Perspective: Why Hiring Indians for Minority Jobs in the U.S. May Be Challenged
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that admiss-ion policies based on race at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a non-profit lobbying group based in suburban Washington DC., whose mission is to establish that “A student’s race and ethnicity should not be factors that either harm or help that student to gain admission to a competitive university.”
Conservative foundations, which oppose quotas and other benefits for minorities in all areas, make up the bulk of SFFA’s funding, according to The Harvard Crimson. Some Indian Americans, even those who were not accepted by the top-ranked colleges, are also among SFFA’s 20,000 members. Many Asian Americans, especially Indian Americans, find the minority quotas in college admissions “hypocritical in a country which values meritocracy above all else,” according to The Quint.
However, at the same time, there are Indian Americans who ignore meritocracy and implicitly claim to have suffered disadvantages, similar to Blacks, and use that as a justification to secure jobs and business contracts that are set aside for minorities.
The term “minority” in this context is not a statistical measure. It is applied to Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and other disadvantaged groups in the U.S. who have historically faced discrimination and are underrepresented in business ownership as well as in white-collar and management jobs.
By that measure, Indians in the U.S. are far from a disadvantaged minority. According to data from the 2020 U.S. Census: four out of five Indian Americans have a college degree; they have the highest per capita income of any community; hold a sizeable number of jobs in technology and Wall Street; and constitute about 10 per cent of doctors in America.
Also, none of the four million Indians in the U.S., except for Sikh farmers who emigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century and their descendants, suffered any historical discrimination and economic hardships.
Today, U.S. employers, from financial firms, large corporations, technology companies, consultancies and small businesses to universities, hospitals, government agencies, and others, proudly point to Indians on their staff as proof of their commitment towards meeting diversity goals, including for senior management and director positions.
As in the case of jobs, billions of dollars in business contracts are set aside annually for minority-owned small firms by federal and state government agencies, train and road transport services, airport and port operators, educational institutions, and several private companies, especially in government regulated businesses such as phone, gas and electric utilities, construction, banks, and financial services. Studies have shown that Indian Americans get a disproportionate share of minority business contracts.
In 1976, the Indian League of America (ILA) opposed Indians seeking minority status. In his book, Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classifications in America, David Bernstein writes that the ILA felt that the racial preferences for Indians, despite their high average economic and educational status, would lead to a backlash from Whites and others. The opponents may seek a restrictive quota for Indians, a ceiling instead of a floor, for preferential admissions to educational institutions, job placements, and securing government and private business contracts.
Indeed, as the ILA anticipated, conservative groups are seeking an end to diversity quotas for jobs and business contracts. “I see #SupremeCourt's #AffirmativeAction Decision as the First Step Towards Gaining True #Equality Under the Law,” one conservat-ive activist tweeted.
According to an article in The New York Times, over the past two years, a lawyer representing the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research has sent letters to American Airlines, McDonald’s, Novartis and other companies, challenging their DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies, which, the letter claimed, are “illegal.” The Center has also sued Starbucks over similar hiring policies.
It is not just conservative groups that will likely seek to end minority benefits for Indians. In 1989, Chinese American businesses persuaded the San Francisco city government to exclude Indians from a contract preference program for minorities. “The Chinese argued that the Indian Americans were recent immigrants who had no history of discrimination in the United States,” Bernstein writes. In 1991, a group of elected Black Democrats opposed Indians being included in the minority category in Ohio state.
Indians in the U.S. ought to find the minority label unsettling. It is in their self-interest to establish that they were chosen for jobs and business contracts based on merit. Otherwise, their achievements will always be doubted, even as they are burdened with the minority label.
Instead of claiming minority benefits, Indians could follow the example of Ankur Gopal, founder of Interapt: “My vision has always been to create 10,000 technology jobs." Gopal wanted to create these jobs in a region of Kentucky which was hurt economically by the closure of coal mines. As Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat from Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives, told the Indian Express, “What’s really important is for Indian Americans to recognize that not all people in the United States have enjoyed the same level of economic success or educational attainment, and it’s really up to us to help everyone else to succeed.”
In a video, comedian Akaash Singh pokes fun of fellow Indians in the U.S. seeking to qualify as minorities while Blacks have been mistreated and oppressed for centuries. Singh says, “I wanted to send a message to anybody who looks like me: You don’t deserve anything… Your parents… did not get here because they thought everybody owes them… They came over here because they worked, they were the best of the best…how we lost that so quickly disgusts me.”
This is an edited and shortened version of the original article published in the Global Indian Times. Reprinted with permission.
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