Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

324 // THEODORE M. SHAW
charge made by the Supreme Court in 1883 in The Civil Rights Cases, that African
Americans were seeking a privileged status as "a special favorite of the laws," is
once again in vogue, and a period eerily reminiscent of the post-Reconstruction
era has been ushered in, with racial recidivism in the courts and in the social
order. In the mind's eye of many African Americans, 1996 looks very much like
1896. 4 In a series of rulings beginning in 1993, the Supreme Court has allowed
white voters, in southern states with long histories of racial discrimination and
continued exclusion of minorities from full participation in the political process,
to attack congressional districts drawn pursuant to the Voting Rights Act. The
Court has also made it more difficult to maintain federal minority contracting
affirmative action programs; federal affirmative action is now subject to strict
scrutiny, 5 the most exacting standard of judicial review, which has been applied
to local and state affirmative action programs since 1 989. 6 Purporting to follow
the themes voiced by the Supreme Court in the voting rights and minority contracting
cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has declared race
based affirmative action in university admissions to be unconstitutional. In 1978,
in Board of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court ruled
that while quotas are unconstitutional, race can be one factor among others con-
sidered by admissions offices in pursuit of intellectual diversity, as long as educational
institutions considered all applicants for all positions regardless of race.
Bakke has provided the formulation on which colleges, universities, and graduate
and professional schools throughout the nation have admitted minority students
even though their test scores or GPA's may be lower than some white students
who are admitted. In Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996), the Fifth Circuit has said
that Bakke is no longer good law, if it ever was, and that race can never be taken
into consideration in admissions without a specific finding of racial discrimination.
The Supreme Court declined to review Hopwood?
The stakes for African Americans are extremely high. Employment opportunities,
political representation, economic development and educational opportunities
ate all at risk. If the current era represents "the second Redemption", i.e.,
an end to expanding opportunities brought about by the Civil Rights Movement,
more difficult days are ahead for African Americans. Who will be their allies?
Some Jewish organizations and individuals in academia, the media and politics
are outspoken opponents of affirmative action. In the new millennium America
the black-Jewish alliance of the halcyon days of the Civil Rights Movement may
be a thing of the past; African Americans, historically the most despised group in
America, may be isolated in their struggle for racial and economic justice.
Yet, why should the black-Jewish relationship be the subject of special attention?
What is it about Jews that deserves sorting them out from other white people
with respect to their relationship with blacks?
The issue of black-Jewish relationships is hopelessly shrouded in confusion,
misunderstanding and ahistoridsm. The simplistic view is that African
Americans and Jews share common interests because of their respective histories