DATE: Monday, September 29, 1997            TAG: 9709260059

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Ann Sjoerdsma 

                                            LENGTH:   89 lines

EDUCATION: GAPS IN TOLERANCE OF VIEWS ON RACE ALSO THWART LEARNING LINO GRAGLIA'S LOGIC FAILS - AND BECOMES BIAS - WHEN HE MAKES BROAD ASSUMPTIONS OF CLASS BASED ONLY ON RACE

The recent vilification of University of Texas law professor Lino Graglia for disparaging remarks he made about black and Hispanic academic achievement proves just how risky it is to ``talk'' openly about race, as President Clinton supposedly encouraged last spring.

Which is not to say that the controversial Graglia spoke with sensitivity or even accuracy. But the bullying intolerance of those who chose to denounce his opinion, and his right to express it, rather than to intellectually challenge it is disheartening.

Land of the free and the brave? Guess again.

Clinton, who last week notched another symbolic gesture of racial unity by commemorating the 40th anniversary of desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., condemned Graglia. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson called for isolating him as a ``pariah,'' a ``racist'' and a ``fascist.'' And a mob of Texas legislators, UT officials and students demanded the tenured constitutional law professor's ouster.

Stupid me. I thought the idea was to ``talk'' about race - which means listening to others' views, however repugnant or contrary to one's own. To have a national dialogue, not a national bashing.

A longtime critic of affirmative action, the 67-year-old Graglia told reporters at a Sept. 10 conference introducing a UT law-student group of similar politics:

``Blacks and Mexican-Americans are not academically competitive with whites in selective institutions. It is the result primarily of cultural effects. They have a culture that seems not to encourage achievement. Failure is not looked upon with disgrace.''

Surely these words are unwise, unhelpful, insensitive, even wrong, but they're hardly hate-mongering. And in an era in which focus on ``racial gaps'' in standardized test scores has become commonplace, Graglia's cultural perceptions can't even be considered radical.

Last week the black principal of Little Rock Central High School was quoted as saying many African-American students from impoverished backgrounds ``bring in attitudes that it's not cool to be smart, it's not cool to be out front.''

He's questioning cultural values. Why can't Graglia?

In rushing to censure Graglia, we missed an opportunity to talk. Not to engage in controlled, politically correct conversation as Clinton would like, but to really talk.

Like California, Texas has ended affirmative action in university and college admissions.

A reverse-discrimination lawsuit by four whites denied admission to UT law school led to a 1996 federal court ruling outlawing race-based admissions; last July the U.S. Supreme Court let it stand.

This fall, minority enrollment at UT law school dipped, but the number of blacks and Hispanics among first-time freshmen slightly increased. Understandably, emotions are running high in Austin.

But the anger needs to be channeled into more than just rhetoric.

Question: What does Graglia mean by academic competition? On what data does he rely? Grades? Dropout rates? Certainly he's not saying blacks or Hispanics are stupid; that would be racist and indefensible. Can he back up his claim with reliable facts?

Graglia holds racial/ethnic ``culture'' - or his perception of it - responsible for academic performance; and frankly, who in education doesn't these days? But what does he mean by culture?

This summer, after standardized basic-skills test scores for South Hampton Roads students were released, local educators explained ``racial gaps'' by citing differences in socioeconomics (parents' incomes and educational backgrounds); expectations among parents and teachers; student study habits and enrichment-type reading.

These are key variables to academic achievement, and not - repeat, not - contingent on race.

Graglia, the son of Italian immigrants and a classic up-by-his-bootstraps achiever, also defines culture by socioeconomics. But his logic fails - and becomes bias - when he makes broad assumptions of class based only on race.

Surely, some blacks, some Hispanics and also some whites - and, maybe for historical reasons, proportionately more blacks and Hispanics than whites - don't encourage academic achievement. They haven't learned to value education; it has had no value in their life experience. They may indeed be poor, but it's not logical to assume that all poor people have the same values.

Teachers keep telling us that the true common denominators to attitudes about education are much narrower: the home, the family, the immediate environment. And yet we persist in identifying racial gaps, instead of parent or community gaps.

Education, unlike politics, is about open dialogue. The students who boycotted Graglia's classes should have gone and challenged him. They should've talked with him. How else can we learn? MEMO: Ann G. Sjoerdsma, an attorney, is an editorial columnist and

book editor for The Virginian-Pilot.

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