A Mexican American Professor and Affirmative Action at UT by Dr. Daniel Acosta, Jr.

I am happy to publish this piece by Dr. Daniel Acosta, Jr., Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at The University of Texas at Austin and Dean Emeritus Winkle College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati who shares an important, personal reflection on how Affirmative Action policy has played out for him.  

I cited Dr. Acosta in an earlier, widely-read piece titled, Opinion: UT should take steps to hire more Hispanic leaders that is related to the current equity battle pertinent to Hispanics/Latinas/os at UT. While someone of your caliber should never be questioned or second-guessed, we also still know that this happens every day in America.

-Angela Valenzuela

A Mexican American Professor and Affirmative Action at UT

by Daniel Acosta, Jr.

Affirmative Action was implemented in the US to remedy past discrimination against certain minority racial groups and women in the workplace and to correct admission bias in educational
institutions. Critics of AA argue that employment and educational diversity has been achieved and that AA is no longer necessary. Research studies can be found to support both sides of the argument. Most employers want to have employees who are well-qualified through training, education, and experience, and more importantly want a workforce that is representative of today’s multi-racial society.

Trump once said (loosely paraphrased): “I would not mind being a highly educated minority because of the special treatments that minorities receive over white Americans”.  As one of those educated minorities, I experienced subtle forms of discrimination and bias, rather than the open hostility and hatred that I saw directed towards my father and his friends, who worked as carpenters and day laborers under the hot sun of El Paso.  Because I interacted mostly with other educated professionals, some of these individuals were more skilled in not displaying overt signs of racism.  In his quote, Trump was alluding to the role of Affirmative Action in American society and to its supposedly discriminatory treatment of white Americans in educational and employment sectors. 

 If a minority succeeds in America, some whites believe that it was because of AA. I was asked by an Anglo professor at my first interview for an academic position at UT-Austin whether my resume was correct about receipt of a nationally competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, instead of the minority NSF Fellowships for Blacks and Hispanics.  I responded quickly that my fellowship was received before AA became federal policy and that I had not listed falsely the award as a non-minority one. The interviewer was suggesting that non-minority NSF graduate fellowships were more competitive and prestigious to receive than the newly established AA fellowships. In fact, I was told pointedly by the chair of the department and dean of the college that I was given the position because the University had to fulfill its AA goals for hiring more minority faculty (even though I had graduated first in my college class with Highest Honors and had been offered a prestigious postdoctoral position to study at the renowned Karolinska Institute in Stockholm).  I suspect that many minorities are often evaluated in the manner that I have experienced from my interactions with Anglos.  Many talented minorities are frustrated by how AA considerations in admissions to college and in hiring decisions for employment may cloud their qualifications and skills during the evaluative process of candidates for academic or private sector positions. 

Another AA experience I faced was when I received an award offered by the Ford Foundation, a Chicano Postdoctoral Fellowship for qualified minority faculty. Because academic promotion and tenure depend on the acquisition of competitive research grants, of which the Ford Foundation was one, I applied for as many grants as I could.  When I notified the dean of the college of my good news, he requested that I decline the award because there were Anglo professors in my department who could not compete for the grant and that was not fair to them.  When the University of Texas’s higher administration learned of the dean’s demand, he was quickly told that this grant was a prestigious one for me and was a measure of the quality of the University’s standing with other public universities.  In retrospect, Affirmative Action has also had unintended consequential effects on qualified minorities who may receive “special” considerations for positions in fields or professions that are underrepresented with minority employees:  there is increased resentment from white applicants and employees and creates undue stress for minorities in the workplace.

I contend that many Americans are more conflicted today about the role and status of people of color in the country, especially with an administration that does not value what cultural and racial diversity has brought to American democracy and its belief in equality for all. 

Acosta is an adjunct professor of pharmacology at UT-Austin