Jesse Jackson leads protest against Texas law professor who made racial remark

Jet, Oct 6, 1997

Rev. Jesse Jackson recently urged students at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) to boycott classes taught by a White law school professor who said Blacks and Mexican-Americans can't compete academically with Whites.

"We're not the problem; he is the problem," Jackson told a crowd of cheering students at a rally.

The professor, Lino Graglia, 67, made the comment at the announcement of a new organization, Students for Equal Opportunity, that supports a federal court ruling that banned race-based admissions policies in Texas.

Graglia said: "Blacks and Mexican-Americans are not academically competitive with Whites in selective institutions."

Graglia, a faculty adviser for the group, continued: 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."

Students, state lawmakers and others called for the ouster of Graglia, who teaches constitutional law. But school officials said they can't remove a tenured Professor simply for expressing his opinion.

In a statement issued after the controversy erupted, the professor said his words were "taken out of context and misunderstood." He said he stood by his opposition to affirmative-action programs, but said, "I realize now, especially after being called by some cordial Mexican-American and Black parents, that it was carelessly put, and I regret it."

Graglia's comment was "an insult to thousands of University of Texas minority students and alumni," said a statement signed by Donald Evans, chairman of the UT Board of Regents; William Cunningham, chancellor of the UT system; and Peter Flawn, interim president of UT.