Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Thursday blasted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for uttering what he called “racist ideas” from the bench of the nation’s highest court.
Scalia on Wednesday suggested it’s possible that some black students would benefit from being at a “slower-track school” instead of the University of Texas’ flagship campus in Austin, where Scalia said some of those students are “being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.” Scalia made the comment while the court heard arguments in an affirmative action case.
“The idea that African-American students are somehow inherently intellectually inferior from other students is despicable,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “It’s a throwback … to a time that America left behind a half a century ago.”
The Nevada senator said the idea that black students should be pushed out of top universities into lesser schools is “unacceptable.”
“That Justice Scalia could raise such an uninformed idea shows just how out of touch he is with the values of this nation,” Reid said. “It goes without saying that an African-American student has the same potential to succeed in an academically challenging environment as any other student.”
(AP)
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8 Responses
Not knowing the context in which Scalia made his remark I have no way of knowing whether it was racist or not. I will say that Mr. Reid appears to be spending his last little-over-a-year in office to incite hatred against anyone with whom he disagrees.
Aaron tuvia,
He was quoting someone, and everyone is taking it out of context
Context is simple. He is discussing affirmative action. People whose grades don’t warrent their being in that class. The reason that Reid doesn’t understand this basic concept and thinks it’s racist is because he is a rabid liberal.
This comes from the AP. This shows how the news in this country is liberal! Why don’t they post the whole court case? Not just some libs commentary, like H. Reid!
I agree that what Scalia said came out sounding a bit racist, but I believe his point was that policies which help students get into top tier schools can detrimental to their success. Theoretically, that point is true regardless of the race of the students, but practically it only applies to black students because affirmative action only applies to them.
#3 BaalSechel,
That isn’t the kind of affirmative action plan Scalia was blasting. He is saying that even students from mostly black high schools with grades every bit as good as students from mostly white high schools should be denied admission to the University of Texas.
Essentially this case is about getting white students with poor grades into the University of Texas ahead of black students with good grades.
Sorry, but Reid is right and Scalia is wrong.
Actually Scalia was referring to some recently published studies, that were published in respectable journals and widely discussed. It appears Reid doesn’t worry about news and focuses on politically correct ranting unimpaired by facts.
The study showed that students from lousy high schools do poorly in college. Texas is trying to address that by recruiting black students who did well in good high schools, but not in the top percent (which is the normal criterion for admission to its top university).
harry reid what a hypocrite. reid & bill clinton after obama got elected were overheard talking and reid tells clinton if he were not the president he(obama) would be seving our drinks. i think whoever knocked him up side the head and gave him a black eye last year probably knocked the last screw out