Just the Ticket – One of the difficulties of diversity/multiculturalism, as with racial or ethnic preferences in general, is knowing when you’re supposed to take “racenicity” into account, and when you’re not. (I know “racenicity” isn’t a word, but perhaps it should be; it’s at least as good “ethno-racial identity” and its variants.)
Take the recent lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer federation. Humberto Martinez, who emigrated from El Salvador 20 years ago, alleges that he was refused a ticket to a seat in the lower half of RFK stadium in Washington when the U.S. team faced Honduras because the owners wanted those seats close to the field packed with fans of the U.S. team. Martinez was denied a ticket, he claims, because he is Hispanic and it was assumed he would root for Honduras. Discrimination on the basis of national origin is and should be illegal, but it is legal for teams to assign tickets based on geography or team loyalty, i.e., preferences for the home team fans.
This problem of distinguishing illegitimate “racenicity” consciousness from legitimate consideration of non-racenicity qualities that overlap considerably with race/ethnicity is analogous to the controversies over racial redistricting that have so agitated the courts. Racial redistricting is not allowed, but partisan redistricting is. Since blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic, in real life this is a distinction without much of a difference, but last year the Court honored it in Hunt v. Cromartie when, with a 5-4 majority, it finally upheld a North Carolina district at the heart of this controversy because “one could not easily distinguish a legislative effort to create a majority-minority district from a legislative effort to create a safely Democratic one.”
Many conservatives were disappointed in this decision, and particularly angry at Justice O’Connor for switching sides, but I think they were mistaken. The decision should be applauded for its insistence on intent as a necessary ingredient of discrimination. Since the liberals on the Court (and off) insisted on intent here, it should be harder for them to ignore it in other cases where policies or programs have a disparate impact.
But I digress. Well, not really, for where Mr. Martinez gets to sit in the stadium raises interesting questions about where his supporters stand on diversity and multiculturalism, which they vociferously support. Here, Mr. Martinez wants to be treated as an individual, or possibly as a Salvadoran-American, and not lumped in with all Hispanics. But if and when his sons or daughters apply to college they will no doubt be classified as Hispanic, and probably awarded a preference on that basis. We know what the ACLU, MALDEF, La Raza, et. al. will say then, and it won’t be a demand to treat the little Martinezes as individuals.
If “culture” is as hard and fixed as the multicults claim, and if there is a “Hispanic” culture shared across nationalities and even ethnicities, then perhaps it was not so irrational to assume that Mr. Martinez would cheer for the Hondurans after all. But if, as I believe, that assumption is not accurate, then it is as unreasonable to make it for admission to college as for a good seat at RFK stadium.
