University of California-Berkeley Prof. Carlos Munoz Jr. told a Northwestern audience Monday that employers and admission officers can reduce racial inequality by striving for diversity through affirmative action programs.
Munoz, author of numerous books on politics, including “Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement,” spoke to about 40 students in Harris Hall.
“We preach equality, we don’t have it,” he said. “We preach unity, we don’t have it. We are not a united America, we are a divided America. That is due to race.”
In an event sponsored by Alianza and Lambda Theta Alpha, Munoz talked about both national policy and his experiences growing up as a child of poor Mexican immigrants. He said Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. taught him how to examine his own culture.
“I began to wonder, ‘What about us?’ and ‘What about my barrio?’ when I looked at my own community,” he said.
Munoz became the founding chairman of the country’s first Mexican-American studies department in the nation in 1968 at the California State University-Los Angeles.
Lucila Pulido, Lambda Theta Alpha president, said she hopes other students will be as inspired by Munoz as she has been.
“He’s inspirational, history in the making,” said Pulido, an Education senior. “I want people to understand the needs of minority students on a whole, not just in terms of university policy.”
Munoz said affirmative action is necessary because of the institutional discrimination in America. Opponents of affirmative action forget racism, and employers still tend to hire people of similar ethnicity, he said.
“Unemployment among people of color is still twice that of whites,” he said.
Vince Iturralde said he was glad a pro-affirmative action speaker came to campus.
“After centuries of discrimination, it’s about time we got back on an equal playing field,” said Iturralde, a Weinberg senior .
Munoz concluded his speech before a question-and-answer session with the poem “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes.
One student asked Munoz for his opinion regarding the University of Michigan’s affirmative lawsuits. Under the University of Michigan’s current undergraduate admission process, an applicant receives a certain number of points for various factors, including socio-economic background, which encompasses race. Munoz said the university’s process is fair because it does not use quotas and adds to the school’s diversity.
“I’m praying the judges will be conscious that ruling against Michigan will bring more division in America,” he said.
Some students attending the speech said they agree with NU’s admissions standards and efforts to increase diversity.
“Northwestern is doing a pretty good job,” said Itturalde. “There aren’t a lot of students of color here, but it’s progressing.”