Justice Scalia Suggests Blacks Belong at "Slower" Colleges .........(Yes, he really said that.)

[gratuitous]

24. Scalia was quoting from one of the amicus briefs

And apparently, he agreed with the brief's argument, which Scalia characterized as "most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas." There is no context for this remark. It's not part of the record before the Court, it's an argument from an amicus brief, but Scalia pulled it out as if it had any meaning or bearing on the matter at hand.

Several questions immediately pose themselves for the intellectually honest observer: Assuming it's true that "most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas," why is that? Is it due, as Scalia characterized the statement, to "being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them," or might there be another reason? Also, what does it mean to create a category of "schools like the University of Texas"? What schools might be included in that category, and which ones would not? Would the schools that don't fit that category be "better" or "worse" than the University of Texas? The context of Scalia's remark indicates that he would consider the excluded schools to be worse.

But let's delve just a smidgen deeper into the "why" aspect: Is it necessarily and exclusively because black students aren't fast enough? Or is it an easily predictable product of historic racial exclusion? Or is it possible most black scientists come from schools inferior to the University of Texas because they were red-lined from the get-go from getting into one of the "better" schools. Perhaps today's black scientists and other black professionals don't have transcripts from schools like the University of Texas because those schools discriminated against them long ago during the application process right out of high school.

Sadly, Justice Scalia's remarks don't touch on that possibility at all. He simply makes the blanket statement and reaches his racist conclusion without admitting any other factor. It's like saying black athletes are inferior to white athletes, because a black man never led the Major Leagues in home runs from 1901 through 1945. There's another reason for that, but Scalia probably wouldn't recognize it.