North Texans praise, criticize Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Michael Williams says he felt vindicated after reading the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling rejecting affirmative action for college campus admissions.
"I was right," he said. "Maybe I was 30 years too early, but I was right."
Before he served as the head of the Texas Education Agency for former Governor Rick Perry, Williams was the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Education Department for President George H.W. Bush.
In December 1990, Williams said he created a stir when he announced that the government considered scholarships based solely on race as illegal.
"We should not use race to keep on burdens on some people and benefits to other people based upon their bloodlines," he continued. "I believed that then, I believe that today."
But U.S. Representative Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) disagreed and sharply criticized the majority of Justices behind the ruling.
"Education, economic progress in this country for Black Americans has just been rolled back by this court," he said. "I think that it's sad and I think that it's really unfortunate."
Going forward, Veasey said he worries the ruling will have a damaging impact.
"The message that was sent by the Supreme Court and the six justices today is, if you are Black or Brown, do not—unless you can throw a football, or run or shoot a basketball really well—do not apply," Veasey stated.
But Williams said colleges and universities can still consider an applicant's family history, economic background and zip code when trying to create a diverse campus.
"Now, America can get to its real work," he said. "America's real work is getting young people prepared to get the learning that they need and achieve the merits that they can."
On the other hand, Veasey said: "If we don't get to the root cause of a lot of this—which includes taking a look, historically, about how we got to the place that we are right now—then it's not going to matter."
Congressman Veasey pointed to the University of Texas at Austin. He praised the school's outreach efforts but said even so, only 5% of the student body is African-American.
Williams said the U.S. needs to do a better job educating Black and Brown students, starting at a very young age.