In his letter, "Columnist promotes different racism form" (SN 3/22), Steve Sutton asserts that the state does not have the "right" to treat people differently based on race.

This is simply not true.

For nearly 30 years the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of universities to use affirmative action policies. In the case of University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978), Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. held that a university's choice to create diversity in the student body is protected by an implied right of academic freedom under the First Amendment.

In the case of Fullilove v. Klutznick (1980), Justice Powell again defended affirmative action when he held that eradicating the continuing effects of past discrimination was a compelling government interest.

The most recent defense of the policy came in 2003 in the case Grutter v. Bollinger when former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor maintained the validity of race as a criterion for admissions so long as a quota system is not used.

I suggest that Sutton read former President Lyndon B. Johnson's speech "To Fulfill These Rights." As Johnson so aptly put it: "You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."

Structural racism persists and affirmative action is one component of what should be everyone's fight to end it.

Bryan Victor
social relations senior