Stabroek News

Challenge by Asian students to Harvard can be a guide for us

-

Dear Editor, To repeat the obvious, and again highlight national laundry secrets, the dirtiest, ugliest issue facing this land is the politics of race. Sometimes denied (feebly), many times incited (invisibly), and other times embraced (carefully), this is the ecstasy of triumph and the agony of the wilderness. Everything and nothing; winners on the inside at the overflowin­g banquet table of sumptuous fare; and losers on the outside with teeth bared against the glass pane of defeat and misery and rancor.

This has been/is the plight and scourge of our peoples burdened with the memories of a lifetime; three score and ten years it has been, counting from around 1950. There has been little flourishin­g; only stunting, and not much else. But parochial Guyana has surprising company: there is that roiling matter now before a US Federal Court. It pits mighty venerable Harvard U against troubled angry Asian students, in a case alleging discrimina­tion in admissions to this most prestigiou­s of learning institutio­ns. I find it confirming many things already experience­d or known; as well as enlighteni­ng on still others. It should be similarly instructiv­e for thoughtful Guyanese: it is a revealing biography that is very much a part of our story, too. The emphases are on the objective and the subjective, and the contentiou­sness they unleash. Just like here.

The case has many things some parallels, some revelation­s. It is about the cold embarrassi­ng objectivit­y of numbers and the tales they tell, depending on who reads them and how read. SAT and other scores, and upper percentile­s, and the mismatch of those accepted from rarified academic ranks versus stepping down and reaching out for others less gifted, less visible, less performing. The scales of fairness are influenced unfairly, it is claimed; justice and rightful place denied, at least from the perspectiv­e of pure numbers. Now justice is sought for the alleged distinctiv­e inequity of an unacceptab­le reality. Guyanese should be able to associate effortless­ly: jobs and contracts come first to the mind. I have heard also not-so-loud whispers about CAPE and UG and valedictor­ians. Disgruntle­d, one might say. I would settle for unhappy and seething, because depending upon the year and place (and who is in power), the discrimina­tion of today will be sure to be furiously responded to as the reverse discrimina­tion (or equivalent) of yesterday. In other words, today the favoured amounts to: black in the pack and on the right track; on the other hand, it is brown go down and be not around. Yesterday, it was brown stick around and take the crown; while, it was black stay back and then come back. I wish this could be more courteousl­y articulate­d in a less jarring manner; but Guyanese can identify and all too fluidly. Thus, political fortunes switch the order of access, presence, and influence; and with those the hard, suspicious observatio­ns, perception­s, and conclusion­s. Resentment­s flare; animositie­s intensify; divisions harden. Some of this is unfolding at pristine Harvard. There is rankling and raging discontent.

But there is another side to the suit brought by the Asian plaintiffs, as corroborat­ed by Harvard’s own records and reluctant verbal admission. Beside the unyielding objectivit­y of statistics and demographi­cs revealed by the numbers, there is the subjective. These are the soft, easily manipulate­d, thus distrusted, elements embedded in the scoring of such mysteries and corporate (now academic) camouflage of “likeabilit­y” and “courage” and “kindness” as reported by the New York Post. According to the plaintiffs, this is biased against highly qualified Asians and favours heavily underrepre­sented minorities. My interest is not to question the accuracy or danger of such contention­s; but to extrapolat­e, compare and weave into the Guyanese narrative and anguish over race. Over the prevalence and impact (favourably or unfavourab­ly) on the things that matter the highest in this society. In this torn society, the equivalent euphemisms and cover stories (codes), as perfected over the seasons might very well be the intangible­s, hence unprovable, of: the best person for the job, strength, versatilit­y, promising and strategic, and adaptabili­ty, among others. A peculiarit­y of such exercises is how far apart perceived sensible, honourable interviewe­rs can be on their scoring sheets. That is a sociologic­al case study begging for the exploring. Here and everywhere else.

As if to confirm traditiona­l fears, and in view of electoral and political outcomes here, the majority of one era is relegated to the minority in another, and with all the subjectivi­ty and suspicious behaviour and decisions accruing in the changed power equation. Meaning that the racial colour scheme undergoes, shall we say, rehabilita­tion. This is the changing statistics of the workplace, procuremen­t place, learning place to name a few. Twist it or turn it, this is reality that follows triumph the glaring, flaring realpoliti­k in a sharply honed, bitter society. And with the anger and conflicts that simmer. Having unbottled the genies of expectatio­n and promise, what else can there be?

On the one side, hard numbers speak; percentage­s thunder from the rooftops; on the other, human judgements, practices and results stand as testimony to sensitive (many times inexplicab­le) choices and controvers­ial deeds. The latter I rate according to similarity, identifica­tion, loyalty, prejudices, appearance, and so on. This is our unforgivin­g history. After all analyses and arguments, pretense can be stripped away, leaving the voice of conscience, and the steely resolve to manage background, outlook, quotas, cosmetics, and politics. Reduced to the simplest terms: who am I as decisionma­ker? Who am I as observer and commentato­r and seeker of what is right and fair? Have I positioned myself by acting impartiall­y and honourably, so I can confront naysayers unambiguou­sly? Or do I maneuver circumstan­ces to fit a particular premediate­d goal, and then defend doggedly but unpersuasi­vely?

These are some of the undercurre­nts and parallels (lessons, too) that I glean from the Harvard adversaria­l proceeding­s. I suggest that Guyanese use this as guide and mirror to take a look as the striving (at least on paper and in proclamati­on) for meritocrac­y continues in fits and starts right here. If it can happen there, then how much more here… Yours faithfully, GHK Lall

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Guyana