Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy on Racial Disparities and Opposition to Black Success

Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy, a respected scholar with a diverse audience, has written a guest essay in The New York Times titled “The Truth Is, Many Americans Just Don’t Want Black People to Get Ahead.” The article discusses the history of efforts to advance African Americans and correct racial disparities, which have faced criticisms of “reverse discrimination” and “preference.” Kennedy outlines several historical events, including John C. Calhoun’s warning that emancipation would lead to political equality with whites and Andrew Johnson’s opposition to civil-rights legislation and federal protections for civil rights. However, Kennedy then shifts the narrative to 1960s liberals and their attacks on “illicit racial preferencing.” President John F. Kennedy’s criticism of “compensatory” hiring of blacks to make up for past injustices is discussed, with Kennedy arguing that the President was wrong to say that racial politics “begins” with equity for the marginalized. Kennedy then suggests that opponents of affirmative action harbor animosity towards black success, but fails to provide evidence to support this claim. He likens affirmative action’s opponents to segregationists, but this is not appropriate in the debate. Instead, the focus should be on the arguments’ merits.