every presidency. no one s perfect. presidents are at their best when they make us heal and they bring us together. everything the president has done, with the exception of the one statement he didn t apparently want to make, has been pitting one side against another. making politics out of what is a moment of tragedy. you know, heather heyer s death is horrific, but can you imagine can you imagine how many americans were pained to see those kids with tiki torches and were pained to see what was yelled at the african-americans who were standing up for equality for the 14th, 15th amendments, the civil rights act, and the voting rights act. can you imagine the psychic pain, let alone the pain that heather heyer s family feels. that s what presidents are supposed to respond to and help us get through and help us process. they re not supposed to use it
lincoln let me say. we are in a very, very emotional moment. we are. and that s why i wanted to have him on, by the way. it was my idea. i wanted to have the sons of the confederate and i m not here to lecture because, by the way, i m not a civil war expert. i have colleagues who are. i had to learn about it, of course. but this is the most important thing. the reason why those statues matter is not that anybody wants to erase the fact of the confederate states of america. it s part of american history. it s that those statues were put up, many of them, in the era of jim crow when there were bitter enders. there were southerners who didn t want african-americans to enjoy all of the rights of citizenship, and these people put those statues up so that african-americans would be put in their place. that s what this is about. our country has evolved, and shannon is going to tell you a
welcome back. i m melissa harris-perry in new york. with laryngitis. on wednesday, the supreme court heard arguments in fisher versus the university of texas. that outcome of that case could eradicate the use of affirmative action in the college admissions process as we know it. at the table, kenji yoshino, professor at nyu school of law, the acting president and director and counsel of the naacp legal defense fund and back with us chloe angyal and robert traynham. talk to me about the history of affirmative action. where does it begin and how do we get to where we are today? because this case is coming out of texas. the history should begin with sweat v painter. it cleared the way for brown versus board of education. it was in the days where texas stood for exclusion and didn t want african-americans to go to the flagship institution. thorough good won that case and we got brown.
this gives you diversity because of the residential segregation and segregated schools. you have many racially identifiable schools. it gives you a measure of diversity. after the hish mitsch cases were decided, texas decide thad it wanted to take on some of what the court said was possible to consider race for the remaining graduates, together with a multitude of factors. so it s decidedly not a quota-based system or specific points system. there are academic factors and other factors, leadership, do you come from a single parent home. did you work while in high school in. you get points for that. my understanding, for your leadership capabilities or potential, that s graded on a point system per se, is it not? how do you grade that? i think it s a range of factors. texas is not shooting for any set number of african-americans or latinos. what fascinates me is that abigail fisher, the plaintiff in
clearly, african-americans heavily voted in those last three days in 2008. so any discussion about trying to stop early voting was clearly an act of suppression of the vote in the state of ohio. i think that the decision in the sixth circuit court upholding that is a clear, clear message to secretary of state john hugh stead. what we re hoping is that he will tomorrow announce what the hours will be and won t appeal to the supreme court of the united states of america. so at this point we re not even clear whether the appeal process is even over. but clearly these were actions to suppress the vote in the state of ohio. councilman, i really appreciate you taking the time to come out and i hope you don t have to sleep out too much longer. but i appreciate all that you and the naacp there in cincinnati, ohio, is doing. melissa, thank you. let me also wish you a belated