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The 1970 census racial categories included: Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian American, Japanese, Negro or Black, other, White, Hispanic origin of any race, and White, not of Hispanic origin. Mexicans were counted as white from 1930 until 1970, when they re-entered the census as Hispanic origin. It was a deliberate effort to count Hispanics without treating them as a race. They were to be considered a cultural/linguistic group. Using this reasoning, Hispanics can have a racial identification separate from their ethnicity. At the time, the census expected Hispanics to also select from the primary racial categories. Historically, the census counted and classified by race and national origin. Now the taxonomy included ethnicity.
In 1972, Equal Employment Opportunity Act was passed, laying the groundwork for affirmative action.
In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in Bakke v. Univ. of California that the university could not use fixed quotas in making admissions decisions, in the first of what would be many challenges to affirmative action.
In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled in Fullilove v. Klutznick that modest quotas were reasonable, upholding a federal law that 15 percent of public works funds be set-aside for qualified minority contractors.
The 1980 census racial categories included Aleut, Asian Indian, Black or Negro, Chinese, Filipino, Eskimo, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Indian American, Japanese, Korean, other, Samoan, Vietnamese, White, Hispanic origin of any race, and White, not of Hispanic origin. In the 1980 census, being of Hispanic origin was treated in the census as an ethnic, not a racial distinction because Hispanics can be Asian, Black, Native Indian, and White. The census still recognized only four races, not five. But Hispanics seem to suggest otherwise. The census form has had an open-ended "other race" option, and since 1980, a large number of Hispanics—42 percent in 2000—have used that option to declare their race as Hispanic, thereby creating a "brown" category and at least implicitly challenging the government's position that Hispanic was an ethnic not racial descriptor.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was passed in order to stop illegal immigration from Mexico, which was seen as a threat to the U.S. economy.
In 1986, in Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that the school board's policy of protecting minority teachers by laying off non-minority teachers regardless of seniority was unconstitutional, citing the burden imposed on innocent parties.
In 2003, two lawsuits involving the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions policy reached the U.S. Supreme Court Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. In the first case, the court upheld the law school's admissions policy citing "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body," while in the second it ruled against the university's undergraduate admissions policy, which relied on a more formulaic point system.
Next—Government:
NAFTA, the Patriot Act and the New Immigration Backlash
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