The last page in the latest Bloomberg Businessweek features U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomasthoughts about affirmative action:

We get into platitudes about who’s for affirmative action or who’s against it, and we do nothing to fix the real problems. So many of our conversations have been dishonest. We talk about civil rights. I’ve got the right to play the piano. I don’t know how to play a note. So what good is a piano? You need a way to access [a given] right. We play to these stereotypes, instead of treating people as individuals. You can take kids who want to work hard and put too much on them too soon. And then we blame them if they don’t succeed.

I’m at a different point in my life. I can now walk where I used to run. I can now think where I used to react. I know more. I looked up at the beginning of this term and realized that only two members of the court had been there longer than I’ve been there. I do believe education is the second door to freedom. I’m the product of Catholic schools. I was taught there’s no real difference between blacks and whites, and I never thought there was supposed to be an easier or different road for us. I never felt I was at Holy Cross to prove a point to anybody. I was there to learn.