While many national news and cable networks continually ask and debate whether the U.S. justice system treats individuals differently based on race, any person of color and most freethinking people will profess that the question is ludicrous. The answer is YES.
And now that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suggested African-American students might perform better in a “slower-track school,” some progressive organizations, civil rights attorneys and black lawmakers are shocked and offended.
The Supreme Court recently heard arguments concerning a provocative case regarding admissions based on race at the University of Texas. Scalia questioned whether some minority students are hurt by the policy because it helped them gain admittance to schools where they might not be able to academically participate, he said.
Denoting an amicus brief Scalia said, “There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.”
Justice Scalia is certainly no stranger to controversy. I wonder how race and ethnicity influenced his guides on social interaction and his thoughts on social inequality and public policy.
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson said, “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.” Does Scalia remember that?
It appears the justice wants to revert to the 1896 court ruling in Plessy v Ferguson that established an era of “separate but equal” facilities and treatment for blacks and whites. In the area of education, it was felt that the children of former slaves would be better served if they attended their own schools and in their own communities. These images of schools for black students show that facilities were separate but never equal. Doesn’t Scalia remember learning this?
In the courtroom, Scalia noted, “One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas, they come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.”
In my opinion, Scalia’s views appear to be an extreme manifestation of his bias, bigotry, hatred and racism, and appear to epitomize the polarizing effects of stereotyping, racial prejudice and discrimination. What do you think?
Please watch the Bernie Hayes TV program Saturday night at 10 p.m. and Sunday evenings at 5:30 p.m. on KNLC-TV Ch. 24. I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net. Or on Twitter @berhay.
