Appearing as a guest on the 6:00 p.m. hour of Wednesday's MSNBC Live, Dorian Warren of the Roosevelt Institute -- a recurring MSNBC guest -- suggested that conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia believes blacks are "genetically inferior in terms of their brain power" as he gave his reactions to some of Justice Scalia's recent arguments against affirmative action in higher education admissions.
Dorian also suggested that the conservative justice wants to return to "a pre-Brown V. Board of Education, Separate-but-Equal rationale for higher education."
MSNBC host Craig Melvin introduced the segment near the end of the show:
A sitting Supreme Court Justice is drawing serious criticism tonight for a comment that he made about African-Americans during arguments today. The High Court was hearing the case of Abigail Fisher, who is a woman who says she was denied admission to the University of Texas because she's white. And as the justices listened to the oral arguments, Justice Antonin Scalia said this in part:
Melvin then read from Justice Scalia's statement:
There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a less, a slower track school where they do well.
Dorian hinted at a desire to return to racial segregation as he began his analysis:
Two things, Craig. One is, you could read what Justice Scalia said as wanting to go back to a pre-Brown V. Board of Education, Separate-but-Equal rationale for higher education. Meaning we should let black students attend black colleges or lesser colleges in some way because they clearly can't make it at these highly selective schools.
After some discussion arguing that the merit of such thinking is wrong, Melvin brought up another quote from Justice Scalia toward the end of the segment:
Scalia also said this. One of the briefs pointed out that "most of the black [scientists] in this country don't need to come from the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they're being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them."
The MSNBC host asked: "Is that the kind of thing that you would expect to hear inside the walls of the High Court?"
Dorian snidely suggested racism by Justice Scalia as he responded: "If you have justices who believe that black people are genetically inferior, in terms of their brain power, yes."
Melvin made no pushback as he simply wrapped up the segment: "We'll leave it there. The Roosevelt Institute's Dorian Warren, Yale's finest, you should know."
Below is a complete transcript of the segment from the Wednesday, December 9, MSNBC Live:
6:56 p.m.
CRAIG MELVIN, MSNBC HOST: A sitting Supreme Court Justice is drawing serious criticism tonight for a comment that he made about African-Americans during arguments today. The High Court was hearing the case of Abigail Fisher, who is a woman who says she was denied admission to the University of Texas because she's white. And as the justices listened to the oral arguments, Justice Antonin Scalia said this in part:
"There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a less, a slower track school where they do well."
We invited Dorian Warren, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, to join us for this discussion. We should note also for the purposes of this conversation at least, he also graduated from Yale as well, an Ivy League institution. ...Just your initial reaction to what we both read this afternoon?
DORIAN WARREN, THE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE: Two things, Craig. One is, you could read what Justice Scalia said as wanting to go back to a pre-Brown V. Board of Education, Separate-but-Equal rationale for higher education. Meaning we should let black students attend black colleges or lesser colleges in some way because they clearly can't make it at these highly selective schools.
Secondly, the social science -- that's an opinion, by the way, that he drew from some amicus briefs that is not based in really rigorous social science because really social science studies that have really looked at this question -- how do black and Latino students perform at highly selective institutions? -- they find that they actually perform even better at highly selective institutions relative to lesser schools, as Justice Scalia would say.
MELVIN: Because they've had to perform at a higher level to get into those schools their entire lives.
WARREN: Absolutely.
MELVIN: What we did read there, though, I felt like, was a variation of other arguments that we've heard from conservative justices especially on the Supreme Court with regards to this idea that, you know, "We're really helping black people, they don't really want to go, they don't need to be in these schools because we know what's best, you know, we're the Supreme Court."
WARREN: It's a pernicious argument that's been floating in circles for a long time now that affirmative action hurts minority students. And there's never been any rigorous evidence presented to suggest that. And, in fact, if you look at the National Science Foundation data on where top scientists come from, top black scientists come from, sure, maybe numbers one through five are historically black colleges and universities. But when you look at the entire list, the vast majority of black scientists, this is fact, against what Justice Scalia said, the vast majority come from highly selective institutions -- Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, the list goes on -- so when you add up all the numbers and not cherry pick something that fits your prevailing world view, the evidence is, in terms of Justice Scalia, it is not on his side. But this is the common argument: "Oh, affirmative action actually hurts the people you're trying to help, so we need to do away with it."
MELVIN: Scalia also said this. One of the briefs pointed out that "most of the black [scientists] in this country don't need to come from the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they're being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them."
Is that the kind of thing that you would expect to hear inside the walls of the High Court?
WARREN: If you have justices who believe that black people are genetically inferior, in terms of their brain power, yes.
MELVIN: We'll leave it there. The Roosevelt Institute's Dorian Warren, Yale's finest, you should know.
