Race an issue with Alito supporters

I fear the fight is over. Despite valiance and heroics, the floodgates have been opened and… I fear the fight is over. Despite valiance and heroics, the floodgates have been opened and the invasion is irreversible. I’m afraid that minorities and women have been allowed to infest institutions of higher learning.

The champions against impurity have failed in their quest; by losing their battle they forfeit their rightful glory. However, of the many privileged white males who bravely defended their alma maters from the inevitable decline that follows admitting a mongrel student body, one name does stand out. His name stands out not because of his particular works in this movement, but because he is poised to occupy a seat of great power.

Samuel Alito has been nominated to become the next Supreme Court Justice, replacing a retiring Sandra Day O’Connor. Although he is more qualified than the last Bush nominee, he is unfit for the high court for a number of reasons. Most people are concerned primarily with the fate of Roe v. Wade if Alito is the tiebreaker. However, what I think is far more troubling is his apparently racist professional and personal past.

Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP, shares my concern, saying in a Jan. 6 press release, “[Alito] has never written a majority decision for the Third Circuit in favor of an African-American plaintiff on the merits of a claim of race discrimination.” That is, while on the third Circuit Court of Appeals he has never ruled to protect an African-American from discrimination despite a majority of justices in favor of protection.

Despite a troubling track record, Alito has garnered the support of a few black leaders. Bishop Wellington Boone, of Fellowship of International Churches, is one such leader. In his speech on Jan. 8, Boone called for African-Americans to support Alito, claiming that Alito would never curtail civil rights. Well, Bishop Boone, he’s already tried.

In the 1997 case of Bray vs. Marriott Hotels, an African-American was passed over for a promotion by a far less qualified white individual. Alito’s dissenting opinion argues that an employer’s racism is immaterial if he believes he has hired the “best” candidate – no matter how racism colors that decision. The majority opinion explained that such a view favors potentially racist bosses by “immuniz[ing] an employer from the reach of Title VII” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and thus severely restricting the civil rights of employees.

You could argue that this ruling doesn’t prove Alito is a racist, but his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton strengthens the argument that he is. CAP was a short-lived organization whose goal was to combat the acceptance of minority and female students to Princeton. This organization prosecuted this war on diversity by slanderous publications and mailings to parents and businesses to undermine efforts facilitating diversity. Their discourse was as despicable as their mission, but instead of displaying embarrassment at such shameful membership, Alito made sure of highlighting it. When applying for promotion in the Reagan administration in 1985, he noted his membership as an example of his “philosophical commitment” to the policies of the administration.

In light of this philosophical affirmation of CAP, it boggles my mind that anyone could support this nominee for the Supreme Court, let alone any minority. That any African-American leader supports conservative judges when in our country’s history conservative courts have never done anything for any minority group other than the wealthy is ridiculous.

To be clear, I don’t accuse all conservatives of being racist. However, I do accuse all minority conservatives of being dangerous idiots. Those who are in this deplorable category should ask themselves a simple question: If conservatives advocate and protect racial equality, why do old racists vote Republican?

Arun Butcher will be hilarious in his next column. Tell him jokes at arunbutcher@yahoo.com.