University of Texas law professor Lino Graglia, a distinguished scholar, caused an uproar a few weeks ago at his school. In response to efforts to recruit minorities after the Hopwood case outlawed UT Law School's affirmative action program, Graglia said that blacks and Hispanics "are not academically competitive with whites." The school's Faculty of Color Caucus condemned him, state legislators called angry press conferences, a member of the university's board of regents called for his suspension, and presidential spokesman Mike McCurry said, "Those kind of remarks don't go down well with the president, period."
A fitting example of the old Washington adage which states that a gaffe occurs only when you tell the truth, not when you tell a lie. Papers released as part of the Hopwood case include numerous memos that show virtually the whole of the Texas faculty in agreement with Graglia. Take for example, the private March 10, 1989 memo from Mark Getgert, one of the professors involved in the admissions process. "It is impossible to make meaningful distinctions between Black and MA [Mexican-American] applicants without some sort of quota as a reference, for compared to our Anglo applicants, virtually none would get in," Gergen wrote. "In prior years I could rationalize what I did as admitting all who had a decent chance of succeeding in law school. Experience proves many of those I voted for could not compete."
Given that Gergen was one of the racial "good guys" actually administering Texas's affirmative action program, isn't it arresting how similar his language ("could not compete") is to Graglia's ("are not academically competitive")? Don't wait for an apology. Graglia, for his part, has sent a conciliatory letter to the school to try and quiet things down.