Diversity at Boalt Hall

I am a 1975 graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law. I suppose you might say I was one of those minority students who benefited from what the current Office of Civil Rights has decried as an invalid admissions policy because I am African-American.

I happen to be proud of the diversity of my law school. My class at Boalt was more than 50% women and approximately 30% minority, equally composed of Chicanos, African-Americans and Asians. At graduation, the class president was a black woman, the school president was a black man, the commencement speakers were Richard Alatorre and Willie Brown of the California Assembly, and we were entertained by a Mariachi band. Everyone loved it!

But my class graduated before Allan Bakke won his suit against the regents of the University of California for violation of his rights as a white man. Now, other white males are threatening to sue Berkeley for denial of admission to the law school. Somehow, I still don’t think that a class of 39% minority students at Boalt violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Particularly when not enough minority lawyers are on the Los Angeles Superior Court or in the U.S. Senate (where there are none), to say nothing of large law firms.

Can we believe Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach), who asserts Boalt’s admissions practices have created a “racist society”? Is this but another “Willie Horton” issue for George Bush? Come on, Mr. President, your nominee Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court. He too was an “affirmative action baby” who attended Yale as part of a similar program for black students. Isn’t it funny that the same Republicans applauding the Civil Rights Office action against Berkeley also supported Thomas as the best qualified candidate?

THOMASINA M. REED

Los Angeles