Texas Law Professor Gets Honorary Foot-in-Mouth Degree

Ugh, this guy again.

Lino Graglia, a University of Texas at Austin law professor, has been called the most conservative law professor in the United States. He was once considered for a federal judgeship by Ronald Reagan but was passed over because of controversy surrounding Disaster by Decree, a book wherein he wrote against desegregation busing.

For his next trick, in 1997, he gave a speech in which he explained that black and Mexican people come from cultures where "failure is not looked upon with disgrace."

So when a recent affirmative action lawsuit threatened the University of Texas, who better to call than the guy who is basically a professional wingnut on the subject:

If you can't listen to the BBC's audio (I'm sorry if you can't, because you're missing out on the moment when the interviewer reveals he is a black man raised by a single mother and some beautiful backtracking commences), here are the remarks causing current controversy:

"It is the case that the single parent household, the children born outside of marriage today is approaching three quarters in the black population. I can hardly imagine a less beneficial or more deleterious experience than to be raised by a single parent, usually a female uneducated and without a lot of money."

He's right. Black people raised by single parents come out of the system unable to get decent jobs, like this one:

(h/t Gawker)

Photos by Wyatt McSpadden/University of Texas; Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Tags: Barack Obama, Education, Racism, Texas