Guinier Speaks To Kresge Crowd

By Sarah Y. Keightley

News Editor

On Thursday morning, Lani Guinier spoke at the opening of the "Black 
Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name 1894-1994" conference held 
at MIT. Using humor and anecdotes to illustrate her points, she 
captivated the audience that filled Kresge Auditorium.

Guinier studied at Radcliffe College, then went on to Yale Law 
School, graduating in 1974. She is a civil rights attorney, and 
spent seven years as a litigator for the National Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People. Since 1992 she has been a 
professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

In April, Clinton nominated Guinier to be Assistant Attorney General 
for Civil Rights. Because some of her scholarly work created much 
controversy, he withdrew her nomination in June.

Guinier's speech focused on the unique role of black women in 
academia, her withdrawn nomination for Assistant Attorney General 
for Civil Rights, and her support for cumulative voting.

After her keynote address, she responded to questions from the 
audience. These questions ranged from how she would have handled her 
nomination differently to her opinion on specific legal issues to 
dealing with stereotypes.

The audience was clearly moved by her speech. Many women said they 
could relate perfectly to her experiences. Guinier received many 
thank you's and several requests for hugs.

Guinier began her talk by speaking of her Yale Law School 
experiences. One of her professors called the class "gentlemen." 
"In his view, `gentlemen' was an asexual term," Guiner said. This 
was evocative of the traditional values of men, she said.

She came to realize that she was a "minority within the minority" -- 
a black woman.

What W.E.B. DuBois had called a "two-ness, the double identity of 
being black and an American," was now a "three-ness" for black 
women, Guinier said. Women have to take on what Mari Matsuda calls 
a "multiple consciousness," which is "a bifurcated thinking between 
personal consciousness and the `gentleman's' consciousness that 
dominates the status quo."

The withdrawn nomination

Guinier also spoke about her withdrawn nomination for Assistant 
Attorney General. Her main complaint was that she never got a 
chance to present herself and her ideas at a hearing. "The academy 
had prepared me well for being outcast from the mainstream though 
accepted within it."

"I could not express ideas attributed to me because I wasn't allowed 
to speak for myself or explain myself," Guinier said.

The media took control of my image, she said. "The distortions were 
so gross, even my mother could not recognize me."

Guinier said she doesn't advocate quotas, but "Quota Queen" was an 
easy stereotype for her. "My real ideas were never allowed to 
emerge," she said. And though Guinier could never speak for 
herself, those who opposed her could speak out.

Still she assured the audience: "I did not get a hearing, but I did 
not lose my voice for long."

The big controversy arose when Guinier's critics focused on one of 
her law review articles that supported alternative electorate 
procedures. Though people have the right to vote, that does not 
necessarily mean anything, Guinier said. For situations when 51 
percent of the voters enjoy 100 percent of the power, they are 
excluding 49 percent of the voters, she said.

Guinier explained how groups can be excluded for participation, and 
how she believes this goes against the idea of fair play in a 
multi-racial democracy. As an 8-year-old Brownie, she resigned from 
a "rigged" hat-making contest. Another Brownie, whose mother was a 
hat maker and made her daughter's hat in front of everybody, won the 
contest. This "stands as an example of rules that are patently 
rigged or patently subverted," Guinier said.

"Yet sometimes, even when rules are perfectly fair in form, they 
serve in practice to exclude particular groups from meaningful 
participation," she said. "Some rules can seem just as unfair as 
the milliner who makes the winning hat for her daughter."

The fairness of majority rule assumes shifting majorities -- losers 
on one issue may be winners on another issue -- connected with the 
value of cooperation, she said. But, "sometimes the majority is a 
fixed group that seems to rule by ignoring the minority."

Quoting James Madison, Guinier said the "tyranny of the majority 
requires safeguards to protect one part of society against the 
injustice of the other part." Guinier's solution is cumulative 
voting, allowing all voters to take turns and ensuring that 
"majority rule does not become majority tyranny."

Minority shut out by majority

As an alternative to "winner-take-all" decision making, Guinier 
supports the idea of cumulative voting. Under this system, even the 
loser gets something, and the rule of taking turns results in a 
positive sum solution, she said.

For example, last spring a private high school in Chicago had two 
proms -- one mainly attended by white students and the other mainly 
attended by black students. The controversy arose when the 
all-white prom committee was choosing songs. Each student could 
vote for three songs, and the songs with the most votes would be 
played at the prom. It turned out that many of the black student's 
songs were not chosen.

The black students felt shut out by the decision-making process 
based on majority rule. Guinier quoted one student as saying: "With 
us being in the minority, we're always out-voted. It's as if we 
don't count."

White students were hurt that their black peers were holding a 
separate prom. They thought the black students were not playing by 
the rules, namely the supposedly fair majority rule, Guinier said.

An alternative to the situation would be to give each student 10 
votes to place on how ever many songs, reflecting the intensity of 
their preferences. In this way, the black students could pool their 
votes to hear some of their songs at the prom. So even if the 
majority's favorite songs were played more often, the "songs that 
the minority enjoyed would also show up on the roster."

Not a new idea

Cumulative voting is not a new idea, Guinier said. "Thirty states 
require or permit corporations to use this system to elect their 
boards of directors," and both Reagan and Bush supported it under 
the Voting Rights Act, she added.

"Yes, I didn't get a hearing, nor as a female-gentleman law student 
did I speak out, but as a result of conferences like this one ... 
some of us are working to ensure that other voices are heard," 
Guinier said.

Guinier advised the conference participants to "spark the debate 
that we have so often been denied." She also urged the participants 
not to speak with anger -- "We are survivors, not victims." Through 
conversation, black women can share their insight and through 
collaboration they can work to solve problems.

"Gifted with second sight, we can share our stories ... build 
coalitions, develop a voice. ... We shall speak until all the 
people gain a voice."

---- Copyright 1994 by The Tech. All rights reserved. This story was 
published on Wednesday, January 19, 1994. Volume 113, Number 66 
The story began on page 1 and jumped to page 13.

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