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

I couldn't agree more with this urgent message from the editors of the Dallas Morning News. Here's a helpful resource I just posted that records the daily expansion of the virus throughout Texas.  The time to act is now!

-Angela Valenzuela

Gov. Abbott, it’s time for a statewide shelter-in-place order

An order would signal the seriousness of the coronavirus threat.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference about the state's response to the coronavirus on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner / Austin American-Statesman)

By Dallas Morning News Editorial

2:00 AM on Mar 27, 2020

In moments of crisis, it’s easy for people to give in to fear or just disregard smart thinking as they react in a frenzied, ad hoc or reckless manner. This is why it’s crucial that those entrusted with leadership roles provide steady and consistent leadership.

And to that end, we believe it’s time for Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a statewide shelter-in-place order. Doing so would send a clear message at a time when others are waffling on following medical advice that the governor and the state of Texas are continuing to make decisions to protect everyone from this virus.

We recognize that such an order should likely be crafted to account for differences between rural and suburban and urban counties. But we all should also recognize that such an order would provide needed support to leaders on the county level that are making smart decisions while pushing others who aren’t.

Such an order would also build on three executive orders Abbott has issued on the virus. The first, on March 19, ordered no gatherings of more than 10 people, closed bars, gyms and restaurants (except for takeout) and prevented nursing home visitations.

His other orders prevented hospitals from performing procedures that aren’t immediately medically necessary and required reporting of COVID-19 cases. (On Thursday, Abbott issued a fourth order, requiring a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people traveling from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans.)

He has also declared a state of disaster.

Earlier this week, Abbott signaled dissatisfaction with the way many Texans have responded to his order. He needs to look no farther than Barton Springs Pool in Austin, where people were gathered Wednesday in droves.

“It’s clear to me that we may not be achieving the level of compliance that is needed,” Abbott said this week.

That’s true, and its reason enough to issue a statewide order. Doing so is important to health. The more people distance, the more quickly we will get back to normal and the better off those who need treatment will be.

It is also important to ensure everyone understands the seriousness of this threat and to unleash the creativity of leaders in the public, business, and nonprofit communities to come with smart details that improve our ability to withstand and overcome this virus. Unfortunately, some state and national leaders and pundits are sending the wrong signals about ending the social distancing practices and therefore it is all the more crucial for the governor to take this action.

Abbott has shown good leadership in this crisis. He can do more. The time is now.

Tom Brokaw's Comments about Hispanics feed fear of change and diversity

Excellent commentary this past week by Austin American-Statesman editor Juan Castillo on recent, hurtful and factually incorrect, comments made by NBC's Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw on "the problem" with Hispanics in the U.S. being that they're not assimilating.  You can see his commentary for yourself here.  

Juan Castillo counters this effectively, citing an epic statement on this by Selena (played by actress Jennifer Lopez) in the film, "Selena."  Talk about a redemptive statement that sheds light on the matter.  For many of us, this one interchange between Selena and her father (played by Edward James Olmos) made the whole movie memorable and exceptional.

Brokaw did ultimately apologize for offending Hispanics.  Thanks to Juan Castillo for similarly challenging Brokaw's misinformed opinion that actually speaks more to fears of a loss of white centrality due to changing demographics, than to any valid characterization of Hispanics.

I wrote a whole book about this so-called problem with Hispanic assimilation, by the way, titled Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring that, even if there are glimmers of light—like Julián Castro's 2020 presidential bid—similarly helps to debunk tired, self-serving myths by an establishment that doesn't want to empower Hispanics or Latinos.

-Angela Valenzuela

Castillo: Comments about Hispanics feed fear of change and diversity

Former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro waves as he arrives
to his family to an event where he announced that he will seek
the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination, January
12, 2019 in San Antonio, Texas (AP PHOTO Eric Gay)

By Juan Castillo, February 1, 2019

I don’t know if Tom Brokaw has seen the biopic about the Tejano music idol Selena Quintanilla. If he hasn’t, I recommend he at least watch an indelible two-minute scene that might enrich his understanding of what it means to be a Mexican American.

In it, Selena’s father, speaking to his on-the-cusp-of-stardom daughter and her brother, launches into a monologue about the dualities of their culture. His emotions burn slowly at first. Soon, they are fanned by a force of their own until he’s downright combustible.

“And we gotta prove to the Mexicans how Mexican we are,” he says, “and we gotta prove to the Americans how American we are. We gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time.

“It’s exhausting,” he says with such emphasis and exasperation it’s as if he’s flattening a nail head with a hundred-pound hammer. “Damn. Nobody knows how tough it is to be a Mexican American.”

The moment is visceral, a rare mainstream affirmation of the Mexican American experience.

Brokaw, as we know, told a national television audience that in his opinion, Hispanics need to be more, well, they need to be more American.

“Hispanics should work harder at assimilation,” Brokaw said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“They ought not to be just codified in their communities but make sure that all of their kids are learning to speak English, and that they feel comfortable in the communities, and that’s going to take outreach on both sides, frankly,” he said.

I’m not here to get into Brokaw’s head and speculate on his intent, or surmise why one moment he was talking generally about some Americans’ fear “of brown grandbabies” and in the next breath, unprompted, offering his own opinion suggesting — at least to some — that he too is uncomfortable with this country’s demographic transformation.

The backlash among Latinos was swift, and Brokaw, in a series of tweets, seemed to walk back his comments, adding that “from my days reporting on cesar chavez to documenting the many contributions of hispanics in all parts of our culture ... i’ve worked hard to knock down false stereo types.”

Maybe so, but Brokaw had already perpetuated the biggest and most tired myth of all: that Hispanics don’t assimilate into American society.

Please, spare us the lecture that Latinos need to work harder at anything. Latinos — and Mexican Americans in particular — have fought over generations to be treated as equals, even in the face of historical bigotry against them. They have served proudly in America’s wars and conflicts, for example, often in numbers bigger than their percentage of the American population. The Voces Oral History Project at the University of Texas is dedicated to preserving these patriots’ stories and honoring their service.

And just look around. Latinos figure prominently in every realm of American society, from politics to culture, from business to entertainment, from newsmakers to the people in the media who cover them. People like Julián Castro, the former San Antonio mayor and former HUD secretary under President Barack Obama. He and twin brother, Joaquin, are the grandsons of a Mexican immigrant. After graduating from Stanford, they got law degrees from Harvard. Joaquin is a U.S. congressman. Julián is vying to become the first Latino president of the United States. Is that assimilating enough for you?

The idea that Hispanic children aren’t learning English is laughable, easily disproved by research showing that, as with other racial and ethnic groups, Spanish use declines as English becomes the dominant language among later immigrant generations. By the third generation — the U.S.-born children of U.S.-born parents and immigrant grandparents — 75 percent of Hispanics are English-dominant and 24 percent are bilingual, according to the Pew Research Center. Maybe Brokaw hasn’t heard that being bilingual is a game-changer in today’s workforce.

Brokaw’s ideas aren’t new. That Selena movie is nearly 22 years old, and as history tells us, slurs and stereotypes against Mexican Americans have been weaponized for well more than a century.

So why the uproar? Because Brokaw isn’t just anybody. A highly respected journalist, his comments feed a growing fear and resentment of change and diversity in America at a time when Hispanics are leading the change. They are the nation’s largest minority and are poised to become the largest racial or ethnic group to be eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election. In Texas a growing Hispanic voting population is seen as key to turning the state blue. All this as Latinos unwittingly are swept into a caustic immigration debate that with a broad brush recklessly brands them as criminals and rapists.

“Our family has been here for centuries and yet they treat us as if you’ve just swam across the Río Grande,” Selena’s father says in that blistering movie dialogue. Brokaw’s comments remind Hispanics of their historical struggles as marginalized people. So you’ll understand if they are sensitive about accusations that they’re not American enough. After all this time, it’s exhausting.

Castillo is the Statesman’s Opinion page editor.

Press 1 for English? These days, biliteracy deserves not just tolerance, but academic rewards [Editorial]

Happy to see the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle cite my Houston ethnography, Subtractive Schooling, to connect the dots between the treatment of immigrants, discrimination against Mexican Americans, Texas' current “State Seal of Biliteracy,” and (what should be) making America great, namely, through biliteracy—or literacy in two languages.  Spanish-English literacy, through bilingual and dual language programs is what is indeed happening throughout Texas, including places like Houston, El Paso, San Antonio, and Austin, at varying degrees.  This should arguably be happening everywhere throughout our state and nation.

To my awareness, it has been years since the Houston Chronicle has cited my work.  And only once amongst a handful of times.  Regardless, this means that our work as researchers, scholars, and critical ethnographers makes a difference in the world.  And for that I am very pleased.

Angela Valenzuela

Press 1 for English? These days, biliteracy deserves not just tolerance, but academic rewards [Editorial]

By The Editorial Board | HOUSTON CHRONICLE

July 21, 2018

BILLY CALZADA, STAFF / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

“English! English! Go back to Mexico. You’re in America!”

“English! English! Go back to Mexico. You’re in America!” 

Not so long ago, that response, described in an ethnography by University of Texas professor Angela Valenzuela, is what Texas schoolchildren could expect for speaking Spanish in the hallways. Punishments and reprimands were common experience for students whose open use of bilingual skills could be perceived as flauting American customs or refusing to assimilate.

Fast forward 20 years. Bilingual skills are not only tolerated; they’re rewarded.

Yes, some of President Trump’s policies seem to be making America less welcoming to refugees, other foreigners and even sometimes non-native English speakers with noticeable accents.

At the same time, policymakers in Texas and elsewhere are acting on research that has suggested the benefits of speaking more than one language range from better ease with multitasking to potentially delaying the onset of dementia. In college and the workforce, the advantages are clear: Multilingual students have improved access to post-secondary education and help-wanted signs across Texas beckon bilingual applicants.

Today, Texas is one of more than 30 states that now offers a “State Seal of Biliteracy.” The commendation recognizes high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in one or more languages other than English.

Texas students and their families should consider setting this seal as an academic goal. School counselors should encourage students to seek it. Districts should proudly display the number of qualifying students prominently on their websites.

In today’s competitive workforce, students need every advantage they can get. For too long, the built-in advantage of speaking a different language in the home was squandered. Now, students can cultivate their language knowledge and turn it into fluency in reading, writing and speaking. The seal can open doors by signaling to colleges and potential employers that the applicant’s language skills aren’t just conversational; they’re comprehensive.

An estimated 1 in 5 Americans speak a language other than English in their home. Even under current anti-immigration policies, that number is not likely to go down significantly. Businesses and schools need a way to communicate with non-English speakers.

Employers posted more than three times more jobs for Chinese speakers in 2015 than they had just five years earlier, according to a report by the New American Economy, a bipartisan coalition of mayors and business leaders that supports immigration reform. During the same time period, the number of U.S. job ads listing Spanish and Arabic as a desired skill increased by roughly 150 percent, according to the report.

Of the 627,000 bilingual positions posted throughout the country in 2015, roughly 70,000 were in Texas. While many employers favor bilingual applicants, there are certain businesses where it is crucial, including education, finance and health care.

Here in our city — a potpourri of cultures and languages — the Houston Independent School District offers opportunities for bilingualism through its 56 dual-language schools. In Texas’ 9th-grade classrooms, populated by an estimated 47,458 English language-learners, the seals not only represent a goal for students, but a celebration of their unique skills.

The seal represents great strides from a day when students were stigmatized for multilingualism. While more can be done to capitalize on the language skills of our state’s native and foreign-born populations, the recognition of today’s policymakers that multilingualism is an asset, not a hindrance, for students and workers is key to Texas’ ability to thrive in the global economy

For universities' sake, let's keep politics away

Kenneth Ashworth, Local Contributor | Austin American-Statesman
Monday, Sept. 19, 2011

Gov. John Connally created the Higher Education Coordinating Board more than four decades ago to try to curb the intrusion of politics into Texas colleges and universities.

Upon appointing the board members, he asked them not to accept his appointment if they could not take a statewide overview and rise above politics, put aside regional loyalties, and curb their desires to promote the interests of their alma maters. As with the university regents he appointed to boards, he asked them to exercise their best independent judgment in giving policy direction to the schools they governed and to keep politics out of education.

Connally's charge to his appointees fit the American model for university governance. In Europe, universities are governed by their faculties. But the United States decided early on that the corporate model should be used to govern our colleges and universities. Ever since, boards of regents or trustees have been the supreme authority on our campuses.

But the trustees and regents of the nation's best and greatest universities promptly learned that they needed to share governance with their faculty members. Those colleges whose boards ignored and overrode their faculties saw their best faculty leave to join other schools more tolerant and accepting of their ideas. On the most outstanding campuses there developed among regents, faculties and administrators a close partnership of authority, consultation, mutual guidance and exchange of ideas.

Effective regents and trustees quickly learned they were not "top-down" directors put in place to unilaterally issue orders about how their campuses were to be run. They learned to consult with faculty on policies and management. The more enlightened boards came to see that they had a role to defend as well as to explain the university. They needed to serve on the one hand as a moat to protect the citadel of learning and on the other as a bridge to help the community understand the role of the university and its contributions to society.

As Connally said, "I want you to be the spokesman for higher education in Texas — to lend encouragement to our institutions, to praise their progress, support their steps toward excellence, to applaud their imagination and initiative in imparting knowledge."

Recent efforts to redirect and "reform" Texas higher education imposed from the top down, precisely the kind of politics Connally wanted to curb, have been introduced to the campuses. And the historical lessons of how to make universities outstanding through shared governance have been ignored or even ridiculed. The politics being insinuated from the governor's office and from regents the governor appointed is damaging Texas universities.

National rankings of universities is based largely on reputation. And nothing lowers the standing of a university faster than word spreading across the country that a school is losing its independence and autonomy, that outside politics is controlling the institution, that the faculty has lost its role in participating in campus governance, that thought is best in lockstep, that dissent is denigrated. Institutional reputations in the making over scores of years can be undone quickly, and they can take decades to rebuild.

In Texas, it is undeniable that campus faculties recently have been unjustifiably demeaned as being out of touch, criticized as selfishly involved in unproductive research and uninterested in students, and ignored when new policies and directions are adopted and promoted for running the universities. Among all states, Texas has the reputation for the most egregious and frequent political interference in higher education. Current intrusions merely underscore the bad record the state bears in this regard.

In the 1920s, Gov. "Pa" Ferguson insisted that professors he objected to be fired or he would veto University of Texas appropriations. Then there was Gov. W. Lee O'Daniel's insistence that the regents fire professors whose views he objected to, ending in firing the president. And regents whom the governors appointed carried out their orders and did their dirty work. Then the heavy-handed control of UT-Austin under board chairman Frank Erwin followed during the troublesome 1960s and '70s. Each of these episodes extended over years and eroded progress being made to develop nationally recognized universities.

Now, once again, Texas higher education is being watched and discussed by faculties and administrators on campuses across the nation. How damaging will this latest round of political incursions be? How deep and lasting will the interference be? How will campus reputations be affected? How badly will faculty recruitment and retention be hurt? How long will it take to rebuild?

Regents would do well to heed Connally's advice to his appointees: "Leave politics to the politicians and administration to the administrators."

Ashworth is a former commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.