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MILLENNIUM SHOWDOWN FOR PUBLIC INTEREST LAW 21
did non-whites enjoy any semblance of rights or privilege. 164 At those times, the
contradiction between the experiences of non-whites and whites interrupted, distorted
an image of America that was essential to sustaining significant, national
political undertakings.
Because the exploration of America's problem with race had and continues to
have wide reaching economic, social, and political implications, no comprehensive,
systematic effort has been undertaken to address it. Few of the solutions
directed at racial inequality effected long term change in the fiber of the American
experience for non-whites. Like a drug resistant virus, protections promised
to citizens through the Fourteenth Amendment, Reconstruction, The New Deal,
and certain Civil Rights enactments of the 1960s and 1970s all met and continue
to engender resistance. This is true regardless of the source of the initiative's
origins, e.g., private and benevolent societies, legislative initiatives, and litigation
and resulting judicial decisions. 165
The sensibilities of judicial opinions like Croson 166 and the language of Milliken
167 operate only to shield the dominant class and contain Blacks. 168 These
cases suggest that positive or objective outcomes require indifference to or denial
of the discrimination that persists. 169 That is, unconscious racism is undetected,
unexposed as a prevalent factor in unequal treatment. 170 For as long as that
anomaly is permitted to exist, unequal access will persist.
It is illogical to believe that racial equality can be achieved without deliberate
action to bring it about. Racial discrimination thrives in any environment tolerant
of the notion that Blacks and other under-represented groups are inferior, worthy
of subordinate status in society. It is almost noble and certainly necessary to
"save deficient racial minorities from themselves while protecting a more capable
white from the inequality they experience.,,171 In short, if Blacks worked harder,
they would enjoy a better place in the society.l72 The dominant class is thus with-
164 Foner, supra note 13.
165 [d. The national Constitution enabled slavery. The slave population contributed to the electoral
vote allocated to states with slave populations. Fugitive slaves were returned to their owners.
Large segments of the northern black population fled to Canada to elude capture and relocation into
slavery. Reconstruction lasted ten years.
166 City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469 (1989).
167 Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267 (1977).
168 Foner, supra note 13.
169 [d. Claims of reverse discrimination to secure employment or admissions consideration for
whites is an abuse of an equal access strategy designed for use by minorities. Insistence on the use of
standardized tests to identify students of color most likely to be successful in higher education further
ensures maintenance of the status quo, white privilege. Even among public interest advocates there is
an inability to accept that the inclusion of non-whites will result in the exclusion of whites if a limited
number of people can access a particular privilege.
170 Flagg, supra note 135, at 988.
171 [d.
172 Powell & Spencer, supra note 3, at 1287.