'Mixed-ish' Episode 2: Bow's mom battles misconceptions of Affirmative Action as the show explores racial tensions in 1985
In the second episode of 'Mixed-ish', we see more of Bow's mom, Alicia working as a lawyer in her father-in-law's office.
She doesn't want her colleagues to think she got the job because of nepotism when Harrison tells her that they most likely think she got it because of Affirmative Action.
In the voiceover, the adult Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) says that this Affirmative Action benefited white women the most.
In countless articles and cases over the years, this has been brought up. In 2008, Abigail Fisher sued the University of Texas Austin, citing that the university's admission policies meant lesser qualified candidates of color were preferred over her.
For seven years, Fisher pursued the case and in 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the university's admission policies are in fact, constitutional. In 2017, news broke out that the Trump administration was seeking to challenge affirmative action.
According to a report by The New York Times, the Justice Department's civil rights division was seeking lawyers "interested in working for a new project on investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions."
In 2018, Trump administration officials rescinded Obama's policy guidelines that called on universities to consider race as a factor during admissions to diversify their student population.
Affirmative Action was introduced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and required government-funded entities to take measures that ensured "applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."
After facing pressure from the women's movement, President Lyndon B. Johnson added gender to that list as well.
But as Vox has written, contrary to the popular misconception that white people are passed over despite their qualifications, white women are the ones who have benefited most from it, as Bow says on 'Mixed-ish'.
Ironically, they are also the ones who are suing universities in the academic admissions process, according to Racism Review.
Even in 2019, women continue to fight for equal pay and rights in the workforce. At the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards, actress Michelle Williams called on the industry to listen to women, "especially women of color" to point out the possibilities of what could happen if they were heard.
One thing 'Mixed-ish' does well is that the same problems we have today were quite relevant in 1985 as well and to compare it in that perspective means that the viewers understand that the struggles have not gone away — we have just found newer ways of fighting against them.