The Supreme Court supposedly struck down affirmative action last week in higher education. And the cries went out that they’re coming after government contracts and employment at major corporations next. Obviously, no one remembers Croson vs Richmond where the doctrine of strict scrutiny was applied. You know the doctrine delineated in Korematsu versus the United States that declared race is a suspect classification and strict scrutiny must be applied when considering it. The Korematsu court was troubled by the government’s use of Korematsu’s Japanese heritage to discriminate against an American citizen. The court was so troubled it found against Korematsu even as strict scrutiny, the ultimate weapon against affirmative action was born.
Strict scrutiny and the equal protection clause in the 14th amendment, you know the amendment that gave darkies the right of citizenship, and I guess the freedom to do a buck and a wing as James Baldwin once so eloquently put it. It’s funny how one idea promulgated to protect Korematsu’s rights as an American citizen, and another designed to give a certain group of Americans a right they should have already have served as a double dose of bull manure last week which hurt the hearts of the sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters of segregation.
Or was that just a case of severe indigestion brought on by having to swallow the sh.. ah decision . Justice Roberts, a man who fancies himself intelligent, but to me exhibits the intellectual chops of Herschel Walker, wrote for the majority invoking strict scrutiny and saying Harvard’s application of race in the admissions process did not meet the standard, wait for it, laid out in Korematsu. I’m sure if Korematsu were alive he would enjoy seeing strict scrutiny so well applied.
I get very afraid whenever Justice Roberts pens a majority opinion. This after all is the man who called Dred Scott the worst decision in the history of the court. No matter how you feel about Dred if you read it you know it followed the constitution as it was written. It asserted the black man had no right the white man had to respect because, duh, we didn’t. The decision noted since we were not citizens we lacked standing in an American court. The worst decision in court history was Plessy V Ferguson. Justice Harlan in his legendary dissent noted two citizens one white, one black should be able to ride next to each other on a train.
Sounds suspiciously like what’s that thing, oh yeah, the equal protection clause. But the court ran over it with no hesitation and begat the era of separate but equal. Guess strict scrutiny need not apply- except when it’s used as a wedge to pit one long disadvantaged group against another. Of course, Korematsu was Japanese and everyone knows Japan and China are bitter rivals and the group who sued Harvard was primarily Chinese.
Guess they aren’t familiar with the bamboo ceiling. Or maybe they just think the darkies hopped off the toothpaste tube (see the Chinese toothpaste brand Darlie with the smiling dark man on the tube) and blocked their admissions to Harvard. Or maybe they took note of how Harlan disparaged the Chinese as some unassimilable other in his dissent from Plessy.
Oh well affirmative action has died and I suppose I should be sad or angry or something. Truth is I long ago fell out of love with this particular family member. Besides, look at Croson’s aftermath and you will realize old AA still probably has another trick up its sleeve. Disparity study anyone, are you listening Harvard, can you hear me UNC. After all Croson’s compelling reason must certainly apply. I’m too tired to go into the specifics. Or maybe I am tired of people putting their faith in the court of Dred Scott, Plessy, Korematsu, and whatever other odious decision you choose to add.
The south end of Atlanta lost a matriarch yesterday. She is who I choose to mourn. Mrs. Sherry Moore Wright, beloved sister of Judith Lyons founder of Solid Rock Academy, passed. And except to the parents and the kids who form the Solid Rock family few will well note or long remember her ascent to the heavens. Mrs. Lyons took her place amongst the angels several years ago and now her and Mrs. Moore-Wright are together again.
My family and a lot of others were lucky. We settled in the south end of Metro Atlanta where these amazing women built an exceptional institution. I can best explain how much parents loved and respected these two fine sisters by saying we paid for the right to entrust our children’s care and education to them for years. And we were well rewarded.
They taught our children to love The United States of America and their Blackness. Not an easy thing to do. They doled out corporal punishment with Freddie the ruler and when a local television station attempted to make a story out of it they were surprised at the ferocity at which their parents rose to the defense of these women who were taking of our babies. And they did one hell of a job.
You can have affirmative action. Give me a Black community built on Solid Rocks. And you can toss in the Carey Math Center for good measure. Unfamiliar with it? Good, because we didn’t want anyone to know about this third grade dropout who taught my eldest Algebra when he was seven or eight years old. Of course that wasn’t the biggest deal. He taught me how to solve for X in five minutes one afternoon. That was great teaching. Me and math do not get along.
My youngest son won a trophy for math excellence at The Carey Center almost as tall as he was when he was about seven or eight . We owe the the Careys for the math training they gave both our boys. And I still know the three secret handshakes you had to know to learn about his math camp. And a lot of other parents from back in the day feel the same. He did it for the children.
I tell people I grew up watching Black people win. And because of what I saw in my childhood I will always believe Black people will win again. But it’s going to take a course correction. I wish those two lovely ladies and Mr. Carey were around and able to do their thing. I’m sure they could teach us a better way.
Anyway gentle reader at least for this week I am gone.
RIP Mrs. Moore-Wright.