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Cashiers NC Press

Flowers: Talking race in the cookbook aisle

Jim Crow. I wanted to tell him that the white people he was maligning, to the dismay of the cashiers and the volunteer gift wrappers at Barnes and Noble, actually walked arm in arm with the great black civil rights icons. I wanted to tell him about the fact the Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by a white man, Morris Dees. I also wanted to tell him my mother was horrified when, living in Baltimore, she was faced with a set of water fountains that said "White" and "Colored," and that she complained to the restaurant owner about it. I wanted to tell him all of these things, but he was tired, 74, and not really in the mood to hear a lecture from a relatively young white woman he saw on TV and assumed to be rich (so wrong, Sonny, so wrong). Earlier that day, Antonin Scalia had triggered a social media controversy when, from the bench during oral argument on an affirmative action case, he suggested it might be better for black students if they went to second-tier schools that would better accommodate their skills (as shown by their grades) as opposed to being shoehorned by judicial fiat into top tier schools where they would be more likely to fail. He was referring to the mismatch theory, which holds that students who are pushed by affirmative action into academic environments for which they are unprepared have a difficult time succeeding. Regardless how you feel about that theory, it was way too easy to make Scalia into a racist because he suggested affirmative action might be harmful. He probably should have focused more on class than race, because money is a much better indicator than race when it comes to academic potential. But again, it's a matter of perspective. Scalia and Sonny led different lives, and speak a different language. It doesn't mean either are racist. Even when Sonny said the "white men will always win because they have the power," that doesn't mean he had hate in his heart. Neither did Scalia, for asking a statistic-based question. That's what I'd tell Sonny, if I had the chance. If I see him again, in the cookbook section, I will. — Christine Flowers, an attorney, writes for the Philadelphia Daily News. http://www.news-journal.com/news/2016/jan/07/flowers-talking-race-in-the-cookbook-aisle/