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.
