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09/10/2008: "Black judge says Constitution forbids racial preference"

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Tuesday that African-Americans are better served by colorblind programs than affirmative action.

Thomas, addressing leaders of historically black colleges, said affirmative action "has become this mantra and there almost has become this secular religiosity about it. I think it almost trumps thinking."

A longtime opponent of race-based preferences in hiring and school admissions, Thomas said, "Just from a constitutional standpoint, I think we're going to run into problems if we say the Constitution says we can consider race sometimes."

Thomas, 60, has voted on the court to outlaw the use of race in college admissions and in determining which public schools students will attend. He wrote with evident resentment in his autobiography "My Grandfather's Son" that he felt he was allowed to attend Yale Law School in the 1970s because of his race and took a tough course load to prove he was as able as his white classmates.

[ For well qualified and intelligent non-whites, affirmative action is insulting and patronising. Everyone assumes that they have been given an unfair advantage and must not really be as worthy as whites that they are working with. However, the real solution to this is that different groups have their own societies and do not have to fit in with the standards and expectations of the majority group. ]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D933CKDG1&show_article=1