egories stipulated by the directive paral- format considerably more than issues of lel the classic nineteenth-century color bureaucratic politics. designations of black, white, red (Amer- American conceptions of ethnicity as ican Indian or Alaskan native), and yel- different from race can be traced back to low (Asian or Paci½c Islander); there is the ½rst two decades of the twentieth no brown race in the American ethnora- century, when the category of ethnicity cial taxonomy. According to the direc- was invented. Men such as Louis Bran- tive, one is Hispanic because of one’s deis, Alfred Kroeber, Isaac Berkson, “Spanish culture or origin, regardless Julius Draschler, and Horace Kallen ar- of race.” As a result, Hispanics must gued that ethnicity ought to be distin- check a race box in addition to the one guished from race, and they went to con- identifying their ethnicity. The directive siderable lengths to elaborate the nature speci½es that “when race and ethnicity and importance of the comparison. Eth- are collected separately, the number of nicity was cast by these New York intel- White and Black persons who are His- lectuals as cultural, plural, and mal- panic must be identi½able, and capable leable–in stark contrast to race, which they understood to be biologically ½xed. One was an ethnic to the extent that 6 The directive de½nes each of the categories one’s principle point of identi½cation in terms of origins: American Indians or Alas- kan Natives are said to have “origins in any was tied to culture rather than to race. of the original peoples of North America”; For these pioneering cultural pluralists, blacks to have “origins in any of the black to be an ethnic meant being different racial groups of Africa”; whites to have “ori- from other Americans–but different in gins in any of the original peoples of Europe, ways that were not tied to race.8 By sig- North Africa, or the Middle East”; and His- naling differences of culture rather than panics to be persons of “Mexican, Puerto Ri- can, Cuban, Central or South American or of blood, this conception of ethnicity other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of served to delimit notions of race. From race.” (Note that the category ‘black’ is the only one in which the directive explicitly re- 7 Ibid. fers to race.) The directive allows for more detailed categories than these, but they must 8 See Victoria Hattam, “Ethnicity: An Ameri- be “organized in such a way that the addition- can Genealogy,” in Nancy Foner and George al categories can be aggregated into these ba- Fredrickson, eds., Not Just Black and White sic racial categories.” See Directive 15, 29834. (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004).

Dædalus Winter 2005 63 Victoria this perspective, Directive 15 appears as ry considered discrimination broadly. Hattam fdr on a quite remarkable codi½cation of New ’s Executive Order 8802, signed on race York Zionists’ conceptions of ethnicity June 25, 1941, prohibited discrimination elaborated ½fty years earlier. on the basis of “race, creed, color, or In the 1940s and 1950s, the Census Bu- national origin.” Truman, Eisenhower, reau began to count those of Spanish Kennedy, and Johnson all followed the surname and to classify them as an eth- fdr blueprint when they issued succes- nic group and not a race. Perhaps the sive executive orders that prohibited dis- most pressing reason for doing so lay in crimination in these very same terms. the racial heterogeneity of peoples from The mantra of “race, creed, color, or Mexico, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and national origin” quickly became a hall- Central and South America. All were mark of national policy. The problem of thought to share a common Spanish cul- discrimination in America, federal poli- ture, but were not racially similar. But cy makes clear, was never limited to race designating racial heterogeneity as the narrowly conceived. When Directive 15 problem begs the question. Because cast the federal ethnoracial taxonomy in the categories were in formation, their broad terms, it drew on a long-standing boundaries might have been drawn dif- tradition.10 ferently so as to diminish the fractured Moreover, it is worth remembering nature of the group. Indeed, many have that Directive 15 appeared at a time of bemoaned the category ‘Hispanic’ pre- heightened concern about language cisely because it suggests cultural com- rights and bilingual education. These monality where they claim none exists.9 were the years when the Subcommittee Yet the omb opted for an expansive on Minority Education of the Federal de½nition of ‘Hispanic.’ The numerical Interagency Committee on Education advantage of an omnibus category that was reconsidering the demands of some avoided the contentious distinctions of Spanish-speaking families that their race was clear, and most relevant stake- children be taught in Spanish. The lan- holders came to support the broad desig- guage rights movement was bolstered nation. by Lau v. Nichols, the 1974 landmark Su- Despite the racial heterogeneity of the preme Court decision mandating bilin- Hispanic population, there were long- gual education under Title VI of the 1964 standing pressures to acknowledge the Civil Rights Act. That decision, which historic discrimination against Mexican involved a class action suit on behalf of Americans in particular and against His- non-English-speaking Chinese students panics more generally. in the California public school system, Indeed, all federal efforts to end dis- established language discrimination as crimination across the twentieth centu- 10 See Executive Order 8802, Federal Register 6 (June 27, 1941): 3109; Executive Order 9346, 9 For a powerful critique of the category ‘His- Fed. Reg. 8 (May 29, 1943): 7183; Executive Or- panic,’ see Martha E. Gimenez, “Latino/‘His- der 9980, Fed. Reg. 13 (July 28, 1948): 4311; Ex- panic’–Who Needs a Name? The Case Against ecutive Order 9981, Fed. Reg. 13 (July 28, 1948): a Standardized Terminology,” International Jour- 4313; Executive Order 10308, Fed. Reg. 16 (Janu- nal of Health Services 19 (3) (1989): 557–571. ary 4, 1951): 12303; Executive Order 10479, Fed. For an early defense of the category, see Marta Reg. 18 (August 18, 1953): 4899; Executive Or- Tienda and Vilma Ortiz, “‘Hispanicity’ and the der 10925, Fed. Reg. 26 (March 8, 1961): 1977; 1980 Census,” Social Science Quarterly 67 (1) Executive Order 11246, Fed. Reg. 30 (September (March 1986): 3–20. 28, 1965): 12319.

64 Dædalus Winter 2005 a central component of the civil rights American population. In 1993, the omb Ethnicity 11 & the agenda. initiated an extensive four-year review boundaries Pressure to create a separate statistical of the directive that included several of race category for Hispanics was consolidated public hearings it hosted in the spring when Congress passed Public Law 94-311 and summer of 1993 and again in the in June of 1976. That law mandated the summer of 1994. In March of 1994, the collection and dissemination of “eco- omb established the Interagency Com- nomic and social statistics for Ameri- mittee for the Review of Racial and Eth- cans of Spanish origin or descent.” Con- nic Standards.13 In addition, the omb gress thus ensured that whenever the asked the Committee on National Sta- government was to count the various tistics of the National Academy of Sci- population groups, Hispanics would be ences to convene a workshop to dis- included.12 cuss issues surrounding category revi- In sum, Hispanics are ambiguously sion. situated in American culture and poli- The extended review considered sev- tics, at once recognized as subject to per- eral changes, including the possibility of sistent discrimination and yet not readi- adopting a question in which the federal ly classi½ed as a homogeneous racial government would cease distinguishing group. omb navigated these conflicting between race and ethnicity. In October pressures by including Hispanics within of 1997, the omb issued revised stan- the of½cial American taxonomy as an dards for maintaining, collecting, and ethnic group, not a race. presenting federal data on race and eth- Almost as soon as the directive was nicity that replaced Directive 15. In the promulgated, groups began to protest its end, the omb focused primarily on formulation and to call for the revision the mixed-race issue, introducing the of its categories. Demands for change “mark more than one” option for the intensi½ed as several groups, especially census race question. The distinction the emerging mixed-race movement, between ethnicity and race was not claimed that the directive no longer changed.14 reflected the increasing diversity of the What does it matter that the American 11 The Subcommittee on Minority Education ethnoracial taxonomy distinguishes eth- produced a 1973 report that called for the cre- nicity from race? I have argued else- ation of common de½nitions of racial and ethnic groups, which Casper Weinberger took up where that the distinction sets in play a for further action. See Federal Register 59 (110) relational dynamic between the two cat- (June 9, 1994): 29831. See also Lau v. Nichols 414 egories in which the meaning of one U.S. 563 (1974). For an overview of language helps to secure the meaning of the oth- policy, see Ronald Schmidt, Sr., Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States (Philadel- phia: Temple University Press, 2000). 13 See Federal Register 59 (110) (June 9, 1994): 29832; Edmonston, Goldstein, and Lott, eds., 12 See Public Law 94-311 90 stat. 688. The Spotlight on Heterogeneity. quotation is from Katherine K. Wallman, “Sta- tistics for Americans of Spanish Origin or De- 14 For the 1997 standards, see “Revisions to scent,” Statistical Reporter 78-5 (February 1978): the Standards for the Classi½cation of Data on 148. See also Jeanne E. Grif½th, “Update on Sta- Race and Ethnicity.” For an overview of the tistics for Americans of Spanish Origin or De- revision, see Suzann Evinger, “How Shall We scent,” Statistical Reporter (September 1980): Measure Our Nation’s Diversity,” Chance 8 (1) 401–405. (1995): 7–14.

Dædalus Winter 2005 65 Victoria er.15 That dynamic relation, established cent of those checking “some other Hattam on in the culture at large, is institutional- race” were Hispanics.) Put differently, race ized in Directive 15. Although the direc- the “some other race” option has served tive explicitly eschews a biological de½- as a political safety valve for the Census nition of race, it treats race as a singular Bureau by masking the stark opposition and evidently immutable fact, while it that the of½cial U.S. taxonomy mandates de½nes ethnicity in purely cultural terms between ethnicity and race, and the that imply its malleability. In short, how rather inadequate race options available race works in the United States, and to Hispanics. what meaning it comes to embody, is But the political safety valve offered constituted to a signi½cant degree by the by “some other race” may soon disap- comparison with ethnicity. The omb did pear. The Census Bureau is seriously not create this dialogic relation single- contemplating dropping the option in handedly; it had been in formation for 2010 in order to comply with the omb half a century or more. Rather, Directive race and ethnic standards. Doing so will 15 formalized a set of cultural under- politicize the designation of Hispanics standings already in play by incorporat- as an ethnic group rather than a race, by ing the race-ethnicity distinction into leaving the vast majority of Hispanics the of½cial classi½catory scheme. with no other option than to identify as The full signi½cance of the race-eth- racially white. Dropping “some other nicity distinction within the federal tax- race,” I predict, will force us to revisit onomy has been obscured for the last the long-standing distinction between three decades by the Census Bureau’s race and ethnicity that pervades Ameri- inclusion of “some other race” as an can culture and politics. option on the census race question. By Indeed, I think it somewhat perverse obtaining special approval to modify for the Census Bureau to be sharpening Directive 15, the Census Bureau has elid- the distinction between ethnicity and ed the boundary between race and eth- race at the very moment when most ob- nicity. If omb standards had been strict- servers are noting demographic shifts in ly adhered to, the census would have re- the opposite direction. Many scholars quired Hispanics to select one of the four have noted how increased immigration (later ½ve) of½cial race categories: black, and intermarriage have made diversity, white, Asian, Native American, and Pa- and the discrimination that often fol- ci½c Islander. For many Hispanics, none lows, a more complex social phenome- of the omb race categories seems espe- non than the standard race categories cially appropriate, leaving them with no record. While many are attending to in- easy point of identi½cation on the race creased demographic complexities, the question. Census Bureau is poised to reinstate the For the past three decades, Hispanics sharp distinction between an ethnic have been able to check Hispanic ethnic- group and a race. Why? ity along with “some other race” on the The push to remove the “some other census. (An unprecedented 42.2 percent race” option stems from the dramatic of Hispanics checked “some other race” increase in those selecting it in the last on the 2000 census. Moreover, 97 per- two decades and from the data quality concerns this has raised.16 Because other 15 See Hattam, “Ethnicity: An American 16 Only 0.03 percent of the total population Genealogy.” checked “some other race” in 1950, 0.01 percent

66 Dædalus Winter 2005 government departments do not collect other race” option, since the Bureau will Ethnicity & the data under the heading “some other impute an of½cially recognized race to boundaries race,” recent census data are not com- nonresponses as well.17 of race patible with the data gathered by other The root of the problem lies in the in- agencies. To address this incompatibili- adequacy of the racial and ethnic cate- ty, the Census Bureau sorts all of those gories created by Statistical Policy Direc- who selected “some other race” into one tive 15 and the 1997 revision. Many His- of the racial categories of½cially recog- panics simply do not recognize them- nized by the omb. This process of sort- selves within the existing categories. ing, or imputation, is achieved via a sta- And a return to the sharp distinction tistical formula that imputes an of½cially between race and ethnicity will leave recognized race to each respondent who most Hispanics with little other choice marks that box on the census form. The than to identify as white ethnics. What Census Bureau then generates a Modi- should the Census Bureau do? ½ed Age, Race, and Sex (mars) ½le to be used by other federal departments and To see how the Census Bureau is deal- agencies for civil rights enforcement. In- ing with the “some other race” option deed, it is the mars ½le, rather than the and how Hispanics are responding, I census returns, that provides the denom- attended one of the Census Bureau’s inator for most government agencies re- Race and Ethnic Advisory Committee quiring demographic data for policy im- (reac) meetings in Crystal City, Vir- plementation and evaluation. ginia, in May of 2004.18 The ½rst Race The Census Bureau worries about es- Advisory Committee was established in calating imputation rates, since it wants the early 1970s as a means of ensuring to avoid modifying census returns when- African Americans and their advocates a ever possible. In order to get out of the voice in the census process. Eventually, imputation business, the Bureau is con- the Census Bureau added subcommit- sidering removing “some other race” tees for each of the principal racial from the 2010 census form. But remov- groups and for Hispanics as well. ing this option may well create new Almost all current members of the problems. It may lead to a drop-off in Bureau’s Hispanic Advisory Committee the response rate from Hispanics on the were Republican appointees who could race question–particularly if a growing hardly be taken to represent the views of number of Hispanics do regard them- Hispanics as a whole. Six of the nine selves as an independent racial group that the omb has yet to recognize of½- 17 For the Census Bureau’s concern with impu- cially. From the Census Bureau’s point of tation rates and current efforts to reduce them, view, failure to answer the race question see Gordon, “Race and Ethnicity Testing”; Eliz- is as much of a problem as the “some abeth Martin, David Sheppard, Michael Bent- ley, and Claudette Bennett, “Results of 2003 National Census Test of Race and Hispanic in 1960, and 0.03 percent in 1970. That number Questions,” U.S. Census Bureau, October 1, jumped to 3 percent in 1980, 3.9 percent in 2003. For pretests planned for 2005 and 2006, 1990, and 5.6 percent in 2000–almost a two- see “Cognitive Questions for Nancy Gordon,” fold increase in the last two decades. See handout distributed at the May reac meetings. Nancy M. Gordon, “Race and Ethnicity Test- ing: Update and Discussion,” handout distrib- 18 The Race and Ethnicity Advisory Committee uted at May 2004 reac meetings, Washing- meetings began on the afternoon of May 4, but ton, D.C., p. 4. I was only able to attend on May 5 and 6.

Dædalus Winter 2005 67 Victoria committee members have been appoint- plored the obvious alternatives–such as Hattam on ed since May of 2003, and eight of the allowing Hispanic respondents to identi- race nine appointed since the election of fy themselves as a race (as Ian Haney 2000. When introducing themselves López has proposed), or eliminating at the beginning of the concurrent ses- altogether the distinction between race sions, three mentioned professional ties and ethnicity (as Kenneth Prewitt has to George H. Bush, Pete Wilson, and proposed). What I saw in Crystal City Colin Powell. I was surprised to see that was the intersection of Census Bureau the current reac bears the imprint of data quality concerns with Bush Repub- the Bush administration so directly; in licans’ preference that most Hispanics this it differs greatly from the reac of identify themselves as racially white–a the 1970s, which served principally as a convergence that is taking place largely forum where civil rights activists could under the political radar. express their concerns. (One indication of how times have changed: during the The choices the Census Bureau makes Nixon administration, the director of about the race question for 2010 are of the Census Bureau asked Bobby Seale, considerable import. At issue is the long- the prominent Black Panther, to serve on standing meaning of ‘Hispanic’ and its the ½rst Race Advisory Committee.19) relation to race. Where the line is drawn The very ½rst item up for discussion in between race and ethnicity, and on what the Hispanic Advisory Committee that I terms, will shape the contours of Ameri- observed was the proposal that “some can racial politics for decades to come. other race” be eliminated as a choice on Put simply, whether Hispanics identify the 2010 census form. In the course of as white or as people of color may shift their discussion, the committee mem- the balance of power between the Dem- bers agreed that eliminating “some oth- ocratic and Republican Parties, since ra- er race” would likely mean an increase cial identi½cation and party allegiance in the number of Hispanics who would have long been aligned. Certainly it will check “white” for the race question in shape the contours of racial politics 2010. No one argued this was a problem: broadly conceived by redrawing the pe- indeed, one committee member said rimeter of those who might identify as “the whole issue is for the census to give people of color.20 Nor is it dif½cult to guidance to Hispanics as to where they imagine that white racial identi½cation belong.” In the end, not a single member might eventually weaken some of the of the Hispanic Advisory Committee civil rights protections currently extend- protested dropping the “some other ed to Hispanics. race” option. No one mentioned or ex-

19 After some negotiation, Seale agreed to 20 See Orlando Patterson, “Race by the Num- serve on the Advisory Committee as long as bers,” op-ed, The New York Times, May 8, 2001, the Bureau paid for his bodyguard. In the end, and the website of the National Association for Seale did not take up the appointment because the Advancement of Caucasian Latinos. For dis- he had to go underground. For discussion of cussions of the fluidity of Hispanic party iden- the Seale incident and the early Race Advisory ti½cation, see also Tamar Jacoby, “Republicans Committee, see Barbara Milton and David Pem- and Their Amigos,” The Weekly Standard, No- berton, “Oral History Interview with Vincent P. vember 25, 2002, 18. For appeals to Hispanics Barabba,” August 7, 1989, 28–30. A transcript as people of color, see Fernando Ferrer’s “other of the interview is available from the Census New York” campaign in the Democratic pri- Bureau. mary for the New York mayoral race in 2001.

68 Dædalus Winter 2005 Where do we want to draw the bound- omnibus Hispanic category in the ½rst Ethnicity & the aries of race? On what grounds? And place. boundaries with what political effects? We face a Finally, there is the possibility of dis- of race rare opportunity for rethinking the mantling the distinction between race American ethnoracial taxonomy. At the and ethnicity from the federal statistical very least, the politics of census race cat- system by shifting to a combined race/ egories are important enough to warrant ethnicity question. A respondent might a more serious public debate than has select ‘Hispanic’ as either an ethnic or a occurred to date. Moreover, it is impera- racial identi½cation, but the federal sta- tive that the issues be aired now, while tistical system would no longer reify the the Census Bureau is making decisions distinction. You will recall that Directive for 2010. Once census questions have 15 and the revised standards allow for been set it will be too late. The choices such a combined format. we make, or that are made on our be- However, the combined option is not half, are likely to establish the parame- without its dangers. Eliding the formal ters of ethnic and racial identi½cations distinction between race and ethnicity in American politics for years to come. might well lead to a false sense of equali- There are four principal taxonomic ty in which Americans assume, to para- options for us to consider: continue with phrase Nathan Glazer, that we are all the status quo; eliminate “some other ethnics now.21 Establishing formal race”; shift Hispanic from an ethnic to a equality without simultaneously chang- racial identi½cation; blur the categorical ing the broader social practices that con- distinction between race and ethnicity. tinue to secure ethnic privilege by distin- While none of these options is without guishing ethnicity from race may only problems, my own preference is for the mask persistent ethnic and racial divi- fourth one, with an important caveat. sions. Let me briefly spell out why I come to Thus, I advocate a double move: I this conclusion. think we should remove the formal dis- The status quo fails to address the very tinction between race and ethnicity real problems of Census Bureau imputa- from the federal classi½catory system, tion–especially for the large number of but we must also remain alert to, and Hispanics who select “some other race” seek to change, the complex ways in only to have their responses imputed which ethnic privilege has long been se- back to the of½cial race categories. Re- cured by de½ning ethnicity against race. moving “some other race,” currently the Changes in the taxonomy alone cannot Census Bureau’s preferred option, would redress the complex relation between unnecessarily narrow the range of racial ethnic and racial identi½cation in place identi½cations available to Hispanics, in the United States. Formal taxonomic leaving most of them with little choice equality will only be meaningful if it is but to identify as white ethnics. Chang- sustained by more equitable social and ing ‘Hispanic’ from an ethnic into a ra- political practices in American society at cial category would likely meet with large. considerable resistance from the very population that option seeks to accom- 21 Nathan Glazer, We Are All Multiculturalists modate. After all, it was the racial het- Now (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University erogeneity of the various national ori- Press, 1997). gin groups that led to the creation of an

Dædalus Winter 2005 69 Jennifer L. Hochschild

Looking ahead: racial trends in the United States

In April of 2004, the quarterly newslet- conclusion certainly was: “It is possible ter Migration News summarized the most that, by 2050, today’s racial and ethnic recent data on race and ethnicity from categories will no longer be in use.” the U.S. Census Bureau: “In 2000, the Migration News is a scholarly publica- racial/ethnic makeup of US residents tion that “summarizes the most impor- was: White, 69 percent; Hispanic and tant immigration and integration devel- Black, 13 percent each; and Asian and opments.”2 It is produced by Migration other, six percent. By 2050, these per- Dialogue, a group at the University of centages are projected to be: 50, 24, 15, California, Davis, that aspires to provide and 13.”1For anyone who has been study- “timely, factual and nonpartisan infor- ing racial trends in America these ½gures mation and analysis of international mi- weren’t surprising.1 But the newsletter’s gration issues.” Migration News cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as fanciful or ideological–and Jennifer L. Hochschild is Henry LaBarre Jayne yet in the middle of a summary of census Professor in the department of government and data its authors produced the astonish- professor in the department of African and Afri- ing prognosis that “by 2050, today’s ra- can American Studies at Harvard University. A cial and ethnic categories will no longer Fellow of the American Academy since 1996, she be in use.” If Migration News is correct, studies the intersection of American politics and residents of the United States will, with- political philosophy, and educational policy. Her in the lifetime of many readers of this books include “The American Dream and the issue of Dædalus, no longer talk of Public Schools” (with Nathan Scovronick, 2003), blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, and Na- “Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, tive Americans, but will instead speak and the Soul of the Nation” (1995), “The New of–what? American Dilemma: Liberal Democracy and School Desegregation” (1984), and “What’s 1 This essay is part of a joint research project Fair: American Beliefs About Distributive Justice” with Traci Burch and Vesla Weaver, both Ph.D. (1981). She is the founding editor of “Perspectives students at Harvard University. I thank them for their contributions to our shared enterprise. on Politics,” a new journal published by the Amer- The views expressed in this essay are my own, ican Political Science Association. and not necessarily shared by these coauthors of the larger project. © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 2 .

70 Dædalus Winter 2005 This essay explores possible answers not by race. The Irish are an ethnic Looking ahead: to that tantalizing question. By looking group; to identify someone as a Yankee racial backward at racial and ethnic construc- is to evoke a regional or cultural distinc- trends in tions and practices in the United States tion; Jews are an amalgam of religion, the United States over the past century, we will be better ethnicity, and perhaps culture. Anthro- situated to project possible racial and pologists no longer make racial distinc- ethnic constructions and practices over tions among Europeans; in fact, current the next one. Migration News might well research in the ½eld of cultural studies be right–although, as I will argue, that typically identi½es all Europeans, from is a far cry from predicting that the old Swedes to Arabs, as a single race distin- shameful racial hierarchies will disap- guished by its whiteness. pear. The biology of race has also changed dramatically. A century ago, biologists The idea of ethnicity did not exist in held that there were many races, that 1900; the term ‘ethnic’ was invented races could be distinguished from one around World War I and came into another in objective and quanti½able widespread use in the 1930s. The term ways, and that less measurable but none- ‘race’ did much of the work that we now theless real differences in intelligence assign to ‘ethnicity’; phrases such as ‘the and emotional maturity were closely Irish race,’ ‘the Yankee race,’ and ‘the associated with measurable differences Hebrew race’ were common and uncon- in skull size or proportion of white an- tested. But race meant a lot more than cestry. Some still held that races had dif- ethnicity. Edgar Allen Poe wrote of “the ferent origins or were even different sub- race of Usher,” Charles Dickens, of “the species. By the middle of the twentieth race of Evrémonde.” Biologists mea- century, however, the number of com- sured cranial capacities and developed monly recognized races had shrunk to a intelligence testing in order to make few (in grade school, I learned about what they perceived to be scienti½c de- Caucasoids, Mongoloids, Negroids, and terminations of the biological differ- Indians). And by the end of the century, ences among races of humans. In 1939 conventional wisdom, at least among Carleton Coon, a physical anthropolo- scholars, held that a race was a purely gist at Harvard University, published social construction with no notable bio- The Races of Europe, a textbook that logical differences. named eighteen races that were spread The wheel may be turning again, how- across the continent, including “Partial- ever. That well-known exemplar of post- ly Mongoloid,” “Brunn strain, Tronder modern deconstructionism, the U.S. etc., unreduced, only partly brachyce- census, is leading the way in proliferat- phalized,” “Pleistocene Mediterranean ing racial identities: the census now rec- Survivor,” “Neo-Danubian,” and so on. ognizes 126 ethnoracial groups (or a Meanwhile, the Negro and Indian races mere 63 racial groups!) and, as Kenneth were routinely distinguished from the Prewitt points out, many more could white race. come in quick succession. At the same A century later we retain the term time, some scientists and medical doc- ‘race,’ but only in the last of these us- tors are contesting the view that race is ages, that is, distinguishing a few major nothing but a social construction; as groups from each other. A family is de- Neil Risch and his coauthors put it, “a scribed by ancestry, lineage, or descent– ‘race-neutral’ or ‘color-blind’ approach

Dædalus Winter 2005 71 Jennifer L. to biomedical research is neither equi- ple races, whereas Paci½c Rim Asians are Hochschild table nor advantageous, and would not a single race with multiple ethnicities. on race lead to a reduction of disparities in dis- But scholars and activists are now ease risk or treatment ef½cacy between working to confound the distinction that groups.”3 People of different races or was developed over most of the past cen- ethnicities may react differently to par- tury. Ian Haney López, for example, ticular medications, may be especially wrote in 1997 that “conceptualizing Lati- susceptible to speci½c diseases, or may nos/as in racial terms is warranted . . . . have bone marrow or kidneys compati- The general abandonment of racial lan- ble only with some co-ethnics. Most guage and its replacement with substi- new biological research has been puri- tute vocabularies, in particular that of ½ed of the old eugenicist motivations; ethnicity, will obfuscate key aspects of even the dean of Howard University Latino/a lives.”4 Four in ten of those Medical School has endorsed a major who identi½ed as Hispanic or Latino on initiative to collect dna samples from the ethnicity question in the 2000 cen- his hospital’s (mostly black) patients for sus rejected all the racial categories of- medical research on diseases to which fered to them in the next question, in fa- African Americans are especially prone, vor of “some other race.” Whether that such as high blood pressure, asthma, and represents a principled refusal to distin- prostate cancer. By 2050 the historical guish race from ethnicity, or just respon- seesaw between biology and social con- dents’ confusion with the census form, structivism may be superseded by geno- as the Census Bureau interpreted it, re- mic research that disaggregates individ- mains to be seen. David Hollinger has uals at levels far below any groupings by pointed out one of the more resonant race, ethnicity, geography, or culture. ironies of American racial politics: the In parallel with the changing meanings same federal government that separates of race, we have witnessed the rise and Hispanic ethnicity from race in the cen- perhaps fall of the concept of ethnicity. sus treats Hispanics as legally equivalent That concept was invented partly in op- to African Americans in antidiscrimina- position to the idea of race, since it was tion policies such as af½rmative action, taken to denote possibly malleable cul- voting rights, and minority set-asides. ture rather than biologically ½xed char- Residents of the United States began acteristics. It was elaborated as a way to the twentieth century by not distin- make distinctions within a given race, guishing a race from an ethnicity; they usually among whites; Michael Novak spent most of that century elaborating wrote in 1972 of “the rise of the unmelt- the differences between the two con- able ethnics” within various European cepts; and they appear now to be col- nationalities. Some analysts continue to lapsing the distinction. The number of insist that the two terms should be de- recognized races shrank drastically and ½ned in opposition to each other. I, like is now expanding again. When the cen- other undergraduate lecturers, have tury began, the concept of race was taught my students that Latinos have a tightly connected with the biological common ethnicity shared among multi- sciences; that bond was almost snapped but now may be regaining strength. I am 3 Neil Risch, Esteban Burchard, Elad Ziv, and Hua Tang, “Categorization of Humans in Bio- 4 Ian Haney López, “Race, Ethnicity, Erasure: medical Research: Genes, Race, and Disease,” The Salience of Race to LatCrit Theory,” Cali- Genome Biology 3 (7) (2002): 1–12. fornia Law Review 85 (5) (1997): 1143–1211.

72 Dædalus Winter 2005 not making a simple cyclical argument: rich . . . . They are densely ignorant, and Looking ahead: the proliferation of races through multi- easily aroused by prejudice or passion.” racial ple self-de½nitions is very different from The members of this class “are mainly trends in the mapmaking of a physical anthropol- Irish Catholics.” the United States ogist, and the biology of eugenics is un- Not only words were invoked to con- connected with the biology of the ge- trol the dangerous classes. Of the 1,713 nome project. Nevertheless, the trans- lynchings in the decade after 1882 (the formations of the past century show that ½rst year for which accurate records Migration News’s casual suggestion that exist), half of the victims were white by 2050 today’s racial and ethnic cate- (largely Jewish or Catholic); in the suc- gories may no longer be in use is not as ceeding decade, a quarter were. ‘Hun- farfetched as it initially appears to be. kies,’ Italians, and Russian Jews could live and socialize only in a ‘foreign col- De½nitions and usages of concepts ony’ in an undesirable part of town. Un- such as race and ethnicity matter be- less there was a substantial black popula- cause they help us to understand the tion in the area, most new immigrants practice of racial and ethnic interaction. occupied the lowest-skilled and lowest- If immigrants are regarded as a race paying jobs in the lowest-status indus- apart, biologically distinct from the rest tries. When able to attain jobs that re- of us, they will be treated very different- quired more expertise, they were paid ly than if they are regarded as belonging less than their northern European coun- to another ethnicity, similar in crucial terparts. ways to all the others. The structure of Eventually, however, the despised racial hierarchy will be different if races races became the celebrated white eth- are conceived as discrete and insular nics. The reasons included genuine as- (i.e., one can be black or white but not similation, the desire to become white both) rather than if they are conceived in order not to be black, the almost com- as occurring along a continuum. The plete cessation of new European immi- degree to which such conceptions and gration after World War I, upward mo- practices have changed over the past bility in a growing labor force, and polit- century can give us hints as to how they ical incorporation through party ma- are likely to change over the next one. chines. By the 1960s, Irish Catholic fami- Consider immigrants ½rst. Ever alert lies enjoyed on average $2,500 more than to its responsibility as the newspaper of the national average family income.5 An record, The New York Times reminded Irish Catholic has been president of the readers in the 1880s of “a powerful ‘dan- nation, and during his presidential cam- gerous class,’ who care nothing for our paign John Kerry was coy about the fact liberty or civilization, . . . who burrow at that he is not Irish. Intermarriage rates the roots of society, and only come forth among white ethnics are so high that in the darkness and in times of distur- demographers have largely given up try- bance, to plunder and prey on the good ing to trace socioeconomic differences things which surround them, but which among nationalities. In short, the ethnic they never reach.” This is, the Times pro- boundaries at the turn of the twentieth ceeded to warn, “the poorest and lowest 5 Andrew Greeley, “Ethnic Minorities in the laboring class . . . [who] drudge year after Unites States: Demographic Perspectives,” In- year in fruitless labor . . . [but] never rise ternational Journal of Group Tensions 7 (3 and 4) above their position . . . . They hate the (1977): 64–97. See table 5-C for data.

Dædalus Winter 2005 73 Jennifer L. century that were sometimes etched in creased immigration.”6 As of 1990, a Hochschild violence have mostly dissolved into ½fth of the children who had one Asian on race shades of whiteness. parent also had a parent of a different The transformation of the status of race; that proportion is surely much Asian immigrants has been even more higher now. In the same year, 30 percent phenomenal. In 1877, a U.S. Senate com- of Asians who married wed a non-Asian mittee investigating Chinese immigra- American, and that ½gure too is rising. tion to California concluded that “the While discrimination persists, virulently Chinese do not desire to become citizens at times, and the label of ‘foreigner’ of this country, and have no knowledge sometimes seems impossible to escape, or appreciation for our institutions . . . . it is not crazy to think that Asians may An indigestible mass in the community, by 2050 have followed the path of Irish distinct in language, pagan in religion, Catholics and Polish Jews into the status inferior in mental and moral qualities, of ‘just American.’ and all peculiarities, is an undesirable Conversely, another group of immi- element in a republic, but becomes espe- grants–Mexican Americans, or Latinos cially so if political power is placed in its more generally–might become more hands.” Until the middle of the twenti- sharply differentiated from other resi- eth century, members of most Asian na- dents of the United States over the next tionalities were prohibited from immi- few decades. Samuel Huntington argues grating, becoming naturalized citizens, that the “extent and nature of this im- or owning certain types of property. migration differ fundamentally from Most Japanese Americans were in- those of previous immigrations, and the terned in World War II, although few assimilation successes of the past are un- German Americans or Italian Ameri- likely to be duplicated with the contem- cans were. porary flood of immigrants from Latin But now Asian Americans are per- America. This reality poses a fundamen- ceived, often to their chagrin, as the tal question: Will the United States re- ‘model minority.’ Elite private universi- main a country with a single national ties are rumored to use informal quotas language and a core Anglo-Protestant to keep too many from beating out their culture?”7 In this view, Latinos will fol- non-Asian competitors. At the most low the opposite trajectory from that of prestigious state universities in Califor- the Irish and Asians: Latinos, once per- nia, where no such restrictions hold, ceived as part of an ethnicity with an Asian American students typically ½ll identi½able but permeable culture, are two-½fths of the student seats (in a state becoming a race with increasingly de- whose population is 12 percent Asian ½ned boundaries. American). Almost half of adult Asian The research evidence is completely Americans have a college degree or more mixed on this point. U.S.-born children education, compared with three in ten Anglos, two in ten African Americans, 6 M. V. Hood III and Irwin Morris, “¿Amigo o and one in ten Latinos. A Newsweek cover Enemigo?: Context, Attitudes, and Anglo Pub- story lauds the sex appeal of Asian men; lic Opinion Toward Immigration,” Social Science Quarterly 78 (2) (1997): 309–323. analysts report that “Anglos living in close proximity to large Asian popula- 7 Samuel P. Huntington, “The Hispanic Chal- tions are more likely than racially and lenge,” Foreign Policy (March/April 2004): ethnically isolated Anglos to favor in- 30–45.

74 Dædalus Winter 2005 of Mexican parents consistently receive immigrants get to become American by Looking ahead: more education than their parents, stepping over the only group that can- racial speak English better, earn more at high- not, and does not want to, attain white- trends in er-status jobs, move away from gateway ness (or at least nonblackness). the United States cities more frequently, marry more non- Beyond the empirical complexities, I Mexicans, and vote more. However, dis- cannot forecast whether today’s racial crimination and subordination persist, and ethnic categories will no longer be and scholars such as Richard Alba and in use with regard to immigrants in 2050, his coauthors ½nd “no convincing sign because of a crucial but unpredictable of convergence in the educational attain- feature of immigration: the level and ments of later-generation Mexican composition of immigration is largely a Americans and Anglos.”8 That is, after matter of political choice. U.S. immigra- the second generation, assimilation may tion has not been drastically curtailed lose its momentum. Sociologists even after forty years of increase, as it was in point to the possibility of a reversal, such 1924 after about ½fty years of a propor- that children and grandchildren of poor tionally similar increase. But will it be? immigrants may lose ground economi- On the one hand, there are few signs of cally, disengage politically, and end up an impending cutoff. So the long period with poorer health, higher rates of of incorporation with few newcomers crime, or greater family instability than that the United States experienced from their ancestors or counterparts in their 1920 until 1965 is unlikely to be repeated native country. in the near future. Huntington articulates a deeper anxi- On the other hand, the war against ter- ety: that the sheer magnitude of immi- rorism may yet dramatically affect im- gration and the high birth rates among migration laws and the treatment of im- Latinos who share a language, religion, migrants. So far only a small segment of and background and who mostly live in the population has been signi½cantly a distinct section of the United States are affected. But arguably precedents have creating “a de facto split between a pre- been set that could have powerful and, dominantly Spanish-speaking United in my view, terrible consequences for the States and an English-speaking United United States’s treatment of ‘foreigners.’ States.” In my view, this concern is un- And with a few more terrorist attacks, warranted; the culture of the United residents of the United States could de- States is certainly changing in response velop a powerful nativism tinged with to massive immigration from Latin religious and ethnic hostility and fueled America, but the immigrants are chang- by a genuine and warranted fear. The ing just as much, if not more. From the effect such developments would have on perspective of African Americans, in the racial and ethnic categories of 2050 fact, the danger may be altogether too is anyone’s guess. much assimilation rather than too little –creating once again a society in which For most of the twentieth century, the boundary between black and white was 8 Richard Alba, Dalia Abdel-Hady, Tariqul as ½rmly ½xed in law and self-de½nition Islam, and Karen Marotz, “Downward Assimi- lation and Mexican Americans: An Examina- as it was blurred in practice. This bound- tion of Intergenerational Advance and Stagna- ary did not always exist; in the 1600s, tion in Educational Attainment,” University at the Virginia legislature had to outlaw Albany, suny, Albany, N.Y., 2004. interracial marriages because too many

Dædalus Winter 2005 75 Jennifer L. white indentured servants were marry- moved from connotations of mongre- Hochschild ing black proto-slaves. Interracial sexual lization and degeneration. on race activity persisted, of course, and govern- How much actual multiracialism there ment policy in the centuries since then is in the United States is indeterminate. has shifted from counting mulattoes, The answer depends on what one de- quadroons, and octoroons to establish- ½nes as a race (is a marriage between a ing “one drop of blood” laws in thirty Mexican American and a European states by 1940. In some states or legal American interracial?), whether inter- jurisdictions, not only blacks but also ethnic marriages are factored in (how South Asians, Chinese and Japanese about a marriage between a Korean and Americans, and Mexican Americans a Japanese?), how far back one goes in a were forbidden to marry European person’s ancestry to determine multira- Americans. Opponents used rumors of ciality, and what individuals know or interracial sex to try to discredit Abra- acknowledge in their own family histo- ham Lincoln, the Populist movement, ry. Nevertheless, it is probably safe to say labor unions, New Deal agencies, deseg- that intermarriage is rising, along with regation in the Army, and the civil rights the number of children who are, or who movement. The Supreme Court refused are recognized as being, multiracial. Up to take on cases of interracial marriage to 12 percent of youth can now readily be in the 1950s for fear of evoking uncon- called multiracial, and plausibly by 2050 trollable anger; Justice Harlan is report- about 10 percent of whites and blacks ed to have said, with Thurgood Mar- and over 50 percent of Latinos, Asians, shall’s concurrence, that “one bomb- and American Indians will marry out- shell at a time is enough.” side their group. Most of that sentiment has disap- Since families are comprised of more peared, or at least gone underground. than only parents and children, a single Multiracial identity is now a point of intermarriage can have a wide impact. public pride and private assertion; a so- As of 1990, “one in seven whites, one in cial movement built around multiracial three blacks, four in ½ve Asians, and identity has shown surprising strength. more than 19 in 20 American Indians are In 1958, only 4 percent of whites en- closely related to someone of a different dorsed interracial marriage; the most racial group. Despite an intermarriage recent Gallup poll shows that 70 percent rate of about 1 percent, about 20 percent now do. A recent cover of Parade maga- of Americans count someone from a dif- zine is adorned with smiling, adorable ferent racial group among their kin.”9 children under the headline of “The And those calculations include neither Changing Faces of America”; Mattel has marriages between or offspring of a Lati- introduced Kayla, whom it describes as no and a non-Latino, nor individuals “Barbie’s racially ambiguous playmate”; with multiracial ancestry who consider The New York Times showcases “Genera- themselves to be members of one racial tion E.A.: Ethnically Ambiguous”; News- group. week shows yet another set of adorable These changes in sentiment and be- children in a story on “The New Face of havior may grow even stronger over the Race.” Whatever motives one attributes 9 Joshua R. Goldstein, “Kinship Networks to the marketing of racial complexity, that Cross Racial Lines: The Exception or the the fact that multiracialism now has Rule?” Demography 36 (3) (August 1999): 399– commercial appeal shows how far it has 407.

76 Dædalus Winter 2005 next few decades, as Latinos’ celebration was widely criticized for once entertain- Looking ahead: of mestizaje, the mixing of races, as a cul- ing Booker T. Washington in the White racial tural identity and social environment, House; Republican President Bush has trends in rather than as a description of an indi- entrusted two of the most important the United States vidual’s ancestry, spreads across the na- cabinet-level positions to African Ameri- tion. Similarly, the census’s invitation to cans. The highest paid corporate execu- identify with more than one race may tive on Wall Street in 2003 was black; spread, for simple bureaucratic and non- some African Americans hold high elec- ideological reasons, to schools, state tive of½ce or judgeships; some are es- governments, corporations, hospitals, teemed socially and culturally. Overall, the criminal justice system, the military, using criteria that encompass roughly and other far-reaching institutions. A half of the white population, about a frequently repeated offer to “check one third of American blacks can be de- or more” may encourage people to think scribed as middle class. Affluent African of themselves as ‘more than one.’ If the Americans can now pass their status on trajectory of multiracialism persists, Mi- to their children, so a fully developed gration News’s speculation that today’s class structure has emerged in the black racial and ethnic categories will no lon- community. ger be in use in a few decades seems even Still, perhaps a third of African Ameri- less farfetched. cans remain at the bottom of the various hierarchies in the United States. Com- We cannot evaluate the impact of the pared with all other groups, poor blacks unstable meanings of race and ethnicity, are more deeply poor, for longer periods the fluctuating status of various immi- of their life and from earlier in child- grant groups, and the evolving connota- hood; they are more likely to live among tion of multiracialism without consider- other poor people. Black children who ing African Americans. They are the pe- begin their education with roughly the rennial losers in the hierarchies of sta- same knowledge and skills as white chil- tus, wealth, and power in the United dren lose ground in the public school States. The boundaries around black- system. Blacks are more likely to be ness have been the most stringently victimized by crime than any other monitored, ½rst by oppressors and now group, and black men are much more perhaps by African Americans them- likely to be incarcerated and subsequent- selves; their relations with white Ameri- ly disfranchised for life than are white cans have been and continue to be the men. most fraught. If we knew how much the More generally, we cannot dismiss the meaning of being black in the United possible persistence of what Orlando States will change by 2050–or more Patterson once called the “homeostatic contentiously, whether racial oppression principle of the entire system of racial will be signi½cantly undermined–we domination,” in which racial subordina- would know how seriously to take the tion is repressed in one location only to speculation that our current racial and burst forth in another.10 Regardless of ethnic categories may become outmod- their income, African Americans are ed. overcharged for used cars, less likely The standing of African Americans has changed dramatically over the past 10 Orlando Patterson, “Toward a Study of century: Republican President Roosevelt Black America,” Dissent (Fall 1989): 476–486.

Dædalus Winter 2005 77 Jennifer L. to receive appropriate treatment for cades are on balance encouraging, but Hochschild on heart attacks, and less likely to receive they are not dispositive. race excellent service from realtors and bankers. Blacks have drastically less I turn ½nally to discrimination by skin wealth than whites with the same earn- tone, which may be the deepest and ings. Whites seldom vote for black can- most tenacious form of racism in the didates when they have an alternative, United States. The connection between and even less often move into substan- lightness and virtue is at least as old as tially black neighborhoods, schools, and Shakespeare, whose Timon of Athens churches. learned too late that enough gold “will I am not sure what would count as per- make black white, foul fair, wrong right, suasive evidence that the racial hierar- base noble, old young, coward valiant.” chy in the United States is on a certain Europeans have not always denigrated path to extinction. Certainly a strong dark-skinned people in favor of light- black class structure that persists across skinned ones, as Werner Sollors shows generations would be essential (al- in An Anthology of Interracial Literature, though it may merely substitute one but by the mid-nineteenth century, few hierarchy for another). A sense among residents of the United States publicly African Americans that they can let contested the view that lighter was bet- down their guard–that embracing mul- ter. Skin-color hierarchy held a fortiori tiracialism is not just a way of inching across what we now call races; northern closer to whiteness, that racism is only European whites were dominant, south- infrequently part of the explanation for a ern Europeans and Latinos held inter- failure, that a commitment to racial soli- mediate positions, and blacks were sub- darity need not take precedence over ordinated to all. But skin-color hierarchy values such as feminism or patriotism also obtained within racial and ethnic or simple idiosyncrasy–would also be groups, as phrases like ‘the black Irish’ good evidence. And changed behavior and ‘the brown paper bag test’ and the by nonblacks, such as choosing a home advertising jingle asserting that ‘blonds or a child’s school because of its quality have more fun’ attest. rather than its racial composition, or The history of each racial or ethnic repudiating implicit as well as explicit group includes its own variant of skin- racial appeals by political candidates, color ranking. Spanish and Portuguese or recognizing and disavowing the privi- colonizers of Latin America elaborated leges that come with being the apparent- rules for ranking according to a complex ly raceless norm in U.S. society, would mixture of race, physical appearance, also be necessary. wealth, cultural heritage, and enslave- Until we can be clear on what it will ment: take to abolish racial hierarchy in the United States, and on how far we have Whites generally have a superior status. moved toward that abolition, we cannot People of Indian racial background whose say whether by 2050 today’s racial and cultural practices are mainly of Portu- ethnic categories will no longer be in guese or Spanish derivation . . . would be use. If racial hierarchy persists, so will next on the social ladder. Mestizos, people the categories of black and nonblack. of mixed indigenous and white back- Multiracialism and the history of Amer- ground, would have a higher rating than ican racial politics over the past few de- those of largely Indian background. At the

78 Dædalus Winter 2005 bottom of the social pyramid would be “Personal appearance has a lot to do with Looking Afro-Americans, with mulattos occupying it.” ahead: 11 racial a higher social status than blacks. “Coloring?” Amory asked eagerly. trends in “Yes.” the United My research (conducted with Traci States “That’s what Tom and I ½gured,” Burch and Vesla Weaver) suggests that Amory agreed. “We took the year-books skin-color ranking has had an equally for the last ten years and looked at the pic- powerful impact on African Americans. tures of the senior council . . . . It does rep- Compared with their darker-skinned resent success here [at Princeton Universi- counterparts, lighter-skinned black sol- ty] in a general way. Well, I suppose only diers in the Civil War’s Union Army about thirty-½ve per cent of every class were more likely to have been skilled here are blonds, are really light–yet two- workers than ½eld hands before they thirds of every senior council are light . . . .” entered the service. Sergeants and lieu- “It’s true,” Byrne agreed. “The light- tenants were most likely to be light- haired man is a higher type, generally skinned, and black soldiers with light speaking. I worked the thing out with the skin were more likely than their darker- Presidents of the United States once, and skinned counterparts to be promoted found that way over half of them were while in the Army. They were signi½- light-haired, yet think of the preponder- cantly taller (a measure of nutrition) ant number of brunettes in the race.” and–most striking of all–the lightest members of the black regiments were They go on for several more paragraphs signi½cantly less likely to die in serv- in the same vein, apropos of nothing in ice.12 the book’s plot. Asian societies are not immune from Such examples range across several the bias of skin-color ranking. An an- centuries because the importance of skin cient Japanese proverb holds that “white tone has changed relatively little, despite skin makes up for seven defects,” and the growth of a black cultural aesthetic, Indian newspapers and websites carry the Latino celebration of mestizaje, and personal ads for women whose parents the Asian drive for panethnic unity. Sur- boast of their daughters’ purity and light veys from the 1990s show that lighter- skin in order to attract a husband. Euro- skinned African Americans and Hispan- pean Americans hold light skin in the ics continue to enjoy higher incomes and same regard, as elucidated by that noted more education than their darker coun- sociologist F. Scott Fitzgerald in This Side terparts. They are more likely to own of Paradise. During a conversation about homes and to live among white neigh- the virtues of strenuous exercise, Fitz- bors, and less likely to be on welfare. gerald’s Byrne suddenly observes, Darker blacks and Latinos have higher rates of incarceration and unemploy- 11 Robert J. Cottrol, “The Long Lingering ment; dark-skinned Mexican Americans Shadow: Law, Liberalism, and Cultures of Ra- speak less English and are less likely to cial Hierarchy and Identity in the Americas,” be unionized if they are workers. Dark- Tulane Law Review 76 (November 2001): 11–79. skinned black men convicted of a crime 12 These data are drawn from Jacob Metzer receive longer sentences than lighter- and Robert A. Margo, Union Army Recruits in skinned counterparts. Both blacks and Black Regiments in the United States, 1862–1865, whites attach more negative and fewer computer ½le, University of Michigan, Inter- positive attributes to images of dark- university Consortium for Political and Social skinned, compared with light-skinned, Research, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1990. blacks. Dædalus Winter 2005 79 Jennifer L. Controls for class background reduce understand it would trump skin tone Hochschild but do not eliminate these differences. and ethnicity among blacks, even if on race That is, light-skinned people are more skin tone or ethnicity complicates the likely to come from a well-off family– meaning of race for all other residents reflecting the historical advantages of of the United States. Biracial individu- light skin–and they are more likely to als would be treated as simply black or be treated well by police, employers, nonblack, and would mostly identify teachers, and other citizens. The magni- according to that binary, rather than tude of these effects is impressive. One become a liminal or new category.

study found complexion to be more • A similar possible scenario is white closely connected than was parents’ so- exceptionalism. Here too, skin tone cioeconomic status to blacks’ occupa- and ethnicity would continue to mat- tion and income; another found that ter, but the main divide would be “dark-skinned blacks suffer much the between those identi½ed as white and same disadvantage relative to light- all others. Skin tone and ethnic iden- skinned blacks that blacks, in general, ti½cation would continue to matter lit- 13 suffer relative to whites.” Even if racial tle among European Americans, who and ethnic categories change drastically would all share to a greater or lesser by 2050, one cannot assume that skin- degree in white privilege. Appearance color hierarchy will do the same. and ethnic groupings might matter a great deal for sorting the rest of the Over the past century, the meaning of population, but only within a shared race and ethnicity has changed a lot, as subordinate status. have the status of most immigrants and • Alternatively, the United States might the connotations of multiracialism. move toward a South African model. Skin-color hierarchy has changed little, That would combine the ½rst two sce- and the subordination of African Ameri- narios, producing a nation sorted into cans has been challenged but not yet three groups: whites and ‘honorary overthrown. Combining these dynamics whites’ (most Asians, some Latinos, in various ways and with varying degrees and some biracials), coloreds (some of emphasis permits us to envision at Asians, most Latinos, some biracials, least six possible futures: and a few African Americans), and • The United States might persist in a blacks and almost-blacks (indigenous structure of black exceptionalism, or Latinos, many Native Americans, and an updated Jim Crow. In this scenario, some biracials, as well as African skin tone and ethnicity would matter, Americans). Levels of affluence, sta- but the main divide would continue to tus, power, and vulnerability to dis- be between those identi½ed as black crimination would on average vary and all others. That is, race as we now accordingly, with wider variations between rather than within the 13 Michael Hughes and Bradley R. Hertel, “The groups.14 Signi½cance of Color Remains: A Study of Life Chances, Mate Selection, and Ethnic Con- sciousness Among Black Americans,” Social 14 For more on this scenario, see Eduardo Forces 68 (4) (1990): 1105–1120; Verna Keith Bonilla-Silva, “We Are All Americans!: The and Cedric Herring, “Skin Tone and Strati½- Latin Americanization of Race Relations in the cation in the Black Community,” American Jour- United States,” in Maria Krysan and Amanda nal of Sociology 97 (3): 760–778. Lewis, eds., The Changing Terrain of Race and

80 Dædalus Winter 2005 • Perhaps the United States will sort • Finally, the United States might blur Looking ahead: along a more complex set of racial and distinct racial and ethnic groups into a racial ethnic dimensions, with new under- multiracial mélange. The logic of mul- trends in standings of race and ethnicity. One tiracialism differs from that of skin the United States possibility is sharper regional divides. color since the former is not inherently Thus the Northwest would mingle hierarchical: black/white individuals Asians, Native Americans, and Anglos; have the same standing qua ‘multira- the Southwest would mix Latinos, cials’ as do Asian/Latino individuals. Native Americans, and Anglos; the The crucial divide in this scenario Midwest would remain largely Anglo; would be between those who identify the South would continue to hold as monoracials and seek to protect cul- mostly separate populations of blacks tural purity and those who identify and Anglos, and so on. These regional as multiracials and celebrate cultural divides could develop important politi- mixing. Skin tone, along with conven- cal and cultural implications, even if tional distinctions of race and ethnici- not at the level of the antebellum ty, would recede in importance. North, South, and West as described Prediction is a fool’s game. The future 15 by Anne Norton, among others. Or will be partly controlled by political and the nation might divide along lines of policy choices not yet made, perhaps not nativity, so that the most salient char- yet even imagined. Furthermore, as acteristic is whether one is foreign- or others discuss in detail in this issue of native-born. Perhaps class lines or Dædalus, the very categories that we em- intensity of religious commitment or ploy to measure racial and ethnic change isolationism would cut across lines of will themselves affect the direction and race, ethnicity, and skin tone alike. magnitude of that change. The census is • The United States might be moving not a neutral bean counter; Heisenberg’s toward the eventual elimination of dis- principle holds for the social as well as tinct racial and ethnic groups in favor the physical world. Nevertheless, I will of a skin-color hierarchy, tout court. venture a guess: skin tone will continue Socioeconomic status, prestige, and to be associated with invidious distinc- political power would in that case de- tions; African Americans will remain a pend on one’s location on that contin- distinct although not always subordinat- uum; identity, beliefs, and perceptions ed social grouping; and everything else would eventually follow. Whether such in this arena–our understandings of a continuum would improve the Unit- race and ethnicity, our treatment of im- ed States’s racial order by substituting migrants, our evaluation of people and fluidity for rigidity, or worsen it by cultures that cut across formerly distinct disguising persistent racial stigma categories–is up for grabs. through a series of small gradations, remains to be seen.

Ethnicity (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004): 149–183.

15 Anne Norton, Alternative Americas: A Read- ing of Antebellum Political Culture (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1986).

Dædalus Winter 2005 81 Melissa Nobles

The myth of Latin American multiracialism

Many Latin American nations have cialism as a ½tting ideal for North Amer- long proudly proclaimed a multiracial icans, Latin American critics have begun ideal: unlike the United States, countries to argue that multiracialism, like racial like Brazil and Mexico have celebrated democracy, functions as an ideology that the mixing ofraces, and claimed to ex- masks enduring racial injustice and thus tend equal rights and opportunities to blocks substantial political, social, and all citizens, regardless ofrace. As a result economic reform. ofthe region’s regnant faith in racial democracy, it has long been widely as- Latin American elites have always been sumed that Latin American societies are deeply concerned about the racial stocks nondiscriminatory and that their deep oftheir populations and have always economic and social disparities have no prized the European antecedents oftheir racial or ethnic component. peoples and cultures–just like their Yet new statistical evidence (a by- counterparts in the United States. But product ofdemocratization) suggests at the same time, and unlike their U.S. that most ofthe region’s societies have counterparts, Latin American political yet to surmount racial discrimination. and cultural leaders in the ½rst halfof At the very time that some in the United the twentieth century viewed their soci- States have timidly embraced multira- eties as unique products ofracial inter- mingling. Sensing that such racial mingling might help de½ne an emergent na- Melissa Nobles, an expert on the comparative tionalism, intellectuals and statesmen study of racial and ethnic politics, nationalism, argued that extensive racial mixture had social movements, and issues of retrospective jus- resulted in the formation of new, charac- tice, is associate professor of political science at the teristically ‘national’ races. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the For example, the Mexican philosopher author of “Shades of Citizenship: Race and the José Vasconcelos (1882–1959) famously Census in Modern Politics” (2000), which exam- celebrated the idea ofracial mixture by ines the political origins and consequences of ra- arguing that all Latin Americans, and cial categorization in demographic censuses in the not just Mexicans, were a raza cósmica United States and Brazil. (cosmic race) comprised ofboth Span- ish and indigenous peoples. But his con- © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts ception ofmixture left no doubt as to the & Sciences

82 Dædalus Winter 2005 eminence to be accorded to peoples of pleasantly surprised by the apparent lack The myth European descent. As scholars have ob- ofanimus and social segregation along of Latin American served, the idea ofa cosmic race at once color lines, he or she will still be struck multi- gave indigenous peoples a place within a by the seemingly close correspondence racialism new racial identity while simultaneously between skin color and class that is char- relegating all things Indian to a back- acteristic ofthe region. This state ofaf- ward and romantic past. fairs is especially pronounced in the An- As a result ofthe work ofwriters like dean area, where indigenous communi- Vasconcelos, the idea ofracial mixture ties have recently begun to engage in vis- in Latin America has long been a norma- ible and dramatic protests against the tive goal, and not just a simple assertion status quo, contributing to political ofdemographic facts. Latin American instability. societies have tended to pride them- In recent years, moreover, it has be- selves on their multiracialism. Although come ever harder to credit declarations Brazil was for many decades the largest ofracial democracy, and for a simple slaveholding society in the hemisphere, reason: for the ½rst time ever, many and lacked a mass multiparty democracy Latin American governments are gath- until 1945, it was one ofthe ½rst Latin ering reliable racial and ethnic data. De- American countries to declare itselfa ra- mands for the gathering of such data cial democracy. The paradoxes ofBrazil have been most successful in Brazil, but are typical: The ideal ofracial democra- groups representing blacks and indige- cy flourishes most vigorously when po- nous peoples have pressed for similar litical democracy has not. The rhetoric measures in Colombia, Ecuador, and ofmultiracialism has routinely been de- Guatemala. ployed by oligarchic and authoritarian In Brazil, as in the other countries, regimes. these organized efforts have come on the The myth ofthe region’s racial democ- heels ofgreater political liberalization. racy has nevertheless proved durable, The dual efforts to get Brazilians to iden- mainly because few have critically ques- tify their skin color as accurately as pos- tioned it. Most Latin American countries sible on their census schedules and to have collected data on racial identi½ca- force the Brazilian Institute of Statistics tion erratically, ifat all. For example, and Geography (ibge) to alter its meth- Venezuela has not collected such data ods ofcategorization began in 1990, since 1854, the year slavery was abol- ½ve years after Brazil’s emergence from ished there. Neither Colombia, nor twenty-one years ofinstitutional mili- Cuba, nor the Dominican Republic con- tary rule, the longest such rule in twen- ducts a national census in which resi- tieth-century Latin American history. dents are classi½ed by race or color. In- Similarly, in Colombia, attempts to stead, Latin American scholars and poli- change the census have accompanied the cymakers have generally drawn racial political opening and constitutional re- and ethnic data for their countries from form of the early 1990s. In both cases, foreign sources, such as the United Na- organized groups have sought either to tions and the World Bank. have census racial categories changed (as The absence ofreliable data has made in Brazil) or added (as in Colombia) for it virtually impossible to test the region- two related reasons. The ½rst is to chal- al claims ofracial democracy. While the lenge the view that the societies are in- visitor to a Latin American city may be deed as ‘white’ as previously claimed,

Dædalus Winter 2005 83 Melissa and the second is to cross-tabulate the Latin American countries. Representa- Nobles on racial with other essential socioeconom- tives gave mixed reviews ofthe national race ic indicators in order to measure the ex- census institutes’ efforts. For example, tent ofeconomic strati½cation by race. Ecuadorian indigenous and black groups Organized groups have not limited complained ofbeing completely exclud- their activities to the domestic political ed from the census process, unable to arena. Recognizing the power ofinterna- participate in the formulation of a rational institutions, they have also enlist- cial/ethnic question.3 ed many ofthem in their census reform Yet what is perhaps more revealing is efforts. If governments are slow in re- how these census meetings were tied, sponding, the reasoning goes, they will by both the banks and activists, to bank- respond more quickly to international funded projects aimed at measuring the pressures. On this score, black and in- social inclusion ofblacks and indigenous digenous activists ½rst lobbied to have peoples. According to the reigning myth international lenders take their issues on ofracial democracy, after all, both of board, arguing that the ethnic and racial these groups were already fully incorpo- dimensions ofclass inequality in Latin rated in distinctively multiracial soci- America have been ignored. Their de- eties–so there was presumably nothing mands were consistent with the World to measure. Bank’s priorities on poverty alleviation, for example, as articulated by Bank pres- The claim that inequalities in Latin ident James D. Wolfensohn in his 1997 America are borne disproportionately by annual address.1 indigenous groups and blacks has been Once the banks had committed to ad- signi½cantly boosted by census data, dressing color inequalities, they had to when such data are collected and tabu- ascertain the scope ofthe problem, and lated against other socioeconomic indi- thus became stakeholders in the census cators. For most ofthe twentieth centu- data issue. Beginning in 2000, the Latin ry, the ibge had not cross-tabulated col- American and Caribbean Social Devel- or categories with socioeconomic indi- opment Unit within the World Bank, cators; it was not until Brazil’s 1976 along with Inter-American Develop- household survey that color data were ment Bank and the Colombian Statisti- pegged to health, education, and hous- cal Department, sponsored a workshop ing. Furthermore, before the color ques- in which demographers, government tion was reintroduced in the 1980 cen- census personnel, and indigenous and sus, people trying to determine the pos- black Latin American and Caribbean sible role ofcolor in these matters were organizations gathered to discuss how forced to use data from the 1950 census. racial and ethnic questions should be (The 1960 census asked a color question, incorporated into national censuses.2 A but the data from it were belatedly and follow-up meeting held two years later not fully released. The color question in Peru was attended by more than a was removed from the 1970 census.) hundred representatives from eighteen Recent racial data for Brazil has made dubious the claim that skin color is in- 1 The World Bank, La Ventana Newsletter: A Re- consequential. Data from the 1976 port from the Latin American and Caribbean Social household survey and from the 1980 Development Unit, vol. 1

2 Ibid., vol. 1. 3 Ibid., vol. 2.

84 Dædalus Winter 2005 census showed that Brazil’s nonwhites Already, in the face of organized do- The myth were disadvantaged when compared to mestic pressure and international atten- of Latin American whites in terms ofeducational attain- tion, politicians in the region have be- multi- ment, labor force participation, and gun to change their views. They have racialism wages.4 According to a 2001 study based strengthened antidiscrimination laws on the most recent census data, econom- and introduced af½rmative action poli- ic and educational disparities persist, cies. In certain cases new legislation has with blacks and browns concentrated at been passed, while in other cases, exist- the bottom ofthe economic ladder, coming legislation is being enforced for the prising 70 percent ofthe poorest decile. ½rst time. Blacks and browns also continue to earn For example, Brazil’s ½rst antidiscrim- less than whites with comparable levels ination law, the Arinos Law, passed in ofeducation. 5 Statistical analysis has un- 1951, was largely a dead letter, resulting covered other patterns ofdiscrimination in just two convictions with penalties in besides those grounded in social and over forty years. Then in 1989 this crimi- economic inequalities. Using Brazil’s nal code was updated by the Caó Law, 1988 household survey, scholars found which for the ½rst time made “acts of that blacks and browns were more like- prejudice” a criminal offense subject to ly than whites to be victims ofpolice mandatory imprisonment. But while abuse.6 Brazilians increasingly have recourse to Data like these from Brazil are exactly the Caó Law, scholars and practitioners what advocates for the gathering of ra- agree that the myth ofracial democracy cial data have hoped to ½nd in other Lat- still hampers the law’s effectiveness. in American and Caribbean countries. At the same time, in recent years the Similar evidence ofracial discrimination Brazilian Center and Left have supported would undercut the political and eco- the implementation ofnew af½rmative nomic claims that racial democracy has action policies. In 1996, following the been realized in practice. As a result, par- recommendations ofblack activists such ties across the political spectrum might as Helio Santos and former senator Ab- be forced to rethink their public policies. dias do Nascimento, the former Brazil- ian president Fernando Henrique Car- 4 See, for example, Carlos Hasenbalg, “Race doso introduced a national human rights and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Brazil,” in Pierre-Michel Fontaine, ed., Race, Class, and program in which af½rmative action pol- Power in Brazil (Los Angeles: Center for Afro- icies were proposed.7 This program was American Studies, University of California, Los further supported by Brazil’s delegation Angeles, 1985); Peggy A. Lovell and Charles H. to the 2001 International World Confer- Wood, “Skin Color, Racial Identity, and Life ence on Racism in Durban, South Africa. Chances in Brazil,” Latin American Perspectives 25 (3) (1998): 90–109. Color data from the 1991 In preparation for the conference, activ- census were not released until 1998. ists and government of½cials prepared a report that called for the implementa- 5 Mala Htun, “From Racial Democracy to Af- tion ofaf½rmative action, including ra- ½rmative Action: Changing State Policy on cial quotas, in the admission policies of Race in Brazil,” Latin American Research Review 39 (1) (2004): 63. public universities.

6 Michael Mitchell and Charles Wood, “Iro- 7 Brazil Ministry of Justice, National Secretary nies of Citizenship: Skin Color, Police Brutality, of Human Rights, “National Program of Hu- and the Challenge to Democracy in Brazil,” So- man Rights” (Brasília: Ministry of Justice, cial Forces 77 (3) (1998): 1001–1020. 1996).

Dædalus Winter 2005 85 Melissa This trend has continued under the In the end, however, the ibge decided Nobles on current administration ofPresident against revising the categories to be used race Ignacio Lula da Silva. He has appointed on the 2000 census forms. the ½rst black Brazilian to serve on the Despite this setback, the issue of nation’s supreme court. Universities whether of½cial categories, census or have recently announced new guidelines otherwise, are capable ofcapturing Bra- for admission. For example, the Univer- zil’s color diversity and complexity is sity ofBrasília will adopt a 20 percent very much alive in the nation’s ongoing quota for Afro-Brazilians, with a special debates over af½rmative action. If it is mechanism for accepting indigenous agreed that color identi½cations in Brazil Brazilians. The application form in- are complex, flexible, and relatively un- cludes a precoded question ofethnora- stable, can public policies reliably be cial identi½cation and requires a photo- based upon them? graph. In contrast, the Federal Universi- So far, the answer appears to be a qual- ty ofRio de Janeiro is implementing a 20i½ed yes. Here, the mere existence ofcol- percent quota system for graduates of or categories on the census is decisive. public high schools, regardless ofracial Since these categories are the basis of or ethnic origin. Because public high national statistics and statistical analy- schools are largely populated by Brazil’s ses, they appear to comprise suitable, if black and brown poor, this quota will blunt, criteria for af½rmative action poli- dramatically alter the composition of cies. However, there is a signi½cant dif- student populations at the Federal Uni- ference between categories that are used versity. for national surveys and those that are used for job and educational applica- It is hard to overstate the signi½cance of tions. While attention to skin color and af½rmative action policies in Brazil, giv- other physical characteristics permeates en the country’s long history ofdeclar- informal social interactions (witness ing such policies unnecessary. Yet, as in Brazil’s rich color lexicon), color terms all other countries where these policies do not, as a rule, appear on of½cial docu- exist, disagreements over their value ments, such as Brazil’s national identity persist. In Brazil the recent debate has cards and hospital and school forms. revolved around categorization and eli- (Telling exceptions to this rule are local gibility. In 2000, a number ofBrazilian police reports.) Critics ofaf½rmative ac- academics, census bureau of½cials, and tion deplore the growing use ofracial black activists petitioned to replace the categories in of½cial documents, while term ‘race’ with ‘color’ on the census, advocates ofaf½rmative action want to and to condense two color categories, re½ne and revise the categories in order pardo (brown) and preto (black), into the to pinpoint more precisely enduring single category of negro. Proponents of inequalities. the change argued that ‘race’ connoted a One ½nal point about racial statistics common cultural and historical trajecto- in Brazil is worth noting. While the na- ry in ways that ‘color’ did not. They also tion’s black activists have been success- argued that pardo and preto should be ful in unraveling the claims of nondis- grouped together under negro because crimination and racial democracy, they the two groups share a similar socioeco- have been far less successful in raising nomic pro½le, and because negro was the black racial consciousness. Their efforts term used by most black organizations. around the 1991 census were designed to

86 Dædalus Winter 2005 do just that. Perhaps af½rmative action The myth policies will be more effective in that re- of Latin American gard. Yet, in a paradoxical way, wide- multi- spread consciousness, which presum- racialism ably leads to mass political mobilization, has not been necessary to securing substantial policy gains. Af½rmative action is now very much in play in Brazil, all without the mass movements and political unrest that have usually prompted these policies in other countries. Brazil- ian exceptionalism, ofa different sort, may be alive and well. Democratization has been an enor- mously important part ofLatin Ameri- ca’s experiences. In the past, by masking the deep inequities among Latin Ameri- cans, the myth ofracial democracy has often hindered the deepening of political democracy. Yet as democracy becomes more real in the region, however slowly, the unreality ofracial democracy becomes ever more obvious. For some Lat- in Americans, the challenge now is to preserve the ideal ofracial democracy as a worthy aspiration. For others, though, the task is to construct new national nar- ratives that break boldly with an ideology that has been discredited. It is too soon to know the outcome of this debate, but one thing is clear. It is going to turn, in signi½cant measure, on racial statistics.

Dædalus Winter 2005 87 George M. Fredrickson

Diverse republics: French & American responses to racial pluralism

At ½rst glance, a comparison of French late eighteenth century.1 In the process, and American responses to ethnic and they became the world’s ½rst nation- racial diversity may seem arbitrary and states of substantial size based on popu- unproductive. One response emerges lar sovereignty and government by con- from an old European country with sent. By abolishing or prohibiting nobili- more than a thousand years of continu- ty as well as monarchy, they created a ous existence, the other from a country presumption of legal and political equal- formed by European settlement and ity for all citizens. The Declaration of In- then constituted as a nation scarcely dependence and the Déclaration des droits two centuries ago. To avoid turning a de l’homme et du citoyen set forth the prin- historical comparison between France ciple that merely being human entitles and the United States into a mere set of individuals to basic natural rights. contrasts, it will be useful to begin with The kind of nationalism that devel- four salient similarities. oped to defend this radical political First and most obviously, both France project is usually categorized as ‘civic’ and the United States revolted against or ‘territorial,’ as opposed to the ‘ethnic’ kingly rule to establish republics in the or ‘organic’ type that developed in nineteenth-century Europe, especially in Germany.2 The civic type meant that, George M. Fredrickson is Edgar E. Robinson Pro- in theory at least, one belonged to the fessor of United States History Emeritus at Stan- nation simply by being there; by con- ford University. A Fellow of the American Acade- trast, membership according to the eth- my since 1985 and past president of the Organiza- nic type required the right ancestry. tion of American Historians, he is an expert on As Anthony D. Smith has pointed out, the history of race and racism in the United all nations–including France and the States, South Africa, and Europe. His books in- United States–have combined “ethnic clude “White Supremacy: A Comparative Study 1 For a comparison of the two revolutions, see in American and South African History” (1982), Patrice Higonnet, Sister Republics: The Origins of “The Comparative Imagination: On Racism, French and American Republicanism (Cambridge, Nationalism, and Social Movements” (1997), Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988). and “Racism: A Short History” (2003). 2 See especially Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge, Mass.: Har- © 2005 by George M. Fredrickson vard University Press, 1992).

88 Dædalus Winter 2005 solidarity” and “political citizenship,” Carolina and Georgia would not have French & 3 American albeit in differing proportions. Still, joined the Union had their interests been responses whatever ethnoracial identities were unacknowledged and unprotected. Sub- to racial implicitly or explicitly privileged in the sequently, the rise in the production of pluralism two societies, the theory promulgated short-staple cotton in the expanding to justify the revolutions was a universal- Deep South of the early nineteenth cen- istic conception of citizenship as one tury made the planter class so affluent embodiment of human rights. At the and politically powerful that it took a same time, citizenship in both France bloody civil war to bring about the abo- and the United States was also a bound- lition of slavery. The long association of ed concept. The resulting need to estab- black people with a form of servitude lish quali½cations for full membership in never imposed on whites would encour- the nation-state enabled both societies age the belief in both countries that to limit civil rights according to particu- blacks were servile by nature and there- laristic standards involving age, gender, fore incapable of being the self-govern- place of birth, and (sometimes) parent- ing citizens of a republic. One result of age or racial ancestry. this belief was the long-lasting conflict A second common feature–in sharp in both societies between the universal- contrast with the shared commitment, ism of the republican ideology and pop- however abstract, to universal human ular opinion about the natural incapacity rights–was the involvement of both of blacks. France and the United States in the en- A third common element is immigra- slavement of Africans on the plantations tion. Unlike other European nations, of the Caribbean and the American France has been a country of immigra- South. tion rather than emigration, and has at In the period just before the revolu- times resembled the United States in the tions of the 1790s in France and Haiti, proportion of its population recruited plantation slavery and the transatlantic from foreign countries. trade associated with it constituted the An estimated one-third of the current most pro½table and dynamic sector of French population is of second-, third-, the French economy. After the loss of or fourth-generation foreign ancestry. Haiti, it declined in signi½cance, but the (The U.S. proportion is quite similar.) planters of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Because of low birthrates and the extent Bourbon (La Réunion) were able to re- to which the peasantry remained rooted sist signi½cant reform until the revolu- to the soil, France in the late nineteenth tion of 1848 unexpectedly put opponents and early twentieth centuries had to re- of slavery into power. cruit much of the labor for its industrial North American slavery appeared to revolution from other countries. As with be in some trouble at the time of the American immigration of the same peri- American Revolution, principally be- od, the principal sources were southern cause of the collapse of the tobacco mar- and eastern Europe, especially Italy and ket upon which the pro½tability of slav- Poland. ery in the Chesapeake region depended. The time of greatest influx was not But the relatively prosperous growers of exactly the same, however. American rice and long-staple cotton in South immigration from Europe peaked be- 3 Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Na- tween 1900 and 1910, whereas the high tions (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), 149. point for France was the 1920s. The

Dædalus Winter 2005 89 George M. French manpower losses in World War I tablishment of a small kingdom in the Fredrickson created an acute labor shortage, and area around Paris in the late tenth centu- on race America’s new policy of immigration ry. The existing hexagon that took shape restriction made France a more feasible was the result of a long series of wars destination than the United States for and conquests involving the triumph of work-seeking Poles and Italians.4 In the French language and culture over what period since the 1960s, both countries were once autonomous and culturally have seen new waves of immigration distinctive communities.6 The assimila- (mostly from non-European countries) tion of Gascons, Savoyards, Occitans, and both have engaged similar debates Basques, and others helped to sustain on how best to integrate the recent arriv- the myth that French overseas expan- als. Meanwhile, hostility to immigrants sionism in the nineteenth century, espe- has been a recurring phenomenon in cially to North and West Africa, was a both countries. This hostility has in large continuation of the same project. But a part been the result of nativism, an atti- variety of circumstances, including the tude usually based more on cultural in- cultural and racial prejudices of the colo- tolerance rather than on biological nizers, impeded the transformation of racism.5 Arabs and Africans into Frenchmen and The fourth salient element shared by put these groups on the path to national France and the United States is a history independence. of expansionism involving the conquest, American expansionism before the subjugation, and (in some instances) end of the nineteenth century took the assimilation of other peoples. The last form of a westward movement that, de- stage of this expansionism was the es- spite some rhetorical gestures in the di- tablishment of overseas colonies that rection of assimilation, displaced rather eventually became independent. than incorporated the indigenous Indian The creation of modern France populations. The Spanish-speaking in- through expansion goes back to the es- habitants of the territories wrested by force from Mexico in the 1840s were 4 Gary S. Cross, Immigrant Workers in Industri- granted citizenship under the treaty that al France: The Making of a New Laboring Class (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983). ended the Mexican-American War, but On French immigration more generally, see were excluded from effective power even Gérard Noiriel, The French Melting Pot: Immigra- in the areas where they predominated. tion, Citizenship, and National Identity (Min- With the acquisition of Puerto Rico and neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996). the Philippines after the Spanish-Ameri- 5 John Higham employed the term ‘nativism’ can War, the United States acquired its in his classic study of anti-immigrant move- ½rst overseas colonies, thus following ments in the United States, Strangers in the the example of France and other Euro- Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925, pean powers. As in the case of France, a rev. ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univer- prior history of conquering contiguous sity Press, 1988). Miriam Feldblum applies the term to France in Reconstructing Citizenship: The territories to enlarge the national do- Politics of Nationality Reform and Immigration in main influenced the character and ideol- Contemporary France (Albany: State University ogy of the new imperialism. Press of New York, 1999), 52–53. The closest French equivalent is xénophobie (xenophobia). What Americans might call ‘nativism’ is often 6 See Suzanne Citron, Le mythe mational: L’his- subsumed by the French under a loose concep- toire de France en question (Paris: Edition tion of ‘racism.’ Ouvrières, 1987).

90 Dædalus Winter 2005 aving established the broad com- power-hungry men. For French revolu- French & H American monalties on which a comparison can tionaries, who were seeking to destroy responses be based, we will now look for the differ- strong preexisting hierarchies based on to racial ences that appear when we move from birth and to obliterate the remnants of pluralism the general themes to their speci½c ap- feudalism, the prime objective was the plications. Both nations have proclaimed guarantee of individual equality that themselves to be republics, but their could only be provided by a powerful conceptions of republicanism have dif- state acting uniformly on all citizens. fered signi½cantly. Although liberty and equality were af- From the tradition of absolute monar- ½rmed in both revolutions, the priority chy the French revolutionaries inherited was given to the former in the American the concept of a centralized unitary case and to the latter in the French.8 state, with the critical difference that it A second difference that was there should now reflect the general will as from the beginning and that has persist- manifested in an elective national as- ed to the present day was the role that sembly rather than the particular will of religion was expected to play in the pub- the ruler. The belief that there should be lic life of the nation. The French Revolu- no intermediaries between the individ- tion was animated by a ½erce anticleri- ual and the sovereign state was basic to calism directed at the association of the French revolutionary thought. Catholic Church with the ancien régime. The American republic, on the other The revolution bequeathed to future re- hand, began as the cooperative struggle publicans the principle of laïcité, which of thirteen British colonies, each with a forbids the display of religious identities distinctive history and relationship to and symbols in what is considered pub- the crown, for independence from the lic space. This tradition of of½cial secu- mother country. During and immedi- larism can be understood in part as a ately after the Revolutionary War, the defensive reaction to the Catholic states, as they were now called, func- Church’s long-standing opposition to tioned as a loose confederation. Al- the republic and its support for a mo- though the Constitution of 1787 estab- narchical restoration–dispositions that lished a stronger central authority, it di- lasted well into the twentieth century. vided sovereignty between the federal That a powerful, centralized, and inter- government and the states in a manner nationally supported religious body that made no more sense to the French could retain the adherence of a French than French centralization and étatism majority and still be at odds with the made to the Americans. political principles of French republican- John Adams found Turgot’s classic ism created a contentious situation with dictum that “all power should be one, no American analogue. namely that of [a single] nation” to The American separation of church be “as mysterious as the Athanasian and state developed in the context of a creed.”7 In the American republican basically Protestant religious pluralism. ideology, a strong central state was Since no single denomination could viewed as a threat to liberty because it claim national predominance, and could fall into the hands of corrupt or 8 David Brion Davis makes this point in Revo- lutions: Reflections on American Equality and For- 7 Quoted in Higonnet, Sister Republics, eign Liberations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 166–167. University Press, 1990), 11.

Dædalus Winter 2005 91 George M. movements for disestablishment and particular denominations or churches Fredrickson religious tolerance were developing in (except in the form of tax exemptions), on race several states, it is not surprising that the while French laïcité has found a place for Founding Fathers of 1787 decreed a sepa- the of½cial recognition and empower- ration of church and state that implied ment of religious communities, which no hostility to religion. Consequently, the French state regards as corporate en- expressions of a generalized, nonde- tities over which it must exercise a meas- nominational theism (originally Prot- ure of control. A full analysis of this sur- estant in inspiration but later broad- prising anomaly is beyond the scope of ened to cover the beliefs of Catholics this essay, but it needs to be borne in and Jews) have a place in public dis- mind whenever claims are made that course and patriotic ritual in the United cultural pluralism or diversity is institu- States that they clearly do not have in tionalized in the United States but not in France. France. In the realm of religion, the re- Paradoxically, however, a need to verse would actually seem to be the case. come to terms with the power and popu- If American law and public policy recog- larity of the Catholic Church has forced nize ethnoracial identities for some pur- French republican regimes to associate poses, France makes an analogous ac- with the church in ways that would vio- commodation in the realm of religion. late American conceptions of church- Comparison of the two forms of re- state separation. Between the creation publicanism is of course complicated by of the of½cially secular Third Republic the fact that there have been ½ve repub- in 1870 and the disestablishment of reli- lics in France and, in a formal sense at gion in 1905, the Third Republic paid the least, only one in the United States. salaries of Catholic priests and held title France did not become permanently to church property. Religious neutrality committed to democratic forms of re- was maintained by also paying the sala- publicanism until the establishment of ries of Protestant ministers and rabbis. the Third Republic in the late nineteenth Even today the French state provides di- century. The American Revolution on rect aid to religious schools on a contrac- the other hand created a durable nation- tual basis, and of½cial, government-sub- al consensus behind republican princi- sidized bodies negotiate with the state ples. The basic structure established by on behalf of religious communities.9 the Constitution of 1787 remains in ef- Last year, Muslims gained the right to fect to this day, although an argument elect a council empowered to make rep- could be made that the North’s victory resentations to the state, a privilege pre- in the Civil War and the resulting Recon- viously granted only to Catholics, Prot- struction-era amendments to the Con- estants, and Jews.10 stitution ushered in a de facto second America’s tradition of religious toler- republic. ance and pluralism has for the most part What needs emphasis here is that the precluded direct government support of French Revolution was a much more in- 9 See Jean-Louis Ormières, Politique et religion ternally divisive event than the Ameri- en France (Brussels: Complexe, 2002), and Guy can. It produced two nations–revolu- Coq, Laicité et république: le lien nécessaire (Paris: tionary, republican France with its com- Editions du Félin, 1995). mitment to the rights of man, and traditional, Catholic France with its lingering 10 Elaine Sciolino, “French Islam Wins Of½- cially Recognized Voice,” The New York Times, dedication to the institutions and values April 14, 2003. of the ancien régime. The latter allegiance, 92 Dædalus Winter 2005 although only a minority persuasion, the French, slavery before the Revolu- French & American came to the surface spectacularly in the tion had been mostly con½ned to distant responses hysteria surrounding the Dreyfus Affair Caribbean colonies. As Sue Peabody has to racial at the turn of the century and in the shown, there were concerted efforts pluralism rhetoric and policies of the Vichy gov- throughout the eighteenth century to ernment during World War II. Anti- prevent the growth of slavery and of Semitism and nativism were among its the black population in metropolitan hallmarks, and its legacy can be found France.12 Under a 1777 law, for example, today in the anti-immigrant agitation West Indian planters visiting the metro- of Jean-Marie Le Pen and the Front Na- pole could be attended by their slaves tional.11 during the voyage but then had to de- If the precarious and episodic charac- posit them in special detention centers ter of French republicanism stemmed in the port cities from which they would from the Revolution’s failure to eradi- be sent back on the next available ship.13 cate the conservatism of the old order, It is hard to determine how much of this the American experiment faced its great- exclusionary policy was based on the est threat when the division of sover- belief that slavery as an institution was eignty between the states and the federal contrary to French values, and how government became of crucial impor- much of it was based on the prejudicial tance in the contest for national power desire to ensure that France remained between slave and free states in the peri- virtually all white. But the result in any od 1846–1861. The resulting civil war case was to prevent both slavery and a was far bloodier than the revolutionary black presence from developing in met- upheavals that occurred in France in ropolitan France. As Robin Blackburn 1830, 1848, and 1871. The Union victory has suggested for both France and Eng- in the war ended claims of state sover- land, the con½nement of slavery and of eignty, but the retention of federalism most blacks to distant colonies may have and some states’ rights left the postbel- put limits on the growth of “popular lum United States far less centralized racism.”14 Certainly there was less fer- than the Third Republic. One conse- tile ground in France than in the United quence was that the citizenship rights States for the development of such for African Americans proclaimed in the racism. Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments Before the American Revolution, slav- could not be effectively enforced in the ery had been established everywhere in Southern states after white supremacists the North American colonies; afterward regained control there in the 1870s. it was phased out in the Northern states, although cities like New York and Phila- The issue upon which the Union broke delphia retained substantial black popu- apart–the future of black slavery–was also an issue in France, both during the 12 Sue Peabody, There Are No Slaves in France: Revolution and in the 1830s and 1840s. The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the But the relation of slavery to the domi- Ancien Régime (New York: Oxford University nant political and social values clearly Press, 1996). loomed larger in the United States; for 13 Ibid., 116–118.

11 See Michel Winock, Nationalism, Anti-Semi- 14 Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial tism, and Fascism in France (Stanford, Calif.: Slavery, 1776–1848 (London: Verso, 1988), 528– Stanford University Press, 1998). 529.

Dædalus Winter 2005 93 George M. lations. The Constitution negotiated the and religious sentiments aroused by an Fredrickson slavery issue by making provision for the evangelical revival that scarcely touched on race future abolition of the international France, a country where Protestants slave trade, but also rendering it virtually were a small minority. But the American impossible for the federal government to antislavery movement, unlike the British take action against slavery where it was one, aroused massive internal opposi- authorized under state law. As previous- tion. Until 1860, the slaveholding South ly suggested, such a compromise was was able to dominate the national politi- necessary to appease the planter-domi- cal arena and thwart antislavery reform nated states of the Deep South. and action against the expansion of slav- Meanwhile, the French National As- ery. Consequently, it took a sectional sembly, where West Indian planters civil war to bring about a reform that were virtually unrepresented, voted to occurred much more easily in mid-nine- abolish slavery in 1794, the ½rst time any teenth-century France, where the insti- nation had taken such action. Historians tution under attack had come to be debate the extent to which this decision viewed as a marginal and mainly colo- was motivated by principled adherence nial interest. to the rights of man, as opposed to prag- Black slavery left signi½cantly differ- matic calculations arising from the Hait- ent legacies in the two countries because ian Revolution and the competition with the cultural and social weight of slavery the British for control of the Caribbean. as an institution was so much greater in But clearly there was a more ef½cacious one case than in the other. Post-1848 sense of the incompatibility of republi- France did not have a domestic color line can values and chattel slavery in the for the simple reason that no signi½cant Paris of 1794 than in the Philadelphia of black population had been allowed to 1787. French revolutionary emancipation develop there. That France had ever was short-lived, however, except in Hai- been seriously implicated in African ti. In 1803, at a time when gradual eman- slavery was virtually wiped from the cipation was proceeding in the Ameri- national memory. The history texts can North, Napoleon reinstated slavery used in French schools before the 1980s in France’s remaining plantation colo- condemned slavery in general but con- nies. By the 1830s and 1840s, antislavery tained no acknowledgement whatever movements had developed in both met- that French slave colonies had ever ropolitan France and in the northern existed or that slavery had been abol- United States. ished, reinstituted, and then abolished The French movement, which scrupu- again.16 lously avoided mass meetings and popu- In the United States, on the other lar agitation, was much more cautious hand, slavery left behind a domestic her- and elitist than the American one. It suc- itage of racial division and inequality ceeded in 1848 only because of a special that has remained a central feature of opportunity created by the revolution of the national experience. African Ameri- that year.15 American abolitionism, like cans have remembered slavery as the that of Britain, appealed to the moral brutal oppression of their ancestors and as a source of their enduring stigmatiza- 15 Lawrence C. Jennings, French Anti-Slavery: tion. Many whites, consciously or sub- The Movement for the Abolition of Slavery in consciously, have used the memory of France, 1802–1848 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 278–284. 16 Citron, Mythe national, 62–63.

94 Dædalus Winter 2005 blacks as slaves and whites as masters to pean immigrants to America, citizenship French & American buttress their sense of priority and su- through naturalization was relatively responses premacy over a race stereotyped as in- easy to secure, but this right was denied to racial herently servile. Emancipation did not to Asians until the mid-twentieth cen- pluralism destroy a status order based on pigmen- tury. tation and ancestry. Indeed, the color France made naturalization much line was most clearly and fully articulat- more dif½cult for everyone by established in the Jim Crow system that devel- ing stringent cultural and linguistic re- oped in the South in the late nineteenth quirements. In 1930, 55 percent of the and early twentieth centuries. Reformist foreign-born in the United States had efforts to make the relationship between become citizens, as compared to only 11 blacks and whites more egalitarian or percent in France.18 Under the American competitive (such as those made by Re- system of jus soli, all American-born chil- construction-era radicals and the inter- dren of immigrants are automatically racial progressives who formed the citizens. In France there has been an naacp in 1910) kept hopes for racial jus- elaborate set of compromises between tice alive but also intensi½ed the reactive jus soli and jus sangunis (descent-based cit- racism of many whites. The French were izenship). Under double jus soli, the sys- not color-blind, but their sense of identi- tem that has prevailed from 1889 to the ty was far less dependent on whiteness present, birthright citizenship is granted than was that of many Euro-Americans. only to the children of foreigners who ‘Otherness’ for them would be con- were themselves born in France. Until strued somewhat differently. recently, French-born children of immigrants could become citizens only As we have seen, both the United through a process of naturalization States and France were immigrant- when they reached maturity. Although receiving societies that required massive the full naturalization process is no lon- importation of foreign labor for indus- ger required, children of the second gen- trialization in the late nineteenth and eration do not of½cially become citizens early twentieth centuries. But they did until they have reached maturity and not manage immigration in the same met a residence requirement. way. Immigration to the United States Bars to immigration and naturaliza- was primarily an individual matter, es- tion in the United States have tended to pecially after the 1885 ban on the impor- be based on ethnoracial categorizations, tation of contract labor. Before the going back all the way to the ½rst law 1920s, the most salient restriction on governing the naturalization of immi- the admission of foreigners to American grants, passed in 1790, which limited the shores was the exclusion of most Asians, right to “free white person[s].” The es- beginning with the Chinese laborers in tablishment of quotas for European na- 1882. Most French immigration in the tionalities in 1924 responded not only to period 1900–1930 involved groups of cultural nativism, but also to the belief workers whose recruitment was coordi- that old-stock Nordic or Anglo-Saxon nated through state cooperation with Americans were innately superior to labor-hungry industries, and whose the new immigrants from southern and terms of employment were negotiated eastern Europe. In France an immi- with the countries of origin.17 For Euro- grant’s right of entry has been based pri- 17 See Cross, Immigrant Workers in Industrial France. 18 Noiriel, The French Melting Pot, 259. Dædalus Winter 2005 95 George M. marily on the needs of the economy, and were likely to be integrated into the in- Fredrickson his or her access to citizenship has been stitutions and subculture of the French on race more dependent on perceptions of cul- working class, and subsequently they tural difference or distance than on the often substituted a class-based identity kind of broad racial categories that were and ideology (socialism or communism) traditionally applied in the American for one based on national origins. Those case. of the second generation who had mid- The relation of immigration to nation- dle-class origins or did particularly well al identity has played itself out quite dif- in school could bene½t from the merito- ferently in the two contexts. Inhabitants cratic quality of French higher education of a country populated mainly by set- and public bureaucracies. tlers and immigrants (voluntary or In the late nineteenth and early twen- involuntary), Americans have often tieth centuries, individual Jews may have viewed some form of immigration as had readier access to French elites than central to the meaning of the national Jewish immigrants and their children experience. As citizens of an old nation had to the equivalent inner circles in with a long past that predated substan- the United States. But in France they tial immigration by several centuries, also encountered more public anti- the French have tended to see newcom- Semitism and found that the price of ers simply as candidates for assimilation success was often the self-suppression of into the existing cultural crucible. Al- their ethnoreligious identity. A delegate though the subject has not been exten- to the National Assembly during the sively investigated, it appears that the Revolution expressed an enduring immigration to France from other parts French republican attitude toward Jews of Europe that occurred between the (and toward ethnicity in general): “To 1880s and the 1930s did not inspire the the Jews as a nation, one must refuse kind of fervent assimilationism that has everything; but to Jews as men, one developed more recently. It was simply must grant everything . . . , there cannot taken for granted that foreigners who be a nation within the nation.”19 desired citizenship would become cul- American schools, like those of France, turally French. And to a considerable played a major role in acculturating im- extent they did. migrants. But the decentralized Ameri- Two factors promoted rapid cultural can educational system also allowed for assimilation, particularly of the second local control, which meant that in areas generation. One was a uniform, central- where one ethnic group predominated, ized, and compulsory educational sys- public education often included instruc- tem that effectively inculcated French tion in a foreign language. World War I language and culture. The other was the brought an end to this form of multicul- strength of class consciousness. Most turalism, which included German medi- immigrants were laborers. Foreigners um schools in the Midwest. brought in to work in mines and facto- More powerful and lasting as sustain- ries were sometimes objects of intense ers of the ethnic identities of Americans hostility from French workers who saw 19 Quoted in Winock, Nationalism, Anti-Semi- them as competition, especially during tism, and Fascism in France, 133. See also Frederic periods of high unemployment. But Cople Jaher, The Jews and the Nation: Revolution, when these immigrants or their off- Emancipation, State Formation, and the Liberal spring gained citizenship rights, they Paradigm in America and France (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002).

96 Dædalus Winter 2005 of recent immigrant background were virtue of having been born in Algeria French & American the comparatively nonpolitical character when it was still considered part of responses of the American labor movement and France. But in this case, recognition of to racial the pervasive national belief in upward citizenship has not led to assimilation. pluralism social mobility. Politics, especially local urban politics, did not normally revolve Understanding the situation of Algeri- around class interests and ideologies, ans in contemporary France requires at- but around a struggle for ethnic influ- tention to our last comparative theme: ence in the allocation of public jobs and the growth of the national domain and resources, as between the Irish and the the establishment of new settlements old-stock Americans in many cities in and colonies. As we have seen, both the the late nineteenth century. Whereas United States and France had a history French centralization and class-based of geographical expansionism even be- politics left little scope for mobilizing fore they acquired overseas colonies. around ethnic identities, American lo- The creation of the French hexagon by calism and interest-group politics pro- conquests and annexations established vided fertile ground for this kind of plu- an ideological precedent for the ‘civiliz- ralism. ing mission’ that served as a rationale In the job market and other areas of for French colonialism. A long history American life, immigrants often bene- of turning peasants and culturally ex- ½ted from claiming a white identity. ogenous provincials into Frenchmen Doing so put them on the right side of seemed to raise the possibility that the the great ethnoracial cleavage in Ameri- same could be done for colonized peo- can society, providing economic oppor- ples in Africa and Asia. The universalism tunities unavailable to blacks and simul- of the Revolution and the republican tra- taneously bolstering their self-esteem dition could provide a blueprint for lib- and sense of belonging. It also acted as a erating and civilizing the world. The further inhibition to class conscious- sense of mission that accompanied ness. American expansionism also invoked The French, lacking a domestic color universalist principles. Westward expan- line, de½ned otherness primarily in sionism under the banner of Manifest terms of nationality. The major distinc- Destiny was meant to extend ‘the area tion was, and continues to be, between of freedom,’ and the acquisition of the foreigners and French citizens of what- Philippines in 1899 was proclaimed as an ever ancestry. The question of the mo- opportunity to bring civilization to what ment is whether some foreigners are William Howard Taft called “our little more likely than others to become brown brothers.” French. Before World War II, most But proto-colonialist expansionism in immigrants to France came from other the two cases differed in the degree to European nations, and their descendants which indigenous populations were ac- are now regarded as thoroughly French. tually assimilated. Occitans, Savoyards, But the recent immigration from outside and Bretons became French to a fuller of Europe and especially from North and extent than American Indians, or the West Africa has raised serious questions Latino inhabitants of the formerly Mexi- about the current and future viability of can Southwest, have become Americans. the assimilationist model. Many Algeri- The greater role of ‘race’ in white Ameri- ans have gained French citizenship by can thinking is part of the explanation,

Dædalus Winter 2005 97 George M. but not all of it. The cultural proximity the universal norm to which all humani- Fredrickson of the peoples involved and the demo- ty should aspire can of course be seen as on race graphics of their relationship also have covertly ethnocentric. And quite apart to be taken into account. Efforts to ‘civi- from contemporary doubts about the lize’ and assimilate American Indians truth claims of Enlightenment univer- were notably ineffectual (when not hyp- salism, the assimilationist ideal could ocritical), partly because of the sheer not be successfully implemented be- volume of white settlement in what had cause of two principal factors. One was been their homeland, and partly because racial prejudice. While generally less of cultural differences and antagonisms. susceptible to color-coded racism than Not only were whites contemptuous of white Americans, the French were not what they took to be Indian savagery, immune to it. In 1778, intermarriage be- but many Indians vigorously resisted the tween blacks and whites was formally demands of missionaries and govern- prohibited in metropolitan France. Al- ment agents that they abandon their tra- though the ban was not enforced and ditional way of life. By contrast, those disappeared with the Revolution, it was groups that were assimilated into France indicative of a residual tendency to ste- over the centuries were already part of reotype blacks as inferior, buffoonish the broader European (and Christian) creatures beyond the pale of respectable civilization, and were usually not dis- society.20 Attitudes of this kind were placed by settlers from France. most salient and openly avowed, it These contrasts are obvious. Less self- would seem, among traditionalists who evident and more intriguing were the retained serious reservations about re- consequences for subsequent colonial- publican ideals and values. Some in ism of the earlier histories of expansion France believed that imperialist mili- into contiguous areas. As in the case of tarism might release the French from the nonwhite immigration, America’s melt- dead weight of bourgeois egalitarianism ing-pot assimilationism once again ran and individualism. up against barriers of race and color. Ele- A second and weightier factor imped- vating Filipinos and other nonwhites to ing the assimilation of non-Europeans citizenship was unthinkable at the end into a greater France was a sense of dif- of the nineteenth century, both to the ference or otherness that was rooted in proponents of the new colonialism and culture and religion rather than in race to those who opposed it. Since these as marked and determined by physical peoples could not become full citizens, characteristics or ancestry. Even those they had to be granted independence genuinely committed to a universalist or a peculiar ‘commonwealth’ status. civilizing mission had to confront the French colonialism, on the other hand, immediate and practical challenges of was compatible, at least in theory and ruling colonies with cultures vastly dif- rhetoric, with a color-blind assimilation- ferent from that of France. Given the ism. limited manpower and resources avail- But theory and rhetoric are not reality, and it would be unrealistic to conclude 20 Peabody, There Are No Slaves in France, 128– that the ‘civilizing mission’ of French 131. For a variety of perspectives on French attitudes toward color and race, see also Peabody imperialism was genuinely egalitarian in and Tyler Stovall, eds., The Color of Liberty: His- purpose and effect. The presumption tories of Race in France (Durham, N.C.: Duke that French republican civilization was University Press, 2003).

98 Dædalus Winter 2005 able, colonial administration in many anti-Semitism at the time of the Dreyfus French & 21 American places would have been impossible with- Affair. ) After 1889, the descendants of responses out establishing a dual system of laws non-French European settlers in Algeria to racial and rights. In their North and West Afri- could gain citizenship on the basis of the pluralism can colonies, the French generally made double jus soli that applied to the offspring a distinction between the many indi- of immigrants to France itself. genes who wished to adhere to their tra- A somewhat different pattern pre- ditional way of life and those few who vailed in Senegal, where an original were willing to give up that way in order French enclave dating back to the slave to become French. In practice this meant trade of the seventeenth century had that most people were granted a dispen- produced a class of African or mixed- sation to follow Islamic or other non- race assimilés who were granted French Christian laws and customs (polygamy, citizenship in 1833, saw these rights sus- for example), but that the rights associ- pended in 1851 under the Second Empire, ated with French citizenship were with- and then had them restored by the Third held from them so long as they contin- Republic in 1871.22 As the colony ex- ued to do so. panded in the nineteenth century The idea that colonized people could through the conquest of traditional so- exercise citizenship within a greater cieties, the ideal of assimilation contin- France was always limited to those ued to be proclaimed, and a few Africans who would or could become culturally took advantage of the opportunity to ac- French, a quali½cation that paralleled culturate and gain French citizenship. the French concept of immigrant assimi- But most did not and were ruled under lation. When Algeria became a colony of a separate set of laws. During the early European settlement with its own repre- twentieth century, the ideology of the sentative institutions in the late nine- colonizers vacillated between assimila- teenth century, members of the indige- tionism and ‘associationism,’ a doctrine nous Muslim majority were in effect re- that acknowledged cultural pluralism quired to give up their religiously based and sanctioned indirect rule through the customs and become apostates in order agency of cooperative chiefs or other tra- to vote and have full civil rights. (Very ditional authorities.23 few were willing to do so.) If a color bar Appreciating the tangled and ambigu- operated to limit the American civilizing ous heritage of French colonialism is es- and assimilating mission, a culture bar sential to an understanding of current directed particularly at Islam had a simi- French attitudes toward race and ethnic- lar effect in some French colonies. ity, even though its influence, like that of Indicative of the dualistic character of the heritage of slavery, is rarely acknowl- the French response to ethnic différence edged. was the open-door inclusiveness of eligibility for membership in French Algeria. 21 Jonathan K. Gosnell, The Politics of French- ness in Colonial Algeria, 1930–1954 (Rochester, Not only were the majority of settlers re- N.Y.: Rochester University Press, 2002), 24, cruited from southern European coun- 160ff. tries other than France itself, but also the resident Jews were granted naturalized 22 Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The French citizenship in 1870. (This deci- Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford sion from the metropole sparked hostile University Press, 1997), 76–77. reactions from many of the European settlers and made Algeria a hotbed of 23 Ibid., passim. Dædalus Winter 2005 99 George M. Currently the United States and France sion and disadvantage equivalent to that Fredrickson would appear to have sharply contrast- of African Americans must be constant- on race ing conceptions of how to manage eth- ly borne in mind when comparing the noracial diversity. Recognizing the role two situations. Policies that may seem that race has played in producing group warranted in one context might be more inequalities, the United States has problematic or dif½cult to justify in the adopted race-speci½c policies such as other. af½rmative action and electoral reforms The differences are subtler when it designed to promote greater representa- comes to comparing the responses to tion for minorities. After a brief experi- recent immigration from outside the ment with multiculturalism in the 1980s, developed West. In my view, France has France has decisively rejected the Ameri- a more serious problem with nativism can model and has resolutely returned to and xenophobia than does the United an assimilationist approach to the diver- States, where antiblack racism contin- sity created by the new wave of immi- ues to affect group relations in a decisive gration.24 way. In France, North Africans and espe- In recent years there has been much cially Algerians experience the greatest acerbic French commentary on Ameri- hostility; blacks of slave ancestry from can multiculturalism and similarly criti- the French Antilles encounter less preju- cal American complaints about the dice and discrimination. The colonial French refusal to acknowledge and con- experience and the immense trauma of front forms of ethnoracial discrimina- the Algerian War help to explain these tion. Both sides in the debate have failed attitudes. The long-standing view (going to give suf½cient attention to differences back to the early nineteenth century) in the two situations as they have devel- that Muslims are the ultimate ‘Other’ oped historically. Group-speci½c policies and therefore dif½cult if not impossible in the United States were originally jus- to assimilate, along with the fallout from ti½ed as a response to the peculiar disad- the traumatic failure to create an Algérie vantages and caste-like status of African Française, is a major historical source of Americans. They were later extended to current prejudice.25 The alleged incom- other groups, especially Latinos, on the patibility between a strong Islamic iden- grounds that they had also suffered his- tity and the French concept of laïcité–as torical injustices. The emphasis on cul- reflected most dramatically in the head- tural diversity as valuable in itself is a scarf ban of 2004–stimulates current fairly recent development. fears about the growth of the Muslim Elites in the United States are appar- population in France, and legitimates ently more comfortable with under- fervent appeals to the heritage of univer- standing af½rmative action as an effort salistic assimilationism. to achieve diversity, loosely de½ned, Before 9/11 at least, and arguably up rather than as a direct, redistributive to the present, the United States has had attack on the structural inequalities be- less of a problem accommodating im- queathed by a long history of slavery, migrants of Islamic faith because of its segregation, and discrimination. The stronger tradition of religious pluralism fact that there is no domestic population and toleration. American concerns group in France with a history of oppres- 25 See Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Imperial Identities: 24 On how and why this occurred, see espe- Stereotyping Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria cially Feldblum, Reconstructing Citizenship. (London: I. B. Tauris, 1995).

100 Dædalus Winter 2005 about the diversity created by recent im- French & American migration have tended to focus on Lati- responses nos and especially Mexicans. The sheer to racial size of the influx, and the close ties im- pluralism migrants maintain with their friends and relatives across the border, has en- gendered a concern for the survival of Anglo-American culture in some parts of the nation. But the reaction has been muted by a thirst for the low-wage, un- skilled labor these immigrants provide, and also by the increasing acceptance of cultural pluralism as a general principle. It seems to me that the United States and France can learn from each other. French universalism is a powerful weapon against any form of racism that is based on the belief in innate unalterable differences among human groups. A stronger awareness of such human com- monality may be needed in the United States at a time when emphasis on diversity and ethnic particularism threatens to deprive us of any compelling vision of the larger national community and to impede cooperation in the pursuit of a free and just society. On the other hand, the identi½cation of such universalism with a particular national identity and with speci½c cultural traits that go beyond essential human rights can lead to an intolerance of the other that approaches color-coded racism in its harmful effects.

Dædalus Winter 2005 101 Ian Hacking

Why race still matters

Why has race mattered in so many One ½nal preliminary remark is in times and places? Why does it still mat- order. Most parts of this essay could ter? Put more precisely, why has there have been written last year or next year, been such a pervasive tendency to apply but the discussion of naturalism, medi- the category of race and to regard people cine, and race could only have been writ- of different races as essentially different ten in November of 2004, and may well kinds of people? Call this the ‘½rst ques- be out of date by the time this piece is tion.’ Of course there are many more printed. questions that one must also ask: Why has racial oppression been so ubiqui- Why has the category of race been so tous? Why racial exploitation? Why ra- pervasive? One answer says that the dis- cial slavery? Perhaps we tend to think of tinction is just there, in the world for all races as essentially different just because to see. Super½cial differences between we want to excuse or to justify the domi- races do exist in nature, and these are nation of one race by another. readily recognized. I shall proceed with the ½rst question The naturalist agrees at once that the by canvassing ½ve possible answers to it distinctions are less in the nature of that variously invoke nature, genealogy (in things than they once were, thanks to in- the sense of Michel Foucault), cognitive terbreeding among people whose ances- science, empire, and pollution rules. tors have come from geographically distinct blocks. Racial distinctions are par- Ian Hacking, a Fellow of the American Academy ticularly blurred where one population since 1991, holds the chair of Philosophy and has been translated by force to live in the History of Scienti½c Concepts at the Collège de midst of another population and yet has France. His work spans the philosophy of science, not been assimilated–slaves taken from the philosophy of language, the theory of proba- West Africa and planted in the Southern bility and statistical inference, and the socio-his- United States, for example. The natural- torical examination of the rise and fall of disci- ist notes that traditional racial distinc- plines and theories. His most recent books are tions are less and less viable the more “Mad Travellers” (1998), “The Social Construc- children are born to parents whose geo- tion of What” (1999), and “Historical Ontol- graphical origins are very different. ogy” (2004). Sensible naturalists stop there. The belief that racial differences are anything © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 102 Dædalus Winter 2005 more than super½cial is a repugnant in common, over and above whatever Why race error. John Stuart Mill was the wisest marks we use to distinguish them from still matters spokesman for this position. other animals or other kinds of things. Here, in modern terminology, is his Horses form a real Kind, but the class of doctrine: (1) Nature makes differences white things is a super½cial kind. between individuals. These differences The contemporary philosophical con- are real, not constructed. (2) We classify cept of a ‘natural kind’ is a descendent things according to differences we ob- of Mill’s notion. Nonphilosophers who serve. Classi½cations are made by people have come across this phrase may sup- and encoded in social practices, institu- pose it refers to a well worked out, tech- tions, and language. (3) Some classes are nical, and stable concept. I argue else- such that their members have little in where that it does not.2 common except the marks by which we Mill himself was as notable a profemi- sort them into those classes–call those nist and antiracist as can be claimed for super½cial kinds. (4) Other classes have a white nineteenth-century man. Al- members with a great many things in though he argued that real Kinds exist, common that do not follow from the he at once went on to ask whether the marks by which we sort them into class- races and sexes are real Kinds, or if they es. These are “real Kinds.”1 are merely super½cial, like the classi½ca- Examples? “White things,” he wrote, tions “Christian, Jew, Musselman, and referring not to race but to the color it- Pagan.” The religious confessions are self, “are not distinguished by any com- not real Kinds, he argued, because there mon properties except whiteness; or if is no property that Christians have and they are, it is only by such as are in some Muslims lack, or vice versa, except what- way dependent on, or connected with, ever follows from their faiths. whiteness.” But horses, to use one of his What about race? Most anthropolo- other examples, have endless properties gists of Mill’s day held that there were ½ve races, named geographically but rec- 1 His own words are old-fashioned but lovely. The differences between members of classes ognized by color: Caucasian, Ethiopian, “are made by nature . . . while the recognition Mongolian, American, and Malayan. of those differences as grounds for classi½cation According to Mill, color and certain and of naming is . . . the act of man.” However, other physiological traits are the marks “we ½nd a very remarkable diversity . . . be- by which we distinguish members of tween some classes and others.” Only super- the different races. Races would be real ½cial resemblances link members of one type of class, while members of classes of the other Kinds if there were endlessly many other type have a vast number (he said an endless differences between the races that did number) of properties they share. Those that not follow from the marks by which we share an almost endless number of properties distinguish them. Are there endlessly are his real Kinds. From John Stuart Mill, A many such differences? System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, ½rst published in 1843. The discussion of racial clas- Well, you cannot rule that out a priori, si½cation is found in bk. 1, chap. 7, sec. 4. The Mill thought. “The various races and changes Mill made in later editions of the book temperaments, the two sexes, and even involved sex, not race–doubtless because Mill the various ages, may be differences of hoped to get the questions about sex exactly Kind, within our meaning of the term. I right for Harriett Taylor. See chap. 7, on Millon classi½cation, in my forthcoming book, The Tradition of Natural Kinds (Cambridge Univer- 2 This is one of the conclusions urged in my sity Press). book The Tradition of Natural Kinds.

Dædalus Winter 2005 103 Ian say they may be; I do not say they are.” race in this context is not a scienti½c Hacking on Mill believed that only empirical science term is generally acknowledged by sci- race could determine whether the various entists–and a message that cannot be races, as distinguished by color and a repeated enough.” An editorial in 2001 few other features, pick out classes that observed that “scientists have long been are distinct in a great many unrelated saying that at the genetic level there is ways. “If their differences can all be more variation between two individuals traced to climate and habits [or, he in the same population than between added in later editions, to some one or populations, and that there is no biologi- a few special differences in structure], cal basis for ‘race.’”3 Now–in Novem- they are not, in the logician’s view, spe- ber of 2004–this selfsame journal has ci½cally distinct.” He would have been produced a special supplement on the pleased by Anthony Appiah’s careful dis- medical and genetic uses of racial and cussion of very much the same question ethnic classi½cation. And the November using more recent terminology. Science 11 issue of The New England Journal of might have revealed an endless number Medicine highlights the news of the ‘race- of differences between the races that are based’ drug targeted at African Ameri- not consequences of the marks by which cans suffering from certain types of we distinguish them, namely color and heart failure. All this is breaking news. physiognomy. But science has not done Hence what follows cannot be de½ni- so, and almost certainly will not. Mill, tive, but one may hope that a perspective like Appiah, thus concludes that the somewhat distanced from media discus- races are not real Kinds. sion can be useful even in the midst of it. This conclusion, however, does not We must ½rst update Mill with a little answer, or aim at answering, the speci½c logic. When he wrote about differences question I raised at the outset, of why between classes, he had in mind proper- there is such a pervasive tendency to ties that serve to distinguish members of apply the category of race. Maybe Mill one class from another in a uniform way. thought the answer was obvious. The A uniform difference between cows and desire of one racial group to dominate, horses is something that is true in the exploit, or enslave another demands le- main of any cow but not true in the gitimacy in societies that, like modern main of any horse–digestion by rumi- Europe and America, are committed to nation, for example. There are ever so versions of egalitarianism. Race sciences many such differences between horses were devised to discover a lot of differ- and cows; hence they are real Kinds. ences between races that do not follow Call them uniform differences. There are a from the marks of color and structure by great many uniform differences that dis- which we distinguish them. You do not tinguish horses from other kinds of ani- have to treat people equally, if they are mals, but almost no uniform differences suf½ciently different. that distinguish white things from green things, except their color, or Muslims Although it takes us some distance from Christians, except their faith. from the ‘½rst question,’ some recent Writing in 1843, Mill had little occa- events force us to clarify the naturalist sion to think about statistical differ- position on race. In an important edito- 3 “Census, Race and Science,” Nature Genetics rial on the U.S. census published in the 24 (2000): 97; “Genes, Drugs and Race,” Nature year 2000, Nature Genetics stated: “That Genetics 29 (2001): 239.

104 Dædalus Winter 2005 ences, which were only just beginning Classes that are statistically signi½- Why race to loom large on the scienti½c horizon. cant, meaningful, or useful are not there- still matters We need some new concepts: I will use by real Kinds. There is no reason to be- the words ‘signi½cant,’ ‘meaningful,’ lieve that there are a great many inde- and ‘useful.’ All three go with the dread pendent and uniform differences that word ‘statistical.’ Since we are among distinguish obese persons from those other things talking about so-called whose bmi is in the recommended races, namely, geographically and histor- range of 18 to 25. ically identi½ed groups of people, we are ‘Signi½cant’ in the end relies on tech- talking about populations. And we are nical notions in applied probability the- talking about some characteristic or ory. ‘Meaningful’ has no resort to viable property of some but not all members technical notions in any discipline (all of a population. claims to the contrary are spurious). ‘Signi½cance’ was preempted by sta- There do exist clear, although often tistics early in the twentieth century. It abused, criteria of statistical signi½- is completely entrenched there. Here I cance. There are no clear criteria for use it for any major difference detected being statistically meaningful. In prac- by a well-understood statistical analysis. tice the distinction is often easily made. A characteristic is statistically signi½cant For a long time, the class of people who if its distribution in one population is smoke was known only to be statistically signi½cantly different from that in a signi½cant with respect to lung cancer. comparable population. Let us say that One had no idea of the causal mecha- a characteristic is statistically meaningful nisms underlying the correlation. Now if there is some understanding, in terms we think we understand the connections of causes, of why the difference is sig- between nicotine and death, although ni½cant. For example, in the early days these connections are still merely proba- no one knew why smoking was associat- ble. We cannot say of a young man be- ed with lung cancer, but now we un- ginning to smoke that if he continues derstand that quite well, although not with his vice he will succumb to lung completely. The correlation used to be cancer if nothing else gets him ½rst. merely signi½cant, but now it is mean- But we can say that many such young ingful. men will die of lung cancer, and oncolo- Finally, a characteristic is statistically gists know enough to be able to explain useful if it can be used as an indicator of why. something of interest in some fairly im- Unlike statistical signi½cance, the mediate practical concern. Take an ex- idea of being statistically meaningful is ample from another topic nowadays a hand-waving concept that points at much discussed. A body mass index the idea of an explanation or a cause. (bmi) over 31 is a statistically useful in- Imprecise hand-waving concepts are dicator of the risk of type 2 diabetes, and dangerous when they are given fancy is therefore useful in epidemiology and names. They can be put to wholly evil preventive medicine. (There are much ends. But if we do not give them phony better indicators involving the distribu- names and are well aware of their im- tion of mass and muscle in the body, but perfections, they can be useful when we at present such indicators are expensive need them. to measure, while bmi measurement We do need this concept. Many peo- costs almost nothing.) ple–as evidenced by debates going on

Dædalus Winter 2005 105 Ian at the time of this writing, in November ines that Herrnstein and Murray thought Hacking on of 2004–are scared of the idea that the so too, but what they claimed was that race traditional list of races employed by tra- the races are statistically signi½cant ditional racists might be statistically sig- classes. And they implied that this is sta- ni½cant classes. With good reason! tistically meaningful. Despite the fact that his doctrines have Ten years ago The Bell Curve by Richard a centuries-old pedigree, we can dismiss Herrnstein and Charles Murray attracted the egregious Rushton. We can also re- a great deal of attention. The authors fute Murray and Herrnstein.4 Mill’s claimed that the Gaussian distributions type of naturalism has contempt for of iq scores establish a natural distinc- both doctrines. Loathing of these quite tion of some importance between differ- recent doctrines and their predecessors ent races. They forcefully argued that the has, not surprisingly, produced revul- class of African Americans is a statisti- sion against any sort of naturalism about cally signi½cant class–signi½cant with race. Today there is some consternation respect to a property they called intelli- over the appearance of what is called gence, and which they measured with iq race-based medicine. tests. They did not imply that the races are The science of medicine was for quite real Kinds. That is, they did not state a long time the science of the European that there is a host of uniform differ- male body, with footnotes for non- ences between Caucasian Americans and European or female bodies. All that has African Americans. Readers not unrea- changed: those footnotes are now chap- sonably assumed, however, that the au- ters. But the current situations for the thors meant exactly that. At any rate, the groups that had been relegated to the authors clearly were not talking about footnotes are quite different. Many mere correlations, namely, disparities medical differences between males and between iq scores within different racial females are uniform, but medical differ- groups. But they did not establish that ences between races are almost always these disparities are statistically mean- only statistical. ingful to any biological understanding. We have long known that some ail- About the same time that The Bell ments are restricted to some gene pools. Curve was published, ogre naturalists, Tay-Sachs is a hereditary disease (in such as Philippe Rushton in Race, Evolu- which an enzyme de½ciency leads to the tion, and Behavior, made more sweeping accumulation of certain harmful resi- claims to biologically grounded racial dues in the brain and nerve tissue, often differences. They claimed that the races resulting in mental retardation, convul- are distinguished by many properties sions, blindness, and, ultimately, death) rightly prized or feared for different that almost exclusively affects young strengths and weaknesses. If that were children of eastern European Jewish de- true, then races would exactly ½t Mill’s de½nition of a real Kind. 4 There is a tendency among proper-thinking One deplores both Rushton and The people to dismiss The Bell Curve cavalierly, as Bell Curve, but there is an absolutely fun- both wrong-headed and refuted, without actually saying why. Many things wrong, and one damental logical difference between has an obligation to say what. My own ‘genea- what the two assert. Rushton claimed logical’ objections are stated in a piece in The that the races are real Kinds. One imag- London Review of Books, January 26, 1995.

106 Dædalus Winter 2005 scent. ‘Ashkenazi’ is a valuable geo- to $10.21, and had reached $16 at midday. Why race graphical, historical, and social classi½- This story has been ongoing for a decade still matters cation. It is geographical because it indi- in medical, commercial, and regulatory cates where members of this class, or circles. their near ancestors, came from, namely, There are real problems about the ra- eastern Europe. It makes a contrast cially targeted heart drug. BiDil is a mix- with Sephardic Jews, whose roots are ture of two well-known heart medica- in Spain. In modern Europe and North tions. Scienti½c papers assert, ½rst, that America, social differences between the other medicines are not as good for Afri- Ashkenazi and Sephardic hardly matter can Americans with heart failure as they to most people, but they remain signi½- are for other Americans with this prob- cant in North Africa and West Asia. Un- lem, and, second, that BiDil works better til further interbreeding makes it totally for African Americans with certain spe- obsolete, Ashkenazi is a statistically sig- ci½cs than any other drug on the mar- ni½cant and a statistically meaningful ket.6 In fact, randomized trials were dis- class with respect to Tay-Sachs disease. continued because the drug was mani- There are similar geographical-histor- festly effective on black patients. No- ical indicators for lactose intolerance body well understands why. The reasons and for an inability to digest fava beans. could be at least in part social and eco- West African ancestry is an indicator for nomic (including dietary) rather than being a carrier of the sickle-cell anemia hereditary. The correlation is strongly trait, which confers some immunity signi½cant, but it is not statistically against malaria. This trait was often meaningful at present from a genetic stigmatized as simply ‘black.’ In fact, or other biological point of view. it is primarily West African, although it Even if one is a complete skeptic shows up in Mediterranean populations about, for example, a genetic basis for where malaria was a major selector for the differential ef½cacy of the drug, the survival. The indicator was abused for drug does appear to be statistically useful racial reasons in widespread screening. in treating the designated class of pa- “Drug approved for Heart Failure in tients. That means that race may be a African Americans”–headline on the useful indicator to a physician of the po- ½rst business page of The New York Times, tential effectiveness of this rather than July 20, 2004. Here we go again? Quite another drug–under present social and possibly. “The peculiar history [of this historical conditions. drug] on the road to the market presents Now turn to leukemia. Bone marrow a wide array of troubling and important transplants help an important class of issues concerning the future status of patients. Donors and recipients must race as a category for constructing and have matching human leukocyte anti- understanding health disparities in gens (hlas); at present, doctors try to American society.”5 For a stark remind- match six different types of them. If a er of the commerce, the Times reported patient has no relative to serve as a do- that the previous day the stock of the nor, matches are hard to come by. The drug’s maker, NitroMed, rose from $4.31

5 Frederick Kahn, “How a Drug Becomes ‘Eth- 6 Anne L. Taylor, “Combination of Isosorbide nic’: Law, Commerce, and the Production of Dinitrate and Hydralazine in Blacks with Heart Racial Categories in Medicine,” Yale Journal of Failure,” New England Journal of Medicine 351 Health Policy, Law, and Ethics 4 (2004): 46. (2004): 2049–2057.

Dædalus Winter 2005 107 Ian relevant antigens are unevenly distrib- races are descendants of only one of Hacking 7 on uted among ethnic and racial groups. many African populations that existed at race There exist registries of possible donors the time that human emigration began –truly generous persons, for at present out of Africa–populations whose char- donation of bone marrow is quite har- acteristics have continued to be distrib- rowing. Happily, free-floating stem cells uted among Africans today.) in the blood also help, but the donor If you go to the websites for the organ- must take a lot of drugs to boost those izations that maintain the registries, you stem cells. Another source of cells is um- will see they do not shilly-shally in some bilical cord blood. But this, like all the dance of euphemistic political correct- other options, requires antigen match- ness about race. For them it is a matter ing. of life and death. Without the Asian reg- In the United States, the National istries there would have been many Bone Marrow Program maintains the more dead Asian Americans in the past master registry. Most people in existing decade. For lack of more African Ameri- registries have tended to be middle-aged cans on the registries there will be more and white, which means that whites dead African Americans in the next few have a good chance of ½nding a match. years than there need be. Hence there have been racially targeted We certainly lack a complete under- programs for Asian and African Ameri- standing of the distribution of human cans. In the United States and Canada leukemia antigens in different geograph- there is also the Aboriginal Bone Mar- ically identi½ed populations. But we do row Registries Association, and in the have some biological understanding of United Kingdom there is the African the underlying causal differences. And Caribbean Leukemia Trust. Asians for race is a very useful quick indicator of Miracle Marrow Matches has been very where to look for matches, just as the successful, especially in the Los Angeles bmi is a useful quick indicator of poten- region. The African Americans Uniting tial health problems. for Life campaign has been less successful, for all sorts of historical reasons. An So when, if ever, is it useful to speak African American with leukemia has a in terms of the category of race, on the far worse chance of ½nding a match in grounds that the races in some contexts time than members of other populations are not only statistically signi½cant but have. That is a social fact, but there is also statistically useful classes? To an- also a biological fact: there is far greater swer this question, we can use our dis- heterogeneity in the human leukemia tinctions: antigen in persons of African origins iq 8 • The Bell Curve may show that is a than in other populations. (This fact statistically signi½cant characteristic ½ts well with the hypothesis that all

7 This also matters to renal transplants. See in Black North Americans,” Tissue Antigens Pauline C. Creemers and Delawir Kahn, “A (1991): 79–83. For maps, see, for example, Unique African hla Haplotype May Identify a one of the essays in the November Nature Population at Increased Risk for Kidney Graft Genetics issue referenced in the text: Sarah A. Rejection,” Transplantation 65 (1998): 285–288. Tishkoff and Kenneth K. Kidd, “Implications of Biogeography of Human Populations for 8 For hla differentiation, see T. D. Lee, A. Lee, ‘Race’ and Medicine,” Nature Genetics Supple- and W. X. Shi, “hla-a, -b, -d and -dq Antigens ment 36 (2004): 521–527.

108 Dædalus Winter 2005 of some American subpopulations, but strategy is not to play down the differen- Why race it is neither meaningful from a biologi- tial distribution of hla, but to make it still matters cal point of view nor useful for any common knowledge that speci½c differ- well-de½ned purpose. ences among peoples may be used in

• Some medications may be less effec- helping them–in much the same way tive, and BiDil may be more effective, that white Australians, given their so- for African Americans with certain cially induced tendency to overexpose types of heart failure. If so, this is sta- themselves to the sun, should be target- tistically signi½cant and statistically ed to cut down on the rate of death due useful for helping patients, but (in my to skin cancer. opinion) it is at present not statistically I have introduced these remarks to meaningful. make plain that naturalism about race, far from being an atavistic throwback to • The relationships between human an era well left behind, is a topic for to- leukemia antigens and race are statis- day, one about which we have to become tically signi½cant, statistically mean- clearer. Not because the races are real ingful for a biological understanding, Kinds, denoting essentially different and statistically useful in making mar- kinds of people. But because already we row matches possible for minority know that the races are not only statisti- groups. cally signi½cant classes for some dis- It is not a good idea, in my opinion, to eases, but also statistically useful. Some speak of BiDil as a race-based medicine, correlations are statistically meaningful. as do The New York Times and other There is every reason to believe that media. The drug is not in the least based more statistically meaningful correla- on race. It is quite possible that the rea- tions will be discovered. son it is more useful for African Ameri- Every time such a phenomenon is cans than for other large and loosely found useful, the racists will try to ex- characterized groups has less to do with ploit the racial difference: witness the the inherent constitution of their cardio- neo-Nazi use of differential antigens. vascular systems than with a mixture of Hence we need to be fully aware of what social factors. If we had reliable data on is involved. the relevance of diets shared by a sub- class of white and black Americans, we A historian may well despise the com- might be able to help whites with similar placency of naturalism. Differences be- diets. The drug would not then be ‘diet- tween the races have seemed inevitable based’ but ‘diet-targeted.’ If you ½nd it in the West, it will be argued, because of useful to use the word ‘race,’ say ‘race- a framework of thought whose origins targeted’ medicine. can be unmasked only by a genealogy. I should have thought that the differ- Classi½cation and judgment are seldom ential distribution of human leukocyte separable. Racial classi½cation is evalua- antigens would be esoteric enough to tion. Strong ascriptions of comparative escape notice. Not so. The Stormfront merit were built into European racial White Nationalist Community, whose classi½cation and into evaluations of best-known ½gure is the neo-Nazi Da- human beauty from the beginning. And vid Duke, is having a good time on one so the Caucasian face and form were hla branch of its website discussing deemed closest to perfect beauty. diversity. In my opinion, the correct

Dædalus Winter 2005 109 Ian That is the vein in which Cornel West With some hesitation, he also included Hacking on has sketched a genealogy of modern ra- Native Americans of both hemispheres race cism.9 Though his is not exactly a deep in that category. genealogy in the spirit of Nietzsche and He did not classify by color but mostly Foucault, it is an excellent résumé of by facial features. Although he counted events. I wish only to comment on his Mongols, Chinese, and Japanese as starting point, less to correct it than to white (véritablement blanc), he felt they encourage rethinking the connection be- had such differently shaped faces and tween race and geography. bodies that they constituted a different According to West, “the category of race. Indigenous Americans were also race–denoting primarily skin color– white. South Asians were less white (oli- was ½rst employed as a means of classi- vâtre), he thought, because of the torrid fying human bodies by François Bernier, climate. When his categories (minus the a French physician, in 1684. He divided Lapps) were expressed in terms of color humankind into four races: Europeans, during the next century, they became Africans, Orientals and Lapps.” Note ‘white,’ ‘yellow,’ and ‘black’–categories that none of these is named by color still going strong in Mill’s day. It may and that the ½rst three are identi½ed by come as some surprise that for high- where they live or come from. It hardly brow race science, whites included matters now, but the fourth name, Arabs, Turks, everyone on the Indian “Lapp” (probably derived from a word subcontinent, and maybe Americans, meaning simpleton), for the people who that is, the indigenous ones. call themselves Sami, is about as racist a Bernier does discuss color, but mostly designation as there is. Bernier seems to when noting the existing hierarchy in have met only two Lapps, and he found the Indian subcontinent, where the them loathsome, and he simply reports lighter skin of the Moghul elite puts that other unnamed travelers told him them ahead of the browner Hindus. Ber- that the inhabitants of Laponia were nier’s observations of Africans seemed “vile animals.”10 to be based almost entirely on African There are certain emendations to be slaves, especially at Turkish or Arab made in Cornel West’s account. Bernier slave markets (where of course he saw did not designate a race restricted to Eu- white, mostly female, slaves too). Yes, ropeans. What he called the “½rst race (sub-Saharan) Africans were black, but [sic]” included Europeans (the disgust- they contrasted with the ½rst race chiefly ing Lapps aside), North Africans, and in other aspects of the body, especially the peoples of West and South Asia. the hair and lips. “Here Bernier,” Siep Stuurman writes, “surely anticipates later racial discourse.”11 9 Cornel West, “A Genealogy of Modern Ra- In 1685, the year after Bernier pub- cism,” in West, Prophesy Deliverance!: An Afro- lished both his classi½cation of races and American Revolutionary Christianity (Philadel- XIV phia: The Westminster Press, 1982), 47–65. his abridgement of Gassendi, Louis promulgated the rules of the Transat- 10 François Bernier, “Nouvelle division de la lantic slave trade, the Code noir, making terre,” Journal des Sçavans (April 24, 1684): 148 the effective identity of blackness and –155. A de½nitive account of this paper is Siep Stuurman, “François Bernier and the Invention of Racial Classi½cation,” History Workshop Jour- 11 Stuurman, “François Bernier and the Inven- nal 50 (2000): 1–21. tion of Racial Classi½cation,” 4.

110 Dædalus Winter 2005 slavery a point of law, in no need of any tantly contributed on the other side, in Why race race science to legitimate it.12 his newly published François Poulain and still matters In West’s important subthesis about the Invention of Equality. aesthetics and human beauty, he shows that Bernier’s conception was not simply Now we turn to the universalist ap- that black Africans were uglier than the proach favored in the cognitive sciences. ½rst race. There was also the element of It is proposed that human beings are sexual exoticism. Bernier raved about born with an innate capacity not only to African women on display for sale in sort other people along racial lines, but Turkey, naked. He regretted only that also to act as if the differences distin- they cost so much. guished are essential characteristics West wanted to write a genealogy in of people. This capacity is ‘prepro- part because he had the insight to ad- grammed’ by a genetic inheritance and dress an intellectual problem that is sel- matures and becomes operational early, dom stated: The oceanic empires of Eu- say, at three or four years of age. A fur- rope, chiefly France and Britain, and the ther proposal is that children are born United States in their wake, are unique not only with an ability to sort items in world history in that the dominant into speci½c types of classes, but also tendency of their moral and political with a predisposition to identify certain philosophy from the start emphasized properties as essential to speci½c classes. equality. Backsliding and self-interest Lawrence Hirschfeld is an anthropolo- are apparent beyond exaggeration, but gist who works at the intersection of the propensity for egalitarianism has cognitive science and developmental been permanent and progressive. At the psychology–to use proper names, same time, West cites numerous cele- the improbable intersection of Noam brated egalitarians and reminds us of Chomsky and Jean Piaget.13 Hirschfeld their persistent racism. In justice, Mill draws on the work of psychologists, himself does not escape criticism. child-development experts, anthropolo- How can racism and egalitarianism gists, linguists, philosophers, neurosci- coexist? Because equality is among entists, and others to postulate the dis- those who are essentially the same. If tinct innate cognitive modules with races are essentially different, they need which all of us are born. These modules not be treated alike. The framework for 13 Lawrence Hirschfeld, “The Conceptual Poli- this alliance was established at the be- tics of Race: Lessons from our Children,” Ethos ginning, West urges, and became en- 25 (1997): 63–92. See also his book Race in the trenched as Western thought passed Making: Cognition, Culture, and the Child’s Con- from the ½rst stage described in his ge- ception of Human Kinds (Cambridge, Mass.: mit nealogy to the second. One can envisage Press, 1996). The expression ‘human kind’ is obviously derived from ‘natural kind.’ I regret broadening West’s analysis into some- that it was I who put the phrase into circulation thing with the same form as Michel Fou- with this use, in Paris in 1992, at a conference cault’s A History of Insanity in the Age of on culture and cognition attended by Hirsch- Reason–a history of racism in the age of feld: Ian Hacking, “The Looping Effects of Hu- equality. Stuurman, whom I have cited man Kinds,” in Dan Sperber, David Premack, and Ann James Premack, eds., Causal Cognition: as the authority on Bernier, has impor- A Multidisciplinary Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 351–383. I have aban- 12 Louis Sala-Molins, Le Code noir, ou, le calvaire doned this terminology, partly, and only partly, de Canaan (Paris: Presses Universitaires de because it was modeled on the unsatisfactory France, 1987). idea of a natural kind.

Dædalus Winter 2005 111 Ian enable infants to acquire speci½c abili- nate between the races. The cognitive Hacking on ties. There is not just an all-purpose scientists will say their results show how race module for sorting things according hard we must ½ght to control our innate to their resemblances, but speci½c mod- tendencies to ½nd essential differences ules for classifying living things, for between races. making judgments of number, for sort- Hirschfeld’s analysis may be queried ing according to motion, and so forth. on grounds speci½c to race. Experiment- Where does race enter? Hirschfeld ers are vigilant not to confuse cultural proposes a module that enables children from cognitive input. They highlight the to distinguish different kinds of people. issue in titles such as Culture and Cogni- Some of the earliest distinctions chil- tion, which is the present approved way dren make using this module involve ra- to express the nature-nurture debate. Yet cial traits, primarily stereotypical skin one cannot but suspect that they under- color and a few facial characteristics. estimate how quickly very young chil- There is the further proposition that dren catch on to what is wanted of them. due to an innate disposition, the races, One might say, with a whiff of irony, like any classes recognized using this that children have an innate ability to module, are treated as if they were es- ½gure out what adults are up to, and sential characteristics of people. Experi- hence to psych out the experimenters. ments show that children believe that In any event, nurture has prepro- changing a person’s race, as marked by grammed very young Americans to at- stereotypical features such as color, tend to race. Well-intentioned television would change the kind of person that programming for children constantly that individual is. In these ½rst experi- emphasizes that the characters, even if ments, children were asked only about they are not human, are of different black and white individuals, illustrated races. From infancy, children watch tele- by simple cartoon representations. vision cartoons that show, for instance, a Hirschfeld’s initial data were drawn happy black family playing with a happy from experiments on school children white family. The intended message is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but they now that we can all get on well together. The appear to be con½rmed in results from subtext is that we are racially different, more diverse groups. but should ignore it. Experimenters dis- This cognitive theory proposes that cover that small children expect parents the tendency to regard racial classi½ca- of any color to have children of the same tions as essential is a corollary of a devel- color. Is that proof of innate essentialism opmental fact about the human mind. or of the ef½cacy of television? We have a phenomenon on the order of the cognitive fallacies known from Tver- It is time to turn away from cognition, sky and Kahneman’s studies of decision and back to institutions and history. under uncertainty. Whatever evolution- Categories become institutionalized, ary value our human kind module might especially by censuses and other types have had, it made disastrous racist prac- of of½cial tagging. It is important to re- tices all too easy. But this proposal member that the ½rst working European stands wholly apart from ogre natural- censuses were carried out in colonies– ists’ claim that the alleged differences Quebec, New Spain, Virginia, and Ice- between the races are grounds for mak- land. Categorization, census, and em- ing social arrangements that discrimi- pire: that is an important nexus.

112 Dædalus Winter 2005 I turn to empire in part for personal he ruled. First come the Medes bearing Why race reasons. Race, as a category, has its own vessels, daggers, bracelets, coats, and still matters manifest meanings in the United States. trousers. Then twenty more stereotypes For me, race has of course the American of peoples, each similarly accompanied connotations, but other ones as well. by their characteristic tribute. They The primal racial curse for me as a Cana- process in the following pecking order: dian is my country’s history of relations Medes, Elates, Parathions, Sogdians, with the native peoples. Now I work in Egyptians, Bactrians, Armenians, Baby- France, where the chief racial issue con- lonians, Cilicians, Scythians, Thracians, cerns people of North African descent. Assyrians, Phoenicians, Cappadocians, Despite all their differences, the Canadi- Lydians, Afghans, Indians, Macedo- an, French, and American racial obses- nians, Arabs, Somalis, and Ethiopians. sions have a single historical source: Surprise, surprise, the blackest come Empire. Conquest and control–whether last. of North Africans, West Africans, or the Empires have a penchant for classify- ½rst nations of North America. ing their subjects. Doubtless there are On Webster’s de½nition, empire–“a administrative reasons: some conquered state that has a great extent of territory societies furnish goods, some furnish and a great variety of peoples under one soldiers. But over and above practical rule”–is about the conquest of peoples. exigencies, there seems to be an impera- With it comes an imperial imperative to tive to classify subject peoples almost as classify and enumerate the conquered an end in itself. Or rather, the end is to peoples. Thus the words cast in stone magnify the exploits, glory, and power of three times–in Old Persian, Elamite, the ruler. Classi½cation, as an imperial and Babylonian hieroglyphics–on the imperative, invites stereotyping. Great Staircase of Persepolis at the hey- Persepolis has seen other empires, day of the Persian Empire: other conquests, a fact to which graf½ti on the remaining walls of the city (ren- A great God is Ahuramazda, who created dered mostly by bored British soldiers this earth, who created yonder heaven, from the eighteen and early nineteenth who created man, who created welfare for centuries who identify themselves by man, who made Xerxes king, one king of their names, dates, and regiments) many, one lord of many. I am Xerxes the attests. There is only one inscription to great King, King of Kings, King of the rival Xerxes’ own: an enormous dia- countries having many kinds of people, mond carved into the side of the only King of this great earth far and wide, the standing entrance door of the royal gate. son of Darius the King, the Achaeme- It is inscribed, nian.14 b c e stanley Xerxes (?519–465 . . .) inherited the new york herald Persian Empire in 485. The lapidary in- 1870 vocation to his power, thought to date from the beginning of his reign, includes In the unvarnished words that describe carved processions of the many peoples Henry Morton Stanley in the 1911 edition of The Encyclopaedia Britannica, “In geo- 14 Ali Sami, Persepolis (Takht-Jamshid), 9th ed., graphical discoveries Stanley accom- trans. R. Sharp (Shiraz: Musavi Printing Of½ce, plished more than any other explorer of 1977), 35. Africa, with which continent his name is

Dædalus Winter 2005 113 Ian indissolubly connected. Notwithstand- one is not, and hence provide a sense of Hacking on ing his frequent conflicts with Arabs and self-identity and self-worth: we who are race Negroes, he possessed in extraordinary not polluted. Every stable group has pollu- degree the power of managing native tion rules. races; he was absolutely fearless and So as not to offend others, I shall give ever ready to sacri½ce either himself or my own example. The most important others to achieve his object.” This is group boundary for English-speaking the man who made the Congo Belgian. Canada is with the United States. At Managing native races was the name of present our central pollution rule has to the game for Stanley and for Xerxes’ im- do with the social net: We are gentle and perial staff. caring; you Americans are indifferent to The category of race may be found in the sufferings of the poor. We have uni- all empires. The Chinese, for sure, even versal health care; x percent of Ameri- in the era of the People’s Republic. The cans have no health-care plan at all. (We ½ve stars on the flag denote the ½ve peo- produce all sorts of large numbers for ples of the Republic, whose equality was x–this is part of our folklore, not our constitutionally enshrined after 1949. science.) We make peace; you make pre- The Han are only one of the ½ve stars. emptive war. Et cetera, guns, crime–the Tell that to the inhabitants of the west- list of pollutants goes on. ern provinces, whose equality ends at a This conception of the de½ling other star on a flag. is a sociological universal. One wonders Here we have another answer to the if in the titanic duel between Homo sapi- ‘½rst question,’ about the pervasive ten- ens and Neanderthals the two groups dency to regard people of different races were suf½ciently similar that the future as essentially different kinds of people. human race needed pollution rules to That tendency is produced by the impe- keep each separate from the other lot. I rial imperative, the instinct of empires have heard it suggested that one of the to classify people in order to control, ex- early evolutionary advantages to lan- ploit, dominate, and enslave. The racial guage was that different groups of peo- concepts of the Western world are as ple could use a ‘bad,’ i.e., different, contingent as those of the Persian Em- accent to avoid mingling. pire, but both are the products of the Evolutionary psychologists may pro- same imperative. pose some sort of just-so story for the survival value of pollution rules. Better Empire helps create stereotypical ‘oth- to consult the foremost expert, Charles ers,’ but by de½nition any group of any- Darwin himself, in The Descent of Man. It thing has items outside itself. Every is truly a humbling read: the wealth of form of human life is social. People live information, the variety of considera- in groups. Groups need internal bonds tions, the caution about conclusions– to keep them together, as well as exter- the imaginative framing of tentative hy- nal boundaries for group identity. The potheses overshadows anything written internal bonds are furnished by the prac- since about his topics, including race. He tices that maintain ties among individu- canvasses many explanations for racial als and subgroups. In many cases, the variety, but in the end favors sexual se- external boundaries are furnished by lection of, among other elements, like what Mary Douglas aptly identi½es as for like. It is still an open question, inad- pollution. Rules of pollution de½ne who equately considered, whether, for exam-

114 Dædalus Winter 2005 ple, sexual selection trumps pollution ferred to the children of white masters Why race rules, or vice versa. and black slaves, and then to mixed race still matters How much more powerful pollution in general. The oed says it all: the Eng- and the imperial imperative become lish word is derived from Portuguese when history puts them together! Pollu- and Spanish, “mulato, young mule, hence tion rules are important for maintaining one of mixed race.” the imperial group intact. As soon as The Spanish cuarteron became the Eng- pollution rules break down, men of the lish ‘quadroon,’ the child of a white per- master group sire children with women son and a mulatto. The few quotations from subjugated groups, and a new kind given in the oed are a record of colo- of person–the half-breed–emerges. nial history. Here is the ½rst, dated 1707: The etymology of words such as ‘Eur- “The inhabitants of Jamaica are for the asian’ embodies this phenomenon. We most part Europeans . . . who are the learn from the trusty 1911 Encyclopaedia Masters, and Indians, Negroes, Mulatos, that ‘Eurasian’ was “originally used to Alcatrazes, Mestises, Quarterons, &c. denote children born to Hindu mothers who are the slaves.” The next quotation and European (especially Portuguese) in the list is from Thomas Jefferson. fathers.” There are pecking orders be- And so on: from Spanish the English tween conquerors, as well as among the language acquired ‘quintroon,’ meaning conquered–and this British word was a one who is one-sixteenth of Negro de- put-down meant to keep the Portuguese scent. The 1797 Encyclopaedia Britannica in Goa in their place. Note also the dom- has it that “The children of a white and a inance order between the sexes: a Hindu quintroon consider themselves free of father and a European woman would all taint of the negro race.” More impor- yield, at least in the of½cial reckoning, tantly, from an 1835 oed citation, “‘The a Hindu, not a Eurasian. child of a Quintroon by a white father is The French noun métis, derived from free by law.’ Such was recently the West- a Portuguese word originally used for Indian slave code.” Better to have a Eurasians, dates back to 1615. In French white father than a white mother. Canada it signi½ed the children of white In real life, interbreeding was endem- fathers and native mothers. Early in the ic, so such classi½cations were bound to nineteenth century it was adopted in become haphazard. Only one option was English to denote the offspring of left. The American solution was de½ni- French Canadian men, originally trap- tive. One drop of Negro blood suf½ced per/traders, and native women. In other to make one Negro. Which in turn im- words, ‘Eurasian’ and métis alike meant plied that many Americans could make the children of males from conquering a cultural choice to be black or not, a groups of lower status and females from choice turned into literature in Toni the totally subjugated groups–and then Morrison’s Jazz and, more recently, in the offspring of any of those children. Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. The one For a few generations, one can be pre- drop of blood rule perfectly harmonizes cise in measuring degrees of pollution. the imperial imperative and the preser- At that the Spanish and Portuguese Em- vation of group identity by pollution pires excelled. First came ‘mulattoes,’ prohibitions. the children of Spanish or Portuguese men and South American Indian wom- Why is there such a widespread ten- en. With the importation of black slaves dency to regard people of different races from West Africa, the label was trans- Dædalus Winter 2005 115 Ian as essentially different kinds of people? 1800, so did race science, that strange Hacking on That was our ½rst question. blend of evolutionary biology and statis- race I have argued that naturalism of the tical anthropology. In the heyday of pos- sort taken for granted by John Stuart itivism, race science repainted old pollu- Mill has more going for it than is com- tion rules, the ones selected as suiting monly supposed, and I have also ex- the imperial imperative, with a veneer plained why it may make sense in the of objective fact. context of medicine to regard races as There are two strands of thought in statistically signi½cant and also statisti- the human sciences, the one universal- cally useful classes. But neither of these ist, the other emphasizing contingen- forms of naturalism explains the wide- cies. They seldom harmonize. Here they spread tendency to regard people of dif- do. West’s genealogy is a wholly contin- ferent races as essentially different. gent account of the reasons for the per- There is the cognitive answer, that es- vasive tendency to regard racial distinc- sential distinction by race is the result tions as essential. In contrast, the use of of a universal human kind module. I pollution rules is a universal technique have discounted that, and have also for self-stabilizing a human group. Clas- dismissed what I call ogre naturalism, si½cation of peoples by a category of which claims that races are real Kinds. race is an integral part of the control Note, however, that if there is any ves- necessary to organize and maintain an tige of truth in any type of naturalism, empire, and it employs pollution rules. that could only reinforce the effect of These observations suggest a fruitful other considerations. way to combine contingent and univer- We are left with Cornel West’s geneal- sal theories that help to explain why the ogy of modern racism, pollution rules, category of race remains so pervasive. and the imperial imperative. Together they describe the foundation of the racial predicament of the Western world. The imperial imperative employs a particular type of pollution rule to reinforce caste distinctions and degrees of subjec- tion within an empire. The racial essentialism of the European empires and their American continuation are to be regarded as a special case of the imperial imperative. One speci½c feature of modern racism –race science–results from a central aspect of modern European history. From a world-historical point of view, only one feature of early modern Europe stands out. It is the coming into being of modern science. The ½rst stage of West’s genealogy of modern racism is wholly embedded in that period when early modern science developed. As biology emerged in the second stage, around

116 Dædalus Winter 2005 Poem by Rachel Hadas

Inspissation

De½nitions. Density. Conundrum. Condensation. Etymology. Abstraction and the hissing as of air escaping. And indeed, the atmosphere becomes so thick that vision fogs up like a windshield in the wet. Socked in: was this what the word meant? The bright and baggy world gone blank, The world, capacious, starts to shrink: tugging of tendrils, tightening of texture, so our habitat, already a snug ½t, begins to fold its wings, draw in and in. Crisscross of kinships, instances, recognitions and reunions, coincidences, fertilizations at an ever thickening pace, blanket of fog and muffling mist, crosshatching of the busy thin but countless ½laments scribbling to chiaroscuro, then obscure, almost opaque, unnumbered, slight only if taken one by one, but thickly strewn, oh I am caught, the small world tighter, smaller, clasps me, blinds me: inspissation.

Rachel Hadas, a Fellow of the American Academy since 1995, is professor of English at Rutgers Univer- sity and the author of twelve books of poetry, essays, and translations. Her collections of poetry include “Mirrors of Astonishment” (1992), “The Empty Bed” (1995), “Halfway Down the Hall” (1998), and “Laws” (2004).

Dædalus Winter 2005 117 Fiction by Sigrid Nunez

The naked juror

It was always the same: she received all. Another mystery to Flora was the her summons in the mail, reported to way so many people seemed to consider the courthouse punctually on the given the prospect of jury duty about as pleas- date, went through voir dire two or three ant as time spent in the dentist’s chair, times, failed to be picked as a juror, and say, and would do anything (which usu- was told her service was done. The ally simply meant committing perjury) whole process would take two or three to get out of it. She knew a couple who, days. Much of that time would be spent though both had flexible schedules (they in a large, crowded room, waiting to were both artists and childless), had had hear her name, Flora Defoe (“Present” a psychiatrist write letters for them say- was how they were instructed by the ing–well, whatever needed to be said to clerk to respond, though always a few make sure that neither of them would people forgot), and to take her belong- ever have to serve. She had disapproved ings and follow the guard, or bailiff, as of this (so self-important, she judged he was called, to another room. them), had disapproved of their even It was her sixth time, and it puzzled talking about it, without shame, and her that although she was called regular- though she still occasionally saw the ly, every couple of years, either to civil or couple, since then she had never really criminal court, many people she knew liked them. had been called only once or twice in On the other hand, she found it amus- their lives, and some (her cleaning wom- ing, in the courtroom, to listen to what an, for example) had never been called at people said and to try and guess whether they were on the level or just hoping to be disquali½ed. “The defendant’s got Sigrid Nunez, a Fellow of the American Academy the same haircut as my mother-in-law, since 2003, has published four novels, including which I feel I should reveal, being as I “A Feather on the Breath of God” (1995) and hate my mother-in-law.” “I don’t un- “For Rouenna” (2001). Her new novel, “The derstand why you keep saying he’s pre- Last of Her Kind,” will be published in January sumed innocent. Obviously, he wouldn’t of 2006 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She is a be here if he wasn’t presumed guilty.” “I 2005 Berlin Prize Fellow in Literature at the just got married and my wife and I– American Academy in Berlin. well, I don’t know if I get enough sleep these nights to concentrate on a lot of © 2005 by Sigrid Nunez

118 Dædalus Winter 2005 testimony, especially about something as that came up frequently during the se- The naked boring as insurance.” Flora had found lection process were “common sense,” juror herself repeating these lines to her and–pace Ross, who would have roared friends. The straight faces the attorneys at this–she knew the difference be- and judges managed to keep throughout tween the kind of common sense Ross were often just as hilarious. Though, in thought she lacked (“Why did you park fact, Flora felt sorry for those people. so far away when you knew you were This part of their job, at least, struck her going to have all these packages?”) and as painful, too tedious for words. If she the kind of common sense the court was had to repeat herself all day long like looking for. And she was con½dent that that, asking the same questions, over she had this other, more important, kind and over, giving the same explanations, of common sense, and that she also had over and over, clarifying the same the other desired qualities, such as pa- points, again and again–not to mention tience and fair-mindedness–but what having to listen to the others involved in did any of this matter, since she was the case do the same–she’d go mad. never chosen? (Look around, and don’t be surprised if It was a mistake, Flora thought. For you see one of the bailiffs dozing.) whatever reasons (which were, of Flora had a curious nature (“like a course, never given), these people were child,” her husband, Ross, used to say), depriving themselves of an ideal juror. and she was very curious about every- But she had been excused so many times thing that went on in a courtroom. She now, she no longer expected a different would never doze, or even let her atten- outcome. And that was all right, because tion wander, and once–it was her ½rst although she was not like all those other voir dire–the defendant had caught her people, praying to be excused, or lying to scrutinizing him and gave her a dirty be disquali½ed, it was certainly not a look! matter of pride to Flora that she be cho- Another time, the prospective jurors sen for a jury. Some people, she knew had been asked whether any of them had (the clerk had told them as much), took ever been mugged, and everyone in the offense when they were not chosen and jury box had put up a hand. Flora had would demand an explanation. Silly been appalled. Were half of them lying, things. Anyway, when Flora thought or had it really come to this? (However about how she would enjoy sitting on a bad, better the former.) She had not been jury, she was thinking of criminal cases lying, of course. The year she moved to only (she had to agree: insurance would the city she had been mugged at gun- be boring), because crime is always point by a child (so he seemed) wearing interesting, and Flora liked police and a cowboy hat and mask like the Lone court dramas, she liked mysteries, Ranger (she’d half expected to hear though this was not her genre. (“What “Trick or treat!”). But, as she told the do you do, Ms. Defoe?” “I am a writer.”) court, that had been ages ago, she had She had some reason to believe her all but forgotten the incident, and at being a writer might have been the very any rate could promise that it would problem, because always someone, judge not interfere with her ability to be a or attorney, would say something the good juror. sense of which put crudely would have In fact, Flora had perfect con½dence in been: “Any danger of you mixing up fact her ability to be a good juror. Two words and ½ction?” (She wrote ½ction.) Al-

Dædalus Winter 2005 119 Fiction by ways a hint of concern that her writer’s could bear to work in such frigid air. Sigrid imagination might get in the way of the Their legs especially must feel it. Nunez all-important common sense, or that she It was criminal court, and after less might be tempted to turn the case into time than usual in the waiting room a story. One judge in particular had Flora heard her name (“Present!”) and seemed very concerned about this, that found herself shepherded by the bailiff she might want to write about the case. with what must have been a hundred Flora had often heard–though she others to a courtroom on an upper floor. had also heard it denied–that the higher When they had all ½led in and sat down, your level of education the less likely you the judge addressed them in that sooth- were to end up on a jury. Flora herself ing voice so many of the judges seemed had nothing higher than a ba. An old to have, which always made Flora won- friend of hers who happened to be in the der whether these men were the same at academic job market, and who hated home, or if they were all more like Ross. jury duty, said it was nice to know a doc- She would never forget a Christmas card torate turned out to be good for some- Ross had received from his staff at the thing. From what Flora could tell, if not animal hospital he headed, with a pic- professors, schoolteachers, especially re- ture of a kitten stuffed in a red stocking: tired ones, were a favorite, and this gave “To a boss who’s a real pussy cat.” her pause. How would she have liked to That was Ross. It was only at home be judged by old Miss Thorne, the Spin- that he was known for his sharp tongue ster Scourge of Grade Seven! and violent rages, the last of which had brought on the attack that carried him It was July, and the courthouse, which off at age forty-six. But it was things like was of course air-conditioned, was as that Christmas card that had kept Flora cold as if everyone were a judge with a convinced for years that it must have long robe over street clothes. Flora had been her: somehow she brought out this brought a sweater, but it was not ogre in him. But then the children were enough. She was uncomfortable; the born and they, too, more and more as cold particularly bothered her neck. they grew older, had had the same effect It seemed that more and more of the on him. (It had broken Flora’s heart to attorneys were women, instantly iden- think this might have been because ti½able because of their resemblance to both Meg and Nicholas took so much their ½ctional counterparts–so familiar after her.) And so she would not have from tv shows like Law and Order–a re- been at all surprised to learn that it was semblance you had to wonder at, hoping the same with this judge, who was now it was coincidence but fearing it was not. telling them in his gentle way that the These women were usually on the young defendant, whom Flora, stuck way in and thin side, and they all had either the back, could barely see when he was long or medium-length hair, and they introduced (Bruno something, she all wore the same kind of tailored suit: hadn’t caught the surname, but it plain, solid-colored jacket with match- sounded remarkably like “son of a ing narrow skirt. They wore pale nylon bitch”), was on trial for murder. Bruno stockings and high heels. Flora (and she Sonovabitch was accused of having mur- was not alone, she knew, having made dered his wife. small talk with the people around her) While the judge was speaking it had did not understand how these women seemed that the room was utterly quiet,

120 Dædalus Winter 2005 but now you knew it had not been so. She had learned her lesson from that The naked This was quiet. It was one of those mo- ½rst time: be discreet; avoid eye contact. juror ments when although there are many This usually wasn’t too hard, because bodies in a room there is only a single the defendants she had observed so far consciousness. Now the judge spoke a all but ignored the prospective jurors. little more, telling them about how long Perhaps they had been instructed to do he thought the trial would last (two so, Flora didn’t know, but it always weeks), and assuring those for whom it amazed her how indifferent those defen- might be a concern that the death penal- dants seemed. There had never been one ty was not an issue. He then asked for who looked especially anxious or under the oath to be administered. stress, as she was sure she would have “Now,” he said, when they had all looked in their place. But no, they were settled back in their seats. “There are a always as cool as the judge himself, ap- great many of you here, and to simplify parently bored by the process, not pay- things, let me begin by asking this. Are ing attention, leaving it all to counsel. there any of you who feel that, for what- Didn’t they realize what a bad impres- ever reason, you would not be able to sion this made (especially on school- serve as a juror in this trial? Please raise teachers)? Defendants were permitted your hand.” A big whoosh ½lled the room. to take notes during voir dire, but she Flora crossed her arms over her chest. had only ever seen one do so. That, too, Liars! Perjurers! But the judge, still the had been a case of murder, and Flora had soul of courtesy, said that all those who found it a bit disconcerting that those in had raised their hands were excused. the jury box were asked to state their Once those people had ½led out, it names and where they lived, with this could be seen that about twenty re- particular defendant scribbling away the mained. whole time. But she had not been seri- The judge now gave a few more details ously concerned. You couldn’t worry about the crime. The defendant and his about everything, every little potential wife had been quarreling (about what danger, could you, or how could you was not disclosed), and they had come live? to blows. The defendant was accused of It was as she was taking her chair in having struck the victim with a blunt in- the jury box, pulling her sweater more strument. (For some reason Flora imme- tightly around her, that Flora permitted diately thought hammer.) The prospec- herself a peek at the defendant. tive jurors were told that among the evi- Sit tight. Don’t raise your hand. Don’t do dence they would be asked to examine anything. No reason to act, not yet, and prob- were graphic, possibly disturbing, pho- ably never. Be calm. Go through the process. tographs. A girl who looked too young Then you’ll be excused as usual, and no one for jury duty raised her hand. If it was will be the wiser. not too late, she said, she had changed Of course, he might recognize her, too. her mind. Judge Easygoing said she But the possibility, Flora thought, was could leave. slim. So many years had passed, and she The same court of½cer who had ad- was all too aware of how much she had ministered the oath now placed the juror changed. And even if he did recognize ballots in a drum, gave the drum several her, what would it matter? God knew, turns, and took the ballots out. Flora’s the man had more important things on was the third name to be called. his mind at the moment! Still, she did

Dædalus Winter 2005 121 Fiction by not want to be recognized. She kept her Flora was very much in love, but already Sigrid head turned away, which was painful, she had had her ½rst inklings that she Nunez because her neck was stiff from the cold. might have made a mistake. She was un- He had changed, too, of course, if not happy. She had not yet developed the as much as she had. He must dye his thick skin that would make life with hair, she thought: impossible that it Ross possible. Her husband. A com- could have remained so black. But it was passionate man. A hero–rescuing the the same strong pro½le, the same strik- mute and helpless, day in day out, and ing face with the Slavic cheekbones, not always demanding payment. Give somewhat craggier, somewhat thinner. him that. Responsible. He had left them A face she could never forget. all well provided for–give him that, When it was her turn to be questioned too. And there had been times when –and how glad she was to have only two months might have passed without an people ahead of her–she answered, as explosion. always, concisely and truthfully. She She embarrassed him, he said, when could usually count on a sympathetic they met other people, when he intro- glance from one or two people when she duced her to colleagues and friends. said that she was a widow (she would “And what do you do, Flora?” “I am a flatter herself that they were thinking writer.” “A writer is someone who pub- And still so young!). Did she ever write lishes,” he would groan. And she would about crime, or about anything that try to explain that it didn’t happen over- might have to do with the criminal jus- night, it took time–just as it had taken tice system? Not so far, no. Would she time for him to become head of his ever think of being on a jury as a possi- hospital. It could take years to get pub- ble source of material? Well, for a writer lished. But he would see. She would every experience was a possible source show him! of material. It amazed Flora that her And it had taken years, but she had voice did not crack. Her neck was killing done it. She had published stories, and her, her hands were so cold they burned. she had published a book of stories. And She was suddenly terri½ed that Bruno she had done this while taking care of a Sonovabitch was going to recognize her. family, raising two children who had in When she and the other excused jurors no way suffered for her career–she had returned to the waiting room, they were made sure of that. She had been a good told they could go home and would not mother, her children knew it, and she have to come back. What–after only knew it, because they had been loving one morning? The clerk said it was be- enough to tell her so. cause of the holiday: the day after next So why was it that now, whenever she was July Fourth. said that she was a writer–in the courtroom, for example–Flora felt like a per- In the early days of their marriage, jurer? Flora and Ross had lived in an apartment Because she had not written anything a few blocks from the animal hospital in years. Now, with Ross gone, and where Ross had just started working. It Nicholas and Meg on their own, with was not a very nice apartment, and nei- so much free time (all the time in the ther of them liked the neighborhood, world, it could seem), now, though she but they did not plan to stay long–in tried–had tried every day for a while– fact, the apartment was just a sublet. she had not written anything in years.

122 Dædalus Winter 2005 Bruno. She had forgotten the name decency! But, in all honesty, she thought The naked completely. He worked in the building it probably would have happened again, juror next door, a building much larger than except at the time she was already preg- their own brownstone, with a hotel-like nant with Meg. Then Flora’s mother lobby and a large, mostly immigrant, broke her hip, and Flora went home for a staff. Flora had never been clear where few weeks to take care of her, and by the exactly in eastern Europe he was from. time Flora returned she had begun to He barely spoke English. He should have show. And when he saw this he changed been in school rather than working. An completely towards her. He was polite, uncle–one of the building’s doormen– always, but now, stricken with confu- had got him the job. He looked like an sion, or shyness, or disgust, he could actor with that strong face, and all that barely bring himself to look at her. And lovely thick black hair, and he always then she and Ross heard about an apart- wore black, too– in fact, from what ment, a much better apartment, at a Flora could tell those were the same very good rent, and rather than wait as clothes he wore every day: black jeans planned for the baby to be born, they de- and a black vest, with no shirt under- cided to move at once. neath. And skin like milk. He had the But the shame went with Flora, and arms and shoulders of a gymnast, a stayed with her a long time. She wanted small waist. to blame her having been pregnant. But Flora would often see him, putting out why pretend–why lie? She had known garbage cans, sweeping the sidewalk. what she was doing. She had done But more often loa½ng, leaning against a exactly what she wanted to do. She had parked car or sitting on the stoop of their known how pathetic it was, how wicked, brownstone, smoking (he smoked con- how possibly even dangerous. But you stantly), girl watching. And to this or couldn’t be afraid of every little danger, that girl he might make some comment, could you, or how could you live? Be- and if one of them gave him a dirty look sides (honesty, again!) it had not been or said something nasty back he would entirely out of character. Before mar- laugh. And though he never made such riage, before babies, Flora had been comments to her, he would stare quite something of a party girl. She had had openly at Flora, though he knew she was lots of men before Ross. She could not married, knew who her husband was. remember some of their names, either. And he flustered her–especially if she But to think that this same boy had happened to be wearing a skirt and he turned out to be the kind of man who happened to be sitting on their stoop would take a hammer to his wife! And when she went out. But she was never that by pure chance, after all this time, offended by him, he was so good na- she would have to ½nd this out about tured, so young, just a boy, a poor immi- him! Millions of people lived in this grant boy. And so beautiful. And then town, yet such things were bound to one day she passed too close to him, and happen–in fact, more than likely, it had he caught it: the smell of her unhappi- happened before that a juror had recog- ness, her desperation. nized a defendant. (And she’d bet her Once, it happened only once, she kept life more than one clever person had pre- telling herself later. Her apartment. Her tended to recognize a defendant.) But it marriage bed, common sense right out was cruel of the gods to throw this at the door–hand in hand with common her, when she had only been doing her

Dædalus Winter 2005 123 Fiction by civic duty. Was this her reward for being friend had not been enough tumult for Sigrid a good citizen? (But then, had she really one day! Oh Flora, Flora, she scolded Nunez deserved so unhappy a marriage?) herself. But it was really Ross she was hearing. How could you have made such What brought her to the old neigh- a ridiculous mistake? How could you borhood about a year later was, again, not have seen at once that the man in the chance. She had been visiting a friend in courtroom was much too young to be the hospital, which was across the street the same person? Why must you always be from the animal hospital, or rather from such a scatterbrain? where the animal hospital used to be (it Oh, how she had exasperated him. was now a radiology clinic). It was a dif- How any stupid mistake of hers could ½cult visit. Her friend was dying, as it set him off, like that horrible horrible happened, of the same illness that had time, who could forget, him railing at killed Flora’s mother. Afterwards, Flora her a good half hour before slamming had not wanted to go directly home. She into the bedroom. (Thanks to her, they had started walking, and more because had shown up for a dinner party the of her state of mind than because of any wrong evening.) And when she had big changes in that street, she had not dared to go in, she had found him sitting even realized where she was until she on the bed, his face the most unlikely had almost reached the brownstone. color. He was dizzy, he said, reaching out And there he was, coming towards her for her, he was sick, and he had vomited from the opposite direction, clutching right there, unable to stand. a package, smoking a cigarette, dressed Later, the ambulance, the emergency in a dark blue worker’s uniform. He room, the doctor helplessly spreading glanced at her, caught her looking at him his hands. and nodded politely, but he had not rec- Oh, Ross, she thought, getting up from ognized her. He seemed preoccupied, or the bench to go home. Forgive me. in a hurry. A huge ring at his belt held numerous keys, which clanked with Her next summons to jury duty was each hurried step. She watched him dis- from civil court. The day it arrived in the appear into the large building through mail Flora misplaced it. Later, she turned the service entrance, saw the red stitches the house upside down but could not on the back of his shirt spelling “Super- ½nd it, until she went to bed and took up intendent.” the novel she was reading and there was It had not been an apparition. There the summons stuck inside. She laid it on was no doubt in Flora’s mind. Oh, grant- the night table. And perhaps it was be- ed, he was much changed. All that smok- cause the summons was there, next to ing had creased and discolored his skin, her pillow, that she dreamed of jury his back was stooped, his chest sunk, duty. and his black hair, which was still re- In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud markably thick, might have been dusted writes that there are two types of dreams with flour. He looked every bit his age, in which the dreamer ½nds himself if not older. But she knew him. naked in public–in one, the dreamer is When she reached the end of the ashamed and embarrassed; in the other, street, Flora was relieved to ½nd an emp- the dreamer feels no shame or embar- ty bench, where she sat down to collect rassment at all. Freud does not concern herself. As if saying farewell to a dying himself with the latter type. But why

124 Dædalus Winter 2005 not, Herr Doktor, when those are some The naked of the best dreams of all? juror Flora was sitting in the jury box, she was completely naked, and no one, neither those sitting in the box with her nor anyone else in the courtroom, batted an eye. No shock, no shame, no notice, even; everyone carrying on with perfect naturalness. And though she was naked Flora was not at all cold. She was as comfortable as could be, and she was doing all the talking. Just what she was talking about was not clear, but she was going on and on, in a lively, urgent way, and everyone was listening. She paused, and the prosecuting attorney in her lovely strapless pink gown said, “And then what happened?” And everyone in the room leaned forward to hear. Wine and cheese had been set out on the counsels’ tables, and tall vases of flowers adorned the judge’s bench. Quite a few people were smoking. The person sitting to her left tapped Flora’s arm and passed her a large box of chocolates. It was the last dream of the night, the one that came just before waking, so Flora would be sure to remember it, and she woke from it feeling purged and light, knowing that everything she did that day was going to be right.

Dædalus Winter 2005 125 Dialogue between Michel Foucault & Baqir Parham

on Marx, Islam, Christianity & revolution

Note by Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson: for permission to publish this material in In 1978, as the protests against the shah were “Dædalus.” becoming a mass movement, Michel Foucault made his ½rst visit to Iran. During the next preface by parham: Michel Foucault, eight months, Foucault wrote a number of the famous French thinker and philoso- articles on the Iranian Revolution for “Cor- pher, was recently in Iran. He came to riere della Sera,” “Le Monde,” and other pub- visit the country, to travel around, and to lications. These articles constitute the most write several articles on it. His trips ap- sustained treatment anywhere in his writings parently took him to Qom,1 where he ofa non-Western society. Foucault’s support spoke with some of the grand ayatollahs. for Iran’s Islamist movement touched off a Although Foucault is not well known in controversy that continues to this day. Iran, he has an immense reputation in This conversation, conducted in Iran in the world of philosophy. By ½rst analyz- September of 1978 with the noted writer Baqir ing the ½eld of medicine and its history, Parham, includes Foucault’s ½rst reflections he initiated a unique and penetrating on the Iranian Revolution. In addition, it con- study of reason, of the structure and nects his concern with Iran to his larger cri- organization of knowledge. He has a tique of Western modernity. It shows how his number of valuable works, such as Mad- search for new forms of resistance to moderni- ness and Civilization, The Archaeology of ty had led him to look at religious revolts. Knowledge, and The Order of Things. Fou- This dialogue was published in “Nameh-yi cault’s short trip to Iran was an occasion Kanun-i Nevisandegan” (Publication of the to have a conversation with him about Center of Iranian Writers), No. 1, Spring structuralism and some other key issues. 1979, pages 9–17. It has been translated from Perhaps, in a search for an answer to the Persian by Janet Afary. We thank Baqir them, he has come to this end of the Parham and the University of Chicago Press world. This interview was conducted on Saturday, September 23, 1978, in Tehran. Excerpted from the forthcoming Foucault parham: Philosophy has a claim to and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the objectivity in its worldview. How do you, Seductions of Islamism by Janet Afary and as a philosopher, see the question of Kevin B. Anderson, published in the United political commitment? States by the University of Chicago Press. © 2005 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. 1 This city is the Shiite religious center of Iran.

126 Dædalus Winter 2005 foucault: I do not think that we could intellectual has played the role of a Marx, Islam, give a de½nition of an intellectual unless prophet, a foreteller of the future society. Christianity we stress the fact that there is no intel- In other words, the intellectual was one & revolution lectual who is not at the same time, and whose responsibility was to deal with in some form, involved with politics. Of general and universal principles for hu- course, at certain points in history, there manity. But in our Western societies have been attempts to de½ne the intel- something important has happened. The lectual from a purely theoretical and ob- role of science, knowledge, technique, jective angle. It is assumed that intellec- and technologies has perpetually in- tuals are those who refuse to become creased and so has the signi½cance of involved in the issues and problems of these issues for politics and the organi- their own societies. But in fact, such zation of society. Engineers, lawyers, periods in history have been very rare doctors, health-care workers and social and there are very few intellectuals who workers, researchers in the humani- have adopted such a premise. ties–all form a social layer in our society If we look at Western societies, from whose numbers, as well as whose eco- the very ½rst Greek philosophers up to nomic and political signi½cance, are today’s intellectuals, we see that they all constantly increasing. Therefore, I think had ties in some form to politics. They that the role of the intellectual is perhaps were involved in politics and their ac- not so much, or maybe not only, to stand tions had meaning only insofar as they for the universal values of humanity. concretely affected their societies. At Rather, his or her responsibility is to any rate, this is a general principle. work on speci½c objective ½elds, the Therefore, to the question, “Should an very ½elds in which knowledge and sci- intellectual interfere in the political, ences are involved, and to analyze and social, and economic life of his or her critique the role of knowledge and tech- country?” I respond that it is not a mat- nique in these areas in our present-day ter of should or ought. Being an intellec- society. In my opinion, today the intel- tual requires this. The very de½nition of lectual must be inside the pit, the very an intellectual comprises a person who pit in which the sciences are engaged, necessarily is entangled with the politics where they produce political results. and major decisions of his society. Thus, Thus, working with intellectuals–most- the point is not whether or not an intel- ly doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists, and lectual has a presence in political life. psychologists–has paramount impor- Rather, the point is what should the role tance to me. of an intellectual be in the present state of the world, in order that he or she [u] parham: In response to my ½rst ques- would reach the most decisive, authen- tion, you also partly answered my sec- tic, accurate results.2 I am, of course, ond question. only dealing with the society of which I am a part. Later, in comparison to your foucault: No problem, ask it again. experiences we shall see what are the dif- Maybe this way I could answer your ½rst ferences between our situation in the question! West and yours. In France and in Europe in general, parham: Very well. You see, we have ever since the French Revolution, the witnessed a closeness between philoso- 2 In Persian, the pronoun u can be male or phy and political reality. I wanted to ask female. you, with regard to this proximity be- Dædalus Winter 2005 127 Dialogue tween philosophy and politics, do you the visions of Marx, the visions of social- between Michel see any basic change in the philosophical ists, from their thoughts and their analy- Foucault worldview of our time? And if so, what ses, which were among the most objec- & Baqir is its foundation and its nature? tive, rational, and seemingly accurate Parham thoughts and analyses, emerged in actu- foucault: If again we keep in mind the ality political systems, social organiza- West, I think we should not forget two tions, and economic mechanisms that grand and painful experiences we had today are condemned and ought to be in our culture in the last two centuries. discarded. Thus, I think both of these First, throughout the eighteenth century, experiences were painful ones, and we philosophers, or it is better to say intel- are still living through the second one, lectuals, in France, England, and Ger- not just in thought but also in life. many attempted to rethink society anew, I can give another example that is both according to the vision and principles of most interesting and tragic for Western good government as they perceived it. intellectuals–that of Vietnam and Cam- The impact of this type of thinking can bodia. One felt that there was a people’s be seen, to a great extent, in the revolu- struggle, a struggle that was just and tions and in the social and political right at its foundation, against vicious changes in France, England, and Ger- American imperialism. One anticipated many. In actuality, out of this philosoph- that out of this remarkable struggle a ical vision–the vision of a nonalienat- society would emerge in which one ed, clear, lucid, and balanced society– could recognize oneself. By “ourselves,” industrial capitalism emerged, that is, I do not mean the Westerners, since this the harshest, most savage, most sel½sh, was not their battle. I mean a society in most dishonest, oppressive society one which the face of revolution could be could possibly imagine. I do not want to recognized. But Cambodia, and to some say that the philosophers were responsi- extent Vietnam, presents us with a face ble for this, but the truth is that their from which freedom–a classless society, ideas had an impact on these transfor- a nonalienating society–was absent. mations. More importantly, this mon- I think we live at a point of extreme strosity we call the state is to a great darkness and extreme brightness. Ex- extent the fruit and result of their think- treme darkness, because we really do not ing. Let us not forget that the theory of know from which direction the light will the state, the theory of the all-powerful come. Extreme brightness, because we state, the all-powerful society vis-à-vis ought to have the courage to begin anew. the individual, the absolute right of the We have to abandon every dogmatic group against the right of the individual, principle and to question one by one the can be found among French philoso- validity of all the principles that have phers of the eighteenth century and been the source of oppression. From the German philosophers of the late eigh- point of view of political thought we are, teenth and early nineteenth centuries. so to speak, at point zero. We have to This is the ½rst painful experience. construct another political thought, an- The second painful experience is the other political imagination, and teach one that emerged not between the phi- anew the vision of a future. I am saying losopher and bourgeois society, but be- this so that you know that any Western- tween revolutionary thinkers and the er, any Western intellectual with some socialist states we know today. Out of integrity, cannot be indifferent to what

128 Dædalus Winter 2005 she or he hears about Iran, a nation that existed. You had a Safavid Shiism3 and Marx, has reached a number of social, political, against it you have tried to resurrect an Islam, 4 Christianity and so forth dead ends. At the same Alavid Shiism. All of this is accurate. & revolution time, there are those who struggle to But on the whole, and despite changes present a different way of thinking about that occurred in the nature of religion social and political organization, one due to the proximity between Shiism that takes nothing from Western philos- and state power in that period, religion ophy, from its juridical and revolution- has nevertheless played an oppositional ary foundations. In other words, they try role. to present an alternative based on Islam- In the Christian centers of the world, ic teachings. the situation is more complicated. Still, it would be naïve and incorrect if we said parham: In my ½rst two questions, the that religion in its Christian form was topic of discussion was mostly philoso- the opium of the people, while in its phy, science, and especially the humani- Islamic form it has been a source of pop- ties. Now, with your permission, I would ular awakening. I am astonished by the like to speak of something that is closer connections and even the similarities to our particular situation in Iran, that that exist between Shiism and some of is, religion. Could you please tell us what the religious movements in Europe at your opinion is of the role of religion as a the end of the Middle Ages, up to the world perspective and in social and po- seventeenth or eighteenth century. litical life? These were great popular movements against feudal lords, against the ½rst foucault: One of the statements I cruel formations of bourgeois society, have heard repeatedly during my recent great protests against the all-powerful stay in Iran was that Marx was really control of the state. In Europe in the late wrong to say, “Religion is the opium of eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- the people.” I think I must have heard turies, before they adopted a directly this statement three or four times. I do political form, all such movements not intend to begin anew a discussion of appeared as religious movements. Take, Marx here, but I do think that we ought to reexamine this statement of Marx’s. 3 The shahs of the Safavid Dynasty (1501– I have heard some supporters of an Is- 1722) were the ½rst Iranian rulers to make Shi- lamic government say that this state- ism the country’s of½cial religion. ment of Marx’s might be true for Chris- 4 Literally, the Shiism of Ali. Ali was Muham- tianity, but it is not true for Islam, espe- mad’s cousin and son-in-law, as well as the cially Shiite Islam. I have read several fourth caliph (656–661 c.e.). The notion of re- books on Islam and Shiism, and I totally turning to an original, supposedly uncorrupted agree with them, because the role of Shi- Shiism, in which martyrdom was the supreme virtue, was developed by the lay Muslim theolo- ism in a political awakening, in main- gian Ali Shariati. Shariati, who died in 1977 af- taining political consciousness, in incit- ter what many Iranians assumed at the time ing and fomenting political awareness, was foul play from the government, had re- is historically undeniable. It is a pro- ceived a doctorate in philology from the Sor- found phenomenon in a society such as bonne. His writings had a dramatic impact on a whole generation of Iranian activists. At the Iran. Of course, there have at times been time of the revolution, his picture was carried proximities between the state and Shi- alongside that of Khomeini in the demonstra- ism, and shared organizations have tions.

Dædalus Winter 2005 129 Dialogue for example, the Anabaptists, who were parham: Precisely. Now I come to my between Michel allied to such a movement during Ger- last question, which, unlike my other Foucault many’s Peasant Wars.5 It was a move- questions, is more academic. I want to & Baqir ment that rejected the power of the use this opportunity to ask you about Parham state, government bureaucracy, social philosophical structuralism. You have and religious hierarchies–everything. been known as one of the most au- This movement supported the right to thentic representatives of this form of individual conscience and the indepen- thought. Could you please tell me what dence of small religious groups that the issues are exactly? wished to be together, have their own organizations, without hierarchy or so- foucault: Very well, but let me ½rst cial strati½cation between them. These say that I am not a structuralist. I never were all extremely important social have been. I never made such a claim. movements that left their mark on the And I have always clearly said that I am religious and political consciousness of not a structuralist. But such terms, such the West. In England, during the bour- labels, are out of necessity both correct geois revolutions of the seventeenth cen- and incorrect. There is a truthful dimen- tury, underneath the bourgeois and par- sion to them and an untruthful one. In liamentary revolutions as such, we had actuality, what is known as structuralism a complete series of religious-political is a methodology used in linguistics, so- struggles. These movements were reli- ciology, history of religions, compara- gious because they were political and po- tive mythology, and so forth. These litical because they were religious, and make up a group of scienti½c ½elds that were very important. I therefore think use the structuralist method. In other that the history of religions, and their words, their analysis is based more on deep connection to politics, ought to be systems of relations than on expl0ra- thought anew. tions of elements and contents. Struc- In actuality, the type of Christianity turalism in this meaning has no rela- that was the opium of the people was tionship to my work–none. the product of political choices and joint Beyond this, there is the fact that tactics by the states, or the government in the 1960s in the West, especially in bureaucracies, and the church organiza- France, a change took place in the form tion during the nineteenth century. They of analysis and philosophical thinking. said we ought to bring the rebellious Briefly, without wishing to enter a de- workers back to religion and make them bate, the issue is this: From the time of accept their fate. In Marx’s time, reli- Descartes until now, the point of origin gion was in fact the opium of the people, of philosophical thought was the sub- and Marx was right for this reason, but ject, and the foundational subject of phi- only in the context of his own time. His losophy was to determine what is the statement ought to be understood only subject, what is self-consciousness. Is for the time period in which he lived, the subject free? Is self-consciousness not as a general statement on all eras absolute self-consciousness? In other of Christianity, or on all religions. words, is it aware of itself? In sum, can self-consciousness, as Hegel said, be- 5 During the years 1524–1534, in the aftermath come worldly? of Martin Luther’s break with Rome, Germany experienced a series of radical peasant revolts, Around the 1960s, after the world be- which are the subject of Frederick Engels’s came more connected with technique Peasant Wars in Germany (1852). and technical knowledge, I believe that 130 Dædalus Winter 2005 a rethinking at the point of origin of those who are not considered reason- Marx, philosophical thought began. That is, it able, that is, those who are mad, are re- Islam, Christianity seemed better to begin with contents, moved from the life process. Starting & revolution with things themselves. In other words, with this practice, with this constellation and very simply, this meant to begin of real practices, and ½nally, a process of with things that exist positively and to negation, we reach the point where we analyze them. It meant to see how the can see the place of reason. Or we ½nd subject could be placed within this con- out that reason is not just the move- tent–which is the only role that the sub- ments and actions of rational structures, ject can play–focusing on how the sub- but the movements of the structures and ject is determined by outside elements. the mechanisms of power. Reason is In other words, the principal change is what sets aside madness. Reason is what not to privilege the subject as against the gives itself the right and the means to set objective reality from the very begin- aside madness. ning. Rather the objects, the relation be- From such analyses that do not start tween the objects, and the comprehensi- with the subject, I reached the point of bility of the objects within themselves how one could question various mani- are what we explore. That is, we pay festations of power and analyze them. In more attention to the comprehensibility general, we can say that a philosophy of things in their own right than to the based on self-consciousness is necessari- awareness of the subject. ly related to the idea of freedom. And From this point of view, we can under- this is very good, but the philosophy or stand why some types of research are thinking whose subject matter is not called structuralist research. For exam- self-consciousness, but real practice or ple, look at the problem of psychoanaly- social practice, relates to the theory of sis. Lacan tried to discuss the subject on power. In other words, instead of self- the basis of the unconscious, whereas consciousness and freedom, we reach Sartre and Merleau-Ponty began with practice and power. the subject and tried to see if they could I do not mean to say that power, from reach the unconscious or not, and they my point of view, is a foundational, un- never, of course, reached it. Lacan begins conquerable, absolute entity that one with the unconscious, the principle of has to kneel before. Rather, the purpose the unconscious that appears in the proof all of my analyses is that, in light of cess of psychoanalytical probing, and them, we ½nd out where are the weak asks the question, “Given the existence points of power from which we can of this unconscious, what would the attack it. When we speak of the relation- subject be?” ship between reason and madness, when Now I turn to myself, since your ques- we show that reason exercises its power tion was for me. My ½rst book was called on madness, this is not to justify reason. Madness and Civilization, but in fact my Rather, it is to show how a system of problem was rationality, that is, how power can be questioned and fought does reason operate in a society such as against. Thus, my analyses are in fact ours? Well, to understand this issue, in- strategic analyses and are meaningful stead of beginning with the subject mov- only in relation to strategies. ing from awareness to reason, it is better My studies on the issues of youth if we see how, in the Western world, crime and prison are of a similar nature. those who are not the subjects of reason, I want to show what are the existing

Dædalus Winter 2005 131 Dialogue mechanisms of power that separate the between Michel criminal from the noncriminal. What Foucault are the points of weakness of this sys- & Baqir tem, or the historic points in between Parham which the system has taken shape, so that we could objectively and practically challenge them? Many regard structuralism as an analysis of mechanisms that are undefeatable and imperishable, whereas the opposite is true. They say that structuralism is about analyzing relations that are part of the nature of the objects and cannot be changed. The opposite is true. I want to explain relations that have been tied together through the power of human beings and that for this very reason are change- able and destructible. Therefore, from my point of view structuralism is more a philosophy or a manual of combat, not a document of impotence. My problem is not to explore my self-consciousness to see if I am free or not. My problem is to analyze reality to see how one can free oneself.

132 Dædalus Winter 2005 based on mild but unquestionable illusions. There is no hard evidence that cancer patients can keep their cancer from coming back, for example, or that people with hiv can personally exert Shelley E. Taylor control over its course, yet the optimism that illness can be overcome by will is on healthy illusions common among people with life-threatening diseases. When interviewed some months after what would seem to be devastating experiences, people often say their lives are even more happy and satisfying than they were before these catastrophic events. My research program of the last twenty-½ve years has explored such ‘positive illusions’ and their impact on mental and physical health. When people see news reports about When I ½rst began this work, I had as- survivors of traumatic events, they are sumed that adjustment to trauma and often startled to hear them sound so up- recovery was a homeostatic process. beat–even grateful. “We all pulled to- That is, I suspected there were mecha- gether” and “I found out what is really nisms within the mind that help restore important in life” are common themes. people’s emotional balance to levels In interviews I have conducted with sur- they experienced before encountering a vivors of life-threatening diseases, I’ve threatening event. Homeostasis is a logi- often heard such statements as “I can cal theory for such a process, because it keep the cancer from coming back,” “I accounts for the many biological sys- have control over the course of my hiv,” tems that function after a perturbation. and “I am a better person for having had When we run from a threatening dog, a heart attack.” for example, respiration and heart rate Many of these accounts reflect the ½rst increase and then quickly decline to self-af½rming beliefs that arise from their normal levels after the event has having done battle with an intensely passed. stressful experience and won, at least But my students and I soon learned for the short term. Others, however, are from our interviews that the process that characterizes recovery from a broad array of traumatic events–cancer, heart Shelley E. Taylor, a Fellow of the American Acad- disease, natural disasters, even rape– emy since 2003, is professor of psychology at the is not de½ned by homeostasis. Rather, University of California, Los Angeles. An expert many people who have been through on stress, coping processes, and health, Taylor is these challenging events appear to have the author of more than two hundred scienti½c achieved a higher level of emotional and papers. Her books include “Positive Illusions” social functioning than they had experi- (1989) and “The Tending Instinct” (2002). enced prior to the event. Many of them © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts say the event forced them to rethink & Sciences their values and priorities and to live a

Dædalus Winter 2005 133 Note by moment at a time in order to extract as but also actually influence biological Shelley E. much enjoyment and meaning from life responses to stress and illness? Taylor as possible. As one of the cancer patients This complex and controversial ques- put it: “The trick, of course, is to do this tion has long been a focus of attention without getting cancer.” for both humanists and scientists, yet At the same time, many of the recover- until recently the idea that the mind ies seemed to depend on certain distor- can influence the body in ways that pro- tions. I was, for example, surprised and mote healing has been little more than a somewhat disturbed to hear a cancer hunch. Now there is mounting evidence patient state with complete con½dence that positive beliefs do indeed influence that she would never get cancer again, health and the course of physical illness- knowing from the medical chart that she es. Solid medical research has demon- would almost certainly develop a recur- strated the relation of negative emotion- rence and ultimately die of the disease. al states such as depression to the course At ½rst we were concerned that these of several chronic diseases, including optimistic illusions reflected a poor ad- heart disease and hypertension. Depres- justment to the illness, and that when re- sion and anxiety have been linked un- currences subsequently appeared people equivocally to altered immune process- would be left more devastated than if es. In laboratory studies, scientists have they had not clung to such optimistic been able to induce positive emotional fantasies. But our concerns were mis- states and show how they lessen biologi- placed. In fact, those who maintained cal responses to stressful events. optimistic assessments of their situa- To address these issues in the context tions, who believed, despite evidence to of a physical disease, my colleague Mar- the contrary, that they could conquer garet Kemeny and I examined the rela- their problems, were actually healthier: tion of positive beliefs to the course of they were better adjusted to their cir- hiv infection. Unlike the progression cumstances, as assessed by standard of cancer, heart disease, and some of the clinical tools, than were patients with a other illnesses we studied with respect to more realistic understanding of their psychological adjustment, hiv progres- condition. Moreover, when a disease re- sion can be precisely charted through curred, those who had expressed unwar- the numbers of cd4 T-helper cells and ranted optimism about their ability to the amount of viral load, that is, the stave off illness nonetheless fared better amount of hiv in the system. Using psychologically than patients whose ex- methods like these, scientists have pectations were more reasonable. In- uncovered many of the biological and deed, it seemed that optimistic illusions treatment-related cofactors that inde- were an invaluable resource; they gave pendently influence the course of hiv patients a sense of personal control and infection, which include alcohol con- bolstered their ability to ½nd meaning in sumption, drug use, sleep, and medica- life’s unwelcome experiences, enabling tion use. These factors can be precisely them to cope effectively with intensely controlled when looking at the potential stressful events. role of positive beliefs in affecting the Over the past decade, our research has course of the disease. addressed an even more intriguing ques- An early study spearheaded by Geof- tion: Can positive illusions not only frey Reed focused on men who had been buffer people psychologically against diagnosed with aids. We were able to adverse responses to threatening events, identify a group of men who had realisti- 134 Dædalus Winter 2005 cally accepted and were preparing for nies aging is thought to result from the Healthy their inevitable death, and a second wear and tear exerted on this regulatory illusions group of men who were holding on to system by repeated exposure to stress. their optimistic beliefs, despite the pro- With these observations in mind, one gression of their illness. Controlling for may hypothesize that unrealistically op- the many other factors that influence the timistic beliefs are protective of health. course of the illness, we found that those Beliefs that the future will be better, that men who maintained their optimistic one has the ability to cope with it, and beliefs lived an average of nine months that personal efforts to control stressful longer than those who had accepted events will be successful may enable their decline. We conducted similar people to confront the challenges of dai- studies with men who were hiv seropos- ly life with tempered biological respons- itive but asymptomatic with respect to es to those events. Over time, the cumu- aids and found that those who held lative wear and tear on their biological positive beliefs about their future were stress regulatory systems will be less less likely to develop symptoms and than if they met stressful events head- decline over a several-year follow-up on, with no psychological buffer. period. Remarkably, then, positive be- Our most recent investigations have liefs are protective against the progres- con½rmed this hypothesis. When peo- sion of what was at the time and often ple with positive illusions are brought continues to be a fatal disease. into the laboratory to face challenging But how does this remarkable psycho- events, such as giving a speech or com- logical achievement occur? What con- puting mental arithmetic, their biologi- verts positive beliefs into biological ben- cal stress responses, in the form of heart e½ts? We reasoned that optimistic illu- rate, blood pressure, and neuroendo- sions may enable people to cope more crine responses, are lower and remain successfully with stress and thereby keep so throughout the events, compared to physiological and neuroendocrine re- those of people who do not hold these sponses to stress at low levels. Everyone positive beliefs. is familiar with the biological changes Science has now taken some of the that occur in response to stress, which mystery out of how the mind influences include shallow rapid breathing, an in- the body, but none of the wonder that creased heart rate, and neuroendocrine such psychological achievements in- changes within the body. spire. The ability of human beings to re- In the short term, such changes are main hopeful in the face of tragedy is a protective. They engage the ½ght-or- remarkable psychological achievement. flight response that helps us escape from Exploring how the mind imposes mean- harm. However, with repeated exposure ing on challenging events, and does so in to stressful events, the biological sys- ways that are ultimately adaptive for tems responsible for mounting these physical and mental health, is not only protective emergency reactions get over- scienti½cally exciting, but also yields used and may lose their elasticity and great respect for a species that has ability to respond. Blood pressure, for evolved to the point that it can triumph example, increases in response to stress- over many adversities through sheer ful events, and with accumulating expo- mental effort. sure to such events may permanently increase. The almost inevitable increase in resting blood pressure that accompa- Dædalus Winter 2005 135 Such anxieties are reasonable. After all, Osama bin Laden professes to ½ght in the name of Islam. And in the aftermath of 9/11, the United States has experienced a signi½cant rise in reported in- Philip L. Quinn cidents of intolerant behavior directed at Muslims. on religious diversity Moreover, tolerance has long been & tolerance under assault in more limited conflicts fueled in part by religious differences. Religious disagreement has been a cause of violence in Belfast, Beirut, and Bosnia during recent decades. The terrorism of Al Qaeda threatens to project the religious strife involved in such localized clashes onto a global stage. In short, early in the twenty-½rst century, the practice of tolerance is in peril, and religious Since September 11, 2001, the fragility diversity is a major source of the danger. of tolerance has become a source of During the past two decades, diversity acute anxiety in scholarly reflection on has also been a topic of lively discussion religion–as shown by some of the con- among philosophers and theologians. tributions to the Summer 2003 issue of What philosophers have found especial- Dædalus on secularism and religion. In ly challenging about religious diversity that context, James Carroll asked how is an epistemological problem it poses. it was possible for people committed to Here the philosophical debates have fo- democracy to embrace religious creeds cused primarily on the so-called world that underwrite intolerance. Daniel C. religions–Hinduism, Buddhism, Juda- Tosteson identi½ed conflicting religious ism, Christianity, and Islam. Though beliefs as a particularly serious cause of most of the philosophers involved in the plague of war. these debates have not addressed the topic of tolerance directly, there is a clear connection between the epistemological Philip L. Quinn, a Fellow of the American Acade- problems posed by religious belief and my since 2003, was John A. O’Brien Professor of the political problems posed by religious Philosophy at Notre Dame University. An expert diversity. on the philosophy of religion, he wrote on the Au- Take the case of Christianity. One way gustinian legacy, the virtue of obedience, and the to justify a Christian’s belief in God is ethics of Søren Kierkegaard. He was the author the arguments offered by natural theolo- of “Divine Commands and Moral Requirements” gians for the existence of God. Another (1978) and coeditor of “A Companion to Philoso- source of justi½cation is distinctively phy of Religion” (1997). This is the last work Pro- Christian religious experiences, includ- fessor Quinn completed before his death on No- ing both the spectacular experiences re- vember 13, 2004. ported by mystical virtuosi and the more mundane experiences that pervade the © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts lives of many ordinary Christians. A & Sciences third source is the divine revelation

136 Dædalus Winter 2005 Christians purport to ½nd in canonical at most one of them can be completely Religious diversity & scripture. And, for many Christians, a true. Each religion is therefore an unvan- tolerance fourth source is the authoritative teach- quished rival of all the rest. ing of a church believed to be guided by To be sure, Christian sources yield rea- the Holy Spirit. When combined, such sons to believe that the Christian world- sources constitute a cumulative case for view is closer to the truth than its rivals. the rationality of the belief in God pro- But many of these reasons are internal fessed by most Christians. to the Christian perspective. Each of the Let us suppose, if only for the sake of other competitors can derive from its argument, that these sources provide sources internal reasons for thinking it suf½cient justi½cation to ensure the has the best access to truth. Adjudication rational acceptability of the Christian of the competition without begging the belief system. But this will be so only if question would require reasons inde- there are no countervailing considera- pendent of the rival perspectives. It tions or sources that present conflicting seems that agreement on independent evidence. Before we can render a ½nal reasons suf½cient to adjudicate the rival- verdict on the rational acceptability of ry is currently well beyond our grasp. that belief system, challenges to the It is clear that this unresolved conflict Christian worldview must be taken into will have a negative impact on the level account. One of the most famous chal- of justi½cation Christian belief derives lenges is, of course, the existence of evil. from its sources. In his magisterial book The sheer diversity of religions and reli- Perceiving God (1991), William Alston in- gious beliefs presents an equally vexing vestigated the matter of justi½cation for challenge. And the growth of religiously the Christian practice of forming beliefs pluralistic societies, global media, and about God’s manifestations to believers. transportation channels has rendered He argued persuasively that the unre- this challenge increasingly salient in solved conflict does not drop the level recent times. of justi½cation for beliefs resulting from A Christian today who is suf½ciently this practice below the threshold mini- aware of religious diversity will realize mally suf½cient for rational acceptabili- that other world religions also have im- ty. He acknowledged, however, that the pressive sources of justi½cation: They level of justi½cation for such Christian too can mobilize powerful philosophical beliefs is considerably lowered by the arguments for the fundamental doc- conflict, and that similar conclusions trines of their worldviews. They are sup- hold, mutatis mutandis, for analogous ported by rich experiential traditions. experiential practices in other world They also contain both texts and author- religions. itative individuals or institutions that A generalization from the special case profess to teach deep lessons about paths seems to be in order. For those Chris- to salvation or liberation from the ills of tians who are suf½ciently aware of reli- the human condition. gious diversity, the justi½cation that the Yet quite a few of the distinctive distinctively Christian worldview re- claims of the Christian belief system, ceives from all its sources is a good deal understood in traditional ways, conflict less than would be the case were there with central doctrines of other world re- no such diversity, even if the level of jus- ligions. Though each world religion de- ti½cation for the Christian belief system rives justi½cation from its own sources, were not on that account reduced below

Dædalus Winter 2005 137 Note by the threshold for rational acceptability. certain that the source of the command Philip L. Quinn And, other things being equal, the same really was God. goes for other world religions. This re- For Kant, certainty is an epistemic duction of justi½cation across the board concept. It is a matter of having a very can contribute to a philosophical strate- high degree of justi½cation, not a ques- gy for defending religious toleration. tion of psychological strength of belief. The basic idea is not new. The strategy Thus his argumentative strategy may be is implicitly at work in a famous example rendered explicit in the following way: discussed by Immanuel Kant in his Reli- All of us, even the inquisitor, have a very gion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason high degree of justi½cation for the moral (1793). Kant asks the reader to consider principle that it is generally wrong to kill an inquisitor who must judge someone, people because of their religious beliefs. otherwise a good citizen, charged with Our justi½cation for this principle vastly heresy. The inquisitor thinks a supernat- exceeds the threshold for rational ac- urally revealed divine command permits ceptability. It may be conceded to reli- him to extirpate “unbelief together with gious believers that there would be an the unbelievers.” Kant suggests that the exception to this general rule if there inquisitor might take such a command were divine command to the contrary. to be revealed in the parable of the great However, none of us, not even the in- feast in Luke’s Gospel. According to the quisitor, can have enough justi½cation parable, when invited guests fail to show for the claim that God has issued such a up for the feast and poor folk brought in command to elevate that claim above from the neighborhood do not ½ll the the threshold for rational acceptability. empty places, the angry host orders a Hence it is not rationally acceptable for servant to go out into the roads and the inquisitor to conclude that con- lanes and compel people to come in demning a heretic to death is morally (Luke 14: 23). Kant wonders whether it is permissible. rationally acceptable for the inquisitor to No doubt, almost all of us will recoil conclude, on grounds such as this, that it with horror from the extreme form of is permissible for him to condemn the persecution involved in Kant’s famous heretic to death. example. Other cases may not elicit the Kant holds that it is not. As he sees it, same kind of easy agreement. it is certainly wrong to take a person’s Suppose the leaders of the established life on account of her religious faith, church of a certain nation insist that unless the divine will, revealed in some God wills that all children who reside extraordinary fashion, has decreed oth- within the nation’s borders are to re- erwise. But it cannot be certain that such ceive education in that orthodox faith. a revelation has occurred. If the inquisi- No other form of public religious educa- tor relies on sources such as the parable, tion is to be tolerated. These leaders are uncertainty arises from the possibility not so naive as to imagine that the policy that error may have crept into the hu- of mandatory religious education they man transmission or interpretation of propose will completely eradicate her- the story. Moreover, even if it were to esy. But they argue that its enactment is seem that such a revelation came direct- likely to lower the numbers of those who ly from God, as in the story told in Gene- fall away from orthodoxy and, hence, to sis 22 of God’s command to Abraham to reduce the risk of the faithful being se- kill Isaac, the inquisitor still could not be duced into heresy. And they go on to

138 Dædalus Winter 2005 contend that the costs associated with the strategy must be employed on a case- Religious diversity & their policy are worth paying, since what by-case basis. However, such a piece- tolerance is at stake is nothing less than the eternal meal strategy has some advantages. It salvation of the nation’s people. does not impose on defenders of toler- The claim that God has commanded ance the apparently impossible task of mandatory education in orthodoxy showing that the whole belief system of might, it seems, derive a good deal of any world religion falls short of rational justi½cation from sources recognized by acceptability according to standards to members of the established church. It is which the adherents of that religion are the sort of thing a good God, deeply con- committed. It targets for criticism only cerned about the salvation of human individual claims made within particular beings, might favor. Perhaps the parable religions, claims that are often sharply about compelling people to come in disputed in those religions by believers could, with some plausibility, be inter- themselves. preted as an expression of such a com- Nor can this strategy be expected to mand. So if the challenge of religious convert all religious zealots to tolerant diversity were not taken into considera- modes of behavior. All too often reli- tion, the claim that God commands gious zealots turn out to be fanatics mandatory education in orthodoxy who will not be moved by any appeal to might derive enough justi½cation reason. But in any event, the strategy from various sources to put it above the should not be faulted because it cannot threshold for rational acceptability for do something that no philosophical ar- members of the established church. But gument for tolerance, or for any other the factoring in of religious diversity practice, could possibly do. may be enough to lower the claim’s jus- Religious diversity must be counted ti½cation below that threshold, thereby among the causes of the great ills of in- rendering it rationally unacceptable even tolerance. It also happily shows some for members of the church who are suf½- promise of contributing to a remedy for ciently aware of such diversity. And an the very malady it has helped to create. appeal to the epistemological consequences of religious diversity may be the only factor capable of performing this function in numerous instances. Thus such an appeal may be an essential component of a successful strategy for arguing against forms of intolerance less atrocious than extirpating “unbelief together with the unbelievers.” Of course, the strategy being suggested here is no panacea. It is not guaranteed to vindicate the full range of tolerant practices found in contemporary liberal democracies; it may fail to show that the religious claims on which citizens ground opposition to tolerant practices fall short of rational acceptability by their own best lights. This is because

Dædalus Winter 2005 139

U.S. $13 www.amacad.org

FOUNDED 1780