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06/25/2003 Archived Entry: "Dowd’s Merit"

HOW CLARENCE GOT HIS GROOVE: Robert Alt dismantles a Maureen Dowd column arguing that Justice Clarence Thomas, who thumbs-downed affirmative action, likely got into law school because of affirmative action. Says Alt, Maureen clearly has a problem with racial stereotypes.

First, Dowd asserts that Thomas got into Yale Law School and picked for the Supreme Court thanks to his race. Yet what proof does she offer for this? Are all Black admittees to Yale Law School there because of their race? No. In fact, this is one of Thomas’s key points: that affirmative action leads to these kind of incorrect assumptions. Yet Dowd doesn’t entertain for a moment that Thomas could have been admitted for any reason other than skin color. Ah, more proof of the benefits of affirmative action.

Read on.