Last week, the president announced his “My Brother’s Keeper” program. It will involve a combined effort of businesses, philanthropies and government to improve the prospects of “at risk” young men of color. The White House uses “of color” to include, in addition to blacks, Hispanics.
Now, it’s a good thing the president wants to address problems facing these young men (and it would be an even better thing if the program ends up addressing the key underlying problem, namely out-of-wedlock births). But the obvious question, is why its efforts should be limited to young men of certain racial and ethnic groups — indeed, why it should not also include young women.
It is almost always illegal for the government (and any private program that receives federal money) to discriminate on the basis of race and ethnicity. There is no “compelling” interest to do so here. It may be that a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos are at-risk, but many are not, and many whites, Asiansand others are. This is just another kind of “profiling.”
Nor will it do to say there are other programs available for those being excluded here, as one White House official is quoted as saying. This is just another separate-but-equal argument.
President Barack Obama has caved in to pressure from the left — the Congressional Black Caucus and others — to do something he was generally unwilling to do up to now: Endorse a federal program that is overtly limited to those of a particular color.
Constitutionality aside, it is divisive and unfair to have racially exclusive programs. And what kind of message is given to blacks and Latinos when they are told their young men are so problematic that they have to be singled out for special help so they don’t screw up?
A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, “Minority Male Students Face Challenge to Achieve at Community Colleges,” discussed various successes and failures in that arena. Particularly intriguing was this passage:
And instead of offering small, “boutique” programs for minority students that attract just a few dozen students, [one expert] said, colleges should extend programs like mandatory study-skills classes, learning communities, and tutoring to all students. Minority students will benefit disproportionately from such strategies, she said, but they won’t feel embarrassed by participating or feel that they’re being singled out as “at risk.”
What kind of a message is being sent by Obama and the federal government when one or two racial/ethnic groups are singled out for special treatment? Or should it be assumed instead that they are being singled out because “The System” is so stacked against them?
I’m not sure which message is worse. How difficult would it have been for the president to have designed the program so that it was open to at-risk youth of all colors — the way even the Chronicle of Higher Educationapparently acknowledges makes more sense?
