Albequerque, N.M.
A gathering here last month of organizations
representing Latino law students agreed to form a national organization
to support a pro-affirmative action march, scheduled for January in San
Francisco, being organized by legal educators.
The conference, attended by representatives of nearly twenty law
schools — from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., to the
University of Texas (UT) and the University of California (UC) — was
held in a near crisis atmosphere.
Margaret Montoya, a professor at the University of New Mexico (UNM)
said that the movement against affirmative action is an effort to keep
universities White and to maintain the status quo in the legal
profession.
“Affirmative action is an effort to remedy a wrong — an effort to dismantle White supremacy,” she said.
However, citing the Nixon White House as the first administration
to actually implement it on a large scale, Montoya added, “Affirmative
action was never intended to bring about real change…. The power
centers have not been meaningfully integrated.”
Montoya is a member of the Society of American Legal Teachers
(SALT). She said the organization has decided to counter the
anti-affirmative action movement through various methods.
