University of Virginia Library

Law And Order

Callioun today would, I am confidant,
be unable to deal with the
issues of "Law and Order" or "reverse
discrimination." He would be
unable because his great mind
would be hamstrung by the reality
of contradictions. Like all of us he
would be immersed in pseudo constitutional
dilemmas. Black admissions
to the University of Virgina,
to take a local, contemporary
example, is debated with all the
fury of a legalist debate which, like
Calhoun's inner debates, center not
around human values but legal
values, not around ends, but means.
What is the end of an admissions
policy? What kind of University are
we interested in building? How are
we willing to go about securing
ends that differ from the status
quo? These are questions humanists
would ask. Legalists only wish to
avoid charges of "reverse discrimination."
The character of the University,
its social uses are not placed
before the bar. The message of
Calhoun is more relevant here today
than we may suppose.

Human beings are the ends that
laws, the means, are devised to
serve. If "reverse discrimination" is
not necessary to compensate for
decades of illegality, let us proceed
with careful deliberation and with
all "deliberate speed."

Calhoun stands as a symbol of
the tragedy of men who refuse to
understand that lesson.