Campus Rallies Against Law Professor Who says Blacks and Latinos Can't Compete

AUSTIN, Tex.
Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, about 10,000 students rallied last month to protest comments by a White University of Texas law-school professor who said African Americans and Hispanics cannot compete academically with Whites. University of Texas officials have criticized Professor Lino Graglia for his remarks, but say he will not be disciplined.

Graglia recently told a group of students that Blacks and Latinos cannot compete with Whites because their cultures do not look upon "failure with disgrace." Those comments were taped and broadcast by a local television news crew.

In a speech to what many described as among the largest crowds to attend a UT protest in decades, Jackson said, "(Graglia) may have the legal grounds for free speech, but no moral grounds and no scientific grounds for racist, fascist, inaccurate speech."

Jackson encouraged students to boycott the professor's classes, but stopped short of demanding that UT fire Graglia and suggested that would make the law professor a "legal martyr" to those who agree with him. Instead he called upon students to "isolate" Graglia as "a moral and social pariah."

A coalition of minority faculty members called The Faculty of Color Caucus said they want university administrators to investigate whether Mr. Graglia has "racially harassed" students in violation of the UT's anti-discrimination policy.

"We want to call attention to the fact that, while the First Amendment protects individual rights to free speech, racial harassment is not a First Amendment right," said Lisa Sanchez-Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Faculty of Color Caucus.

Sheila Walker, director of the Center for African and African American Studies at UT, noted that Graglia has also disparaged the importance of African American studies programs. The irony, she said, is that most African American studies professors, and the students taking their courses, are White.