Saxakali Magazine 3:1 Break Poverty, Racism and Sexism Through Quotas


	SAXAKALI Magazine
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There are persistent discriminations based on race, ethnicity, caste, culture, gender and class in many societies. It is timely to re-examine quota systems. First of all, it needs to be acknowledged that in all countries, a system of preference already exist, formally and/or informally.

The interests of any dominant group is primarily in maintainence of privilege. In our present human (dis)order, privileges can be accumulated over generations by inheritance, property rights, patronage and so on. The issue of maintaince of privilege becomes a highly contested one, and over time, the gap between rich and poor widens. Yet, this leads to increasing insecurity among a capitalist class running out of resources and faced with increasing global competition in the late 20th century.

Strategy for elite control of the masses vary along a spectrum, from consensual to coercive measures. Sexism, ethnocentrism, casteism and homophobia, are parts of a divide and rule strategy used to separate an 80% working class - from organizing for their equal share of the pie. These various ideologies are more consensual than coercive, in that they allow for voluntary compliance, primarily by men and people from certain races/castes. When strategies fail to obtain consensus or polarize oppresed masses, more coercive measures are used - imprisonment, murder and genocide.

Class privilege is also used to buy over the 20% middle class, who obtain access to good jobs, stock options, health benefits, pensions, and so on. The issue then, is not how to create an ‘equal’ society by outlawing all forms of preferences and quotas for certain underprivileged groups, but, more importantly, how to dismantle hundreds and thousands of years of inequality, racism, sexism and homophobia.

In the usa, white males are priviledged above all other groups in government administration and services, the armed forces, corporations and businesses, laws and enforcement, school and curriculum. The myth of a race, gender and class blind society based on ‘individual merit’ alone is just that, a myth. Even if society was ‘meritocratic’ in terms of employment, business loans, etc., differential access to education will result in some groups remaining locked out of the ‘good life,’ regardless of ability or ‘merit.’

Dr. Ambedkar, the untouchable leader who was the chief framer of india’s constitution, recognized the thousands of years of caste and class oppression untouchables or dalits face (see Saxakali's South Asian Web). Ambedkar constitutionally instituted an economic quota system through the reservation of a percentage of government jobs for dalits. During the 1960s, when african american protests escalated against race and class oppression, the usa instituted affirmative action programs. Among other rights, these programs allowed people of color to legally migrate to the usa for the first time.

Now, there is an emense conservative backlash by priviledged groups in india and the usa. Charges of ‘reverse discrimination’ have been used to contest the preferential transfer of social benefits to members of oppressed minority communities. This is in clear contradiction to the obligations of both countries as signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which specifically argues against the reverse discrimination notion (Article 1[4]).

Proposition 209 in california is an example of reverse discrimination and therefore, illegal according to international law. Yet it was recently passed by priviledged voters in a state that has a huge and rapidly growing oppressed population, but who nevertheless are largely undocumented and not registered to vote. As the oppresed mexican american minority community increase in numbers, there is a movement to further restrict access of jobs and resources for white americans only.

Racism is part of control by consensus in the usa. For example, in ‘progressive’ San Fransisco, asian americans constitute 20% of the registered contractors in the city for some time now, yet they receive no more than 1% of city contracts. This is the result of affirmative action being on the books for thirty years. Supporters of Prop-209 seek to eliminate even this token compliance by city and state authorities.

With total control of the media, the california elite obtained consensus for their racist strategy even from oppressed communities of color. Not surprisingly, one out of every four person who voted for Prop-209 came from a minority community. These were people who clearly benefited from the same programs they voted to cut!

Merit in not merely an individual attribute, but one which is socially derived and even determined. Merit is appropriated by the elite sections that exploit both material and cultural surplus. What we call merit in an elitist society is a combination of endowments of birth and environmental privileges. Since everyone is not equal in terms of individual merit, then having ‘unequals’ run the same race fails to recognize and acknowledge the underlying elements of privilege. It should be clear why no one is opposed to a quota system for minimum wage jobs.

It has been charged that quotas benefits only the prosperous among target groups. This has been the case in the usa where white women are the main beneficiaries of affirmative action, and african american women obtain the least benefit. In india and the usa, a section of minority communities have achieved some economic gains. This small privileged elite serve to monopolize the lion share of benefits, while the most disadvantaged minority groups are the last served. Minority elites have ceased to identify with the community from which they sprung, often disavow it. Another argument made by some leaders of minority communities is that the system permanently keeps them out of control of the state.

While these critiques are generally true, it should be understood that these problems are not the fault of the quota system, per se. It is basically the fault of the social system in which they are implemented. These very problems reveal the processes which require a quota system in the first place. The persistence of racism, sexism and class bias generates a minority elite who no longer benefit by identifying with their oppressed communities. Quotas are needed more for social than purely economic reasons.

There is need for a more, not less, comprehensive quota system, one that is gender and class based, in addition to ethnic criteria. Further, unless reservation is made for education, job quotas cannot be utilized. However, priviledge is only distributed to the masses as a result of protest.