PrintJanuary 3, 2011
Which identical twin is black?
The peculiar conceit that the remedy to racism involves discriminating against certain citizens in favor of others grew in the United States in the 1960s, but has metastasized globally. Brazil, which is generally regarded as the most racially intermarried society on earth, has embraced the concept of late, and offers a case study in the absurdity of such politics.
Meet the da Cunha twins - Alex and Alan Teixeira, who are genetically identical twins, born of a single fertilized egg split in two.Australian journalist Andrew Bolt writes of the peculiar situation they face. Both twins applied to the University of Brasilia, which practices affirmative action for blacks. Alan was accepted as black, while Alex was rejected, because he was regarded as non-black. Bolt quotes Timothy Garton Ash, who made a documentary film on race in Brazil:
The university actually has a commission that determines race on the basis of photographs of the candidates, using phenotypes including hair, skin colour and facial features.
While this appears absurd, we are not far from similar dilemmas in the United States, where many boons are available to those who can claim membership in "victim" (in fact, preferred) minorities. Our own president, a 50-50 mix, is regarded as black. The outgoing Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, is also regarded as Hispanic despite lacking a Hispanic surname, and has a rather complex racial background:
His father, William Blaine Richardson Jr. (died in 1972), of New England Yankee and Mexican descent, was an American Citibank executive[6][7] who grew up in Boston, Massachusetts[6] and lived and worked in Mexico City.[7] His mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez[7] is the Mexican daughter of a Spanish father from Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain and a Mexican mother[6][8][9][10] and was his father'ssecretary.[7][9] Richardson's father was born in Nicaragua.[7] Just before Richardson was born, his father sent his mother to California to give birth because, as Richardson explained, "My father had a complex about not having been born in the United States.
Meanwhile, his Republican successor, Governor Susana Martinez, is not even regarded as Hispanic by the Associated Press, in reporting on her "historic" innauguration, because, apparently, Republicans cannot be racial minorities accoprding to the news wire's template.
It has always puzzled me why descendents of European Spanish immigrants are granted preferred status in the United States, when it is mainly Mexicans of indigenous stock who are regarded as impoverished and discriminated-against, but that is just one aspect of the race madness that consumes any society that engages in official discrimination, no matter what the motivations.
It has always puzzled me why descendents of European Spanish immigrants are granted preferred status in the United States, when it is mainly Mexicans of indigenous stock who are regarded as impoverished and discriminated-against, but that is just one aspect of the race madness that consumes any society that engages in official discrimination, no matter what the motivations.
Hat tip: John McMahon
