ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the intersection of Latina/o education politics and racial fear-based politics cumulating in Fear of a Brown Planet. It argues that a combination of framing and color-blind ideology serve to politically demonize the programs, which leads to their tenuous state, despite demonstrated records of success. Even the naming of the organizations opposing affirmative action is an exercise in both misinformation and political framing. Affirmative action was never meant to be a panacea for racial equity in higher education. Rather, it was a compromise between Left and Right in the 1960s that has some demonstrated impacts in ameliorating and compensating for racial disparities in higher education access. The public discourse surrounding the DREAM act has not been as thoroughly analyzed as affirmative action or bilingual education as it has not undergone the same political dismantling as the previously discussed programs.
