Justice Scalia Suggests That Maybe Black Students Should Just Attend Easier Schools

By Kara Brown  |  December 9, 2015 | 8:07pm
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Today we were reminded yet again that an out-and-out racist is allowed to sit on the highest court in the land. The oral arguments for the Supreme Court’s affirmative action case were heard today and included the devil incarnate Justice Antonin Scalia suggesting that black students are better off going to easier schools so as to better account for their tiny brains.

That last bit is an exaggeration, but barely. Scalia basically argued that affirmative action is bad because black students would fall behind at a school like the University of Texas, so it’s better for them to attend “less-advanced” schools. (H/t Talking Points Memo)

Dude really said that.

Like just about everything this evil old toad croaks out of his big dumb head, it’s almost too easy to rip apart this stupid-ass argument. Scalia, like many bigots, seems to believe that affirmative action policies necessarily lead to completely unqualified students waltzing into Princeton while white geniuses are given an encyclopedia set and told to figure it out.

However, as any informed, measured, compassionate human being knows, there are many different factors that not only determine a student’s success in college, but that also account for certain gaps between privileged students and those with fewer opportunities. Affirmative action is an attempt to address and fix those discrepancies.

Further, the fact that Scalia would try to suggest that black students aren’t qualified enough to attend the University of Texas when this entire case was brought forth by Abigail Fisher—a white girl who didn’t have the grades or test scores required for admission to the university—is a level of obtuseness that seems too great even for him.

There is also the fact that Scalia literally said that black students should go to easier schools, which the UT lawyer pointed out sounds way too much like “separate but equal,” which the United States decided should not be a thing anymore back in 1954 with a little case known as Brown vs. Board of Education.

It is unknown if anyone in the room asked Justice Scalia the even more pressing question of whether or not he himself is actually qualified to decide on the laws governing a nation that maybe shouldn’t be completely fucking racist.

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Image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty.

 
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