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32 Sw. U. L. Rev. 201 (2003)
Learning form Experience: Why Racial Diversity Cannot Be a Legally Compelling Interest in Elementary and Secondary Education

handle is hein.journals/swulr32 and id is 211 raw text is: LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE: WHY RACIAL DIVERSITY CANNOT BE A LEGALLY COMPELLING INTEREST IN ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION Jay P. Lechner * Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent.... The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.' I. INTRODUCTION Malcolm X once said I'm not a racist. I'm against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.2 Nonetheless, racial stereotyping and discrimination have plagued America since its earliest days. Unfortunately, government has clearly played a role in perpetuating the existence of these stereotypes. Although courts have been willing to address the ultimate effects of racial classifications, often through the application of countervailing benign race-based classifications, few have been willing to attack the underlying source of the problem: the acceptance and perpetuation of arbitrary, socially-constructed notions of race. Some argue that despite the artificiality of the race concept, governments should maintain the use of race-based classifications to ameliorate ongoing discrimination in a society that still clings to race-cognizant value systems. However, this approach downplays the predominant role that law has historically played in perpetuating and reinforcing widely held values such as race. * Associate at the law firm of Zinober & McCrea, P.A. in Tampa, Florida, representing management in labor and employment law matters. The author would like to express gratitude to the Pacific Legal Foundation for its assistance. 1. Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). 2. MALCOLM X, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY 157, 158 (George Breitman ed. 1970).

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