UT prof's comments on race spur outrage

In the latest racial controversy to rock the University of Texas system, the Rev. Jesse Jackson joined more than 3,000 University of Texas at Austin students Wednesday to protest recent comments by UT-Austin Law Professor Lino Graglia, who said that African Americans and Latinos "are not academically competitive with whites" because of cultural differences. "Blacks and Mexicans are not academically competitive with whites in selective institutions. It is the result primarily of cultural effects. They have a culture that seems not to encourage achievement. Failure is not looked upon with disgrace," he said last week. Graglia's comments come at the end of a lengthy court case in which UT-Austin was ordered to end affirmative action in all admission decisions, beginning with this year's freshman class. During the largely peaceful demonstration, Jackson told the crowd that Graglia "has legal grounds for free speech, but no moral ground and no scientific ground for racist, fascist, inaccurate speech" and encouraged students to boycott the professor's constitutional law classes. UT-Austin administrators and members of its law school condemned Graglia's remarks, but the UT-Austin Daily Texan reported that the school will not take disciplinary action against him. Additionally, the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union came to Graglia's defense, and said efforts to condemn him threaten free speech. "The statements do not represent the position of the University of Austin at Texas, or my personal views. These statements were made by one individual, speaking for himself," interim UT President Peter Flawn said in a release, adding that he found Graglia's comments "abhorrent." And the UT-Austin law faculty issued a statement stressing that "while Professor Graglia has a right to hold and express his views, we feel an obligation to express our disagreement and our deep regret for the offense to our alumni, our students and prospective students." Graglia said making minority students feel unwelcome at UT-Austin "is certainly not my intent," and he would do all he could to "remove such a feeling." There were no arrests during the protest, and no problems were reported to the UT-Austin police force, according to a police spokesperson. In the aftermath of the affirmative action decision, overall minority representation throughout the UT system dropped this year, but the number of African Americans and Latinos matriculating into the school as part of its class of 2001 increased from the previous year. And the UT Law School -- Graglia's department -- admitted 85 percent fewer African Americans and 20 percent less Latinos than last year. Wednesday, one UT-Austin student said the rally could have drawn even more people had it been better publicized. The campus population totals nearly 50,000, said UT sophomore Danny Aerman, and many students there probably opposed Graglia's statements. Aerman also said he found Jackson's presence at the rally ironic, because the politician has faced accusations of anti-Semitism himself. He explained that Jackson has himself been "disliked for slurs" to many racial and ethnic groups, but said he hoped Jackson had changed his attitude towards such groups.

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