Diversity
Yale Affirmative Action Didn’t Hurt Clarence Thomas, Classmates Say
Posted Jun 2, 2008, 12:59 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Although a Yale Law School diploma didn't prevent Clarence Thomas from getting a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court bench, it didn't help him much either, he has said. In particular, the African-American justice has blamed Yale's affirmative action program for stigmatizing black graduates, and contends his law degree is worth only "15 cents" because of it.
However, that just isn't true, in their experience, fellow African-American graduates of the law school say. Although Thomas has complained that he couldn't get a job as a starting associate at a major law firm because of the devaluation of his law degree by Yale's affirmative action program, classmates suggest other factors may have been the issue, reports American Lawyer in a lengthy article. Possibilities include Thomas' grades (they aren't publicly known), his then-counterculture persona and his apparent lack of knowledge and interest in networking effectively in the corporate world.
Although racism in in law firms and elsewhere was a problem, a number of black classmates tell the magazine, their Yale law degrees nonetheless opened doors for them. Those who graduated around the same time as Thomas (who was in Yale Law's Class of 1974) now account for at least four federal judges, two law professors at major ivy league institutions, a college president and several BigLaw partners.
Hence, Thomas' "belated attempt at creating a fantasy world is not the story," says Daniel Johnson, Jr., who graduated from Yale Law in 1973 and is now a partner at the San Francisco office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. "The story is how extraordinarily successful the blacks from that class have been. How could that be the case if our law school degree was worth 15 cents?"
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Comments
Posted by Elle - 6 months, 1 day, 22 hours, 55 minutes ago
That Justice Thomas would first take the benefit of affirmative action, and then complain about it in hindsight and speak of how it hurt his career while he sits on the United States Supreme Court, speaks volumes. If he were that vehemently opposed to affirmative action in his younger days, it would have taken no more a few sentences typed on a letter to reject the Yale law school seat and get his law degree at another law school. Cannot eat the cake given to you and then complain about how it wasn’t what you really wanted.
Posted by MSG - 6 months, 1 day, 22 hours, 15 minutes ago
Yes he can. Just because he was able to get into Yale by affirmative action does not negate his later experiences of discrimination by large white shoe law firms. He made it to where he is by other means, not affirmative action is what he is saying. He can honestly argue against something he once may have thought helped him after experiencing something totally difference. Life is not always so clear cut.
Posted by Elle - 6 months, 1 day, 15 hours, 25 minutes ago
There is a big difference between saying “I got a good degree from Yale, and it still didn’t help me because there is no affirmative action in big firms” vs. saying “I got a worthless degree from Yale”. What was taught in the Yale classroom was the same for student of any color - the degree itself wasn’t worthless because of the student’s skin color. If that were the case, then a black student from Yale would be on the same footing as a black student from Cooley. Evidently, they aren’t - there is still high value placed on the “Yale” name and degree.
Posted by Jennifer - 6 months, 1 day, 7 hours, 52 minutes ago
Why is it that if a minority attends an institution of higher learning that has an affirmative action program, they are automatically considered to have benefited from it (Elle)?
None of would have gotten in without AA? 0?
Has it occured to you that perhaps some of us would get in regardless of our race? That is what he is saying. Had there not been AA at Yale, he still would have gotten in. The fact that he was qualified w/o any help from an AA program would have communicated to job recruiters that he was selected from a highly competitive process and did not benefit from any “help.“
Posted by Tropicana - 6 months, 22 hours, 25 minutes ago
“The fact that he was qualified w/o any help from an AA program would have communicated to job recruiters that he was selected from a highly competitive process and did not benefit from any ‘help.‘“
So would a good transcript. Whether or not he got into Yale with the assistance of affirmative action, there’s no affirmative action helping him with his grades. If you’re a Yale grad with a 4.0, 3.75, or 3.5 GPA (or whathaveyou), prospective employers are not discounting that GPA and your academic performance because of your race. That’s why Thomas’s whole point is disingenuous. Assuming for the sake of argument he had great grades to go along with that Yale degree (and I assume his whole point is that he would have gotten in with or without affirmative action and thus he should have great grades) you can’t deny the fact that having those grades come from “Yale” makes a big difference. It’s not quite the same if you have a 4.0 GPA coming out of Frank’s Refrigerator Repair and Law School.
That being said, some prospective employers may certainly subconsciously (or consciously) omit you from serious consideration or add a little subconscious demerit next to your name when they learn that you’re black… or if your name “sounds” black… regardless of the name of your school or your GPA.
-T