Racial Corporatism and the New American Dilemma

The old American dilemma was the contradiction between the racial caste system and the American liberal conscience. The Civil Rights Revolution of the Sixties abolished the old racial caste system in its legal aspects, but failed to completely alter the relation between racial groups in America in a way that satisfied the aspirations of the Peoples of Color. In response to this a system of racial corporatism has evolved that pursues a proportional racial division of rewards and privileges in American society, and that marches under the banner of "equality of result". The new American dilemma is the contradiction between this evolving system and the tenets of orthodox liberalism, that envisions American society in terms of individuals rather than racial groups. This essay explores these developments and the tensions between racial corporatism and the ideal of a "color-blind" constitution. Racial Corporatism and the New American Dilemma In 1944 when Gunnar Myrdal and his associates called attention to the "American Dilemma" they had in mind the tensions created in the American psyche between the authentic liberalism of the American spirit and the inferior caste status that was ascribed to African Americans. Although they did not use that term, they were, in fact, dealing with the contradictions caused by the pre-Civil Rights Era racial corporatism of American society. This was a set of laws, practices, rhetorics, and forms of consciousness that defined American society in terms of racial categories. The arrangement of racial corporatism was legally articulated in the "separate but equal" decision of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) of the Supreme Court. This legitimated a de facto segregation of the races which prevailed throughout the country, in employment, business, education, politics, housing, medical care etc., and which was surely separate, but hardly equal. It was the gross inequities of this old racial corporatism that troubled the liberal conscience of America, in which the principle of equality was enshrined, among other places, in the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburgh Address, and the "classless" ideal of American society that was so at variance with its European progenitors. It was this principle of equality that was celebrated by De Tocqueville, and it was this that troubled the American conscience as it contemplated the actual facts of the gross inequalities that prevailed between the races. This was the original "American Dilemma", which has now appeared in a new form, in response to a new version of racial corporatism that has made considerable progress in transforming American society in recent times. Affirmative Action and the New Racial Corporatism The present American Dilemma also involves a tension between liberalism and racial corporatism, that has brought with it a distinctively new pattern of racial tensions. This new racial corporatism is, in effect, a new version of the old Plessy-Ferguson formula of "separate but equal". The problem concerns the nature of this new racial corporatism, about which there is both deliberate obfuscation and ingenuous misunderstanding. The new racial politics in which these tensions are imbedded is played out in legislation, practices, rhetorics, and forms of consciousness, as were the politics of the old racial corporatism of Jim Crow and Plessy-Ferguson. De-Coding Affirmative Action The facts of the new racial corporatism become visible when the subject of Affirmative Action is carefully scrutinized. What becomes clear to begin with is that -despite the controversies about these policies -something called "Affirmative Action" has been widely accepted in American society, and this acceptance goes beyond the familiar proposition that Americans accept Affirmative Action, but reject "quotas". In fact, they accept both Affirmative Action and quotas. Aside from the patent contradiction that this implies, the paradoxical nature of this new racial corporatism is that its inner dynamics preclude the frank recognition that racial corporatism has indeed become a pervasive form of contemporary social organization. The Kennedy administration began a race-conscious affirmative action policy in 1961 which was incorporated in Executive Order 10925, which called for efforts to employ minorities in federal contract programs. This was formalized on a legislative basis by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This policy was continued by President Johnson in Executive Order 11246 in 1965. President Nixon elaborated these policies in the Philadelphia Plan that stipulated efforts to secure minority participation in projects funded by the federal government. As for the Reagan Administration, which was often castigated for its policy on civil rights: "By the standards used to measure civil rights enforcement, the Reagan Justice Department record was comparable to that of the Carter Administration's. The employment discrimination laws "Are here to stay," observed an equal employment opportunity consultant, who said that while the Justice Department wanted to balance equities between protected groups and non-protected groups, affirmative action would continue to be enforced." A measure of consensus behind Affirmative Action was revealed in the degree of support manifested for "minority set-asides" in the 1977 Public Works Employment Act. On the occasion of the passage of this legislation it was noted that there was: "...remarkably little debate. Discussion in the House of Representatives filled only six pages of the Congressional Record; that in the senate only two pages..." "...One can only marvel at the fact that the minority set-aside position was enacted into law without having a committee report and with only token opposition."