Reagan Navy Secretary: 'White America' Is 'Ethnic Fairy Tale'

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DENVER, Jan. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A highly-acclaimed historical and cultural examination of America's Scots-Irish was drawn to the attention of a Washington, D.C. court that will decide whether the U.S. Department of Defense's use of racial preferences in its purchase of goods and services is constitutional. According to a legal brief filed last week, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, by James Webb, contains new scholarship that undermines Congress' rationale, in 1977, for federal enacting race- based contracting programs, which still exist. Specifically, Webb writes, "the vast distinctions among white Americans" demonstrate that the "statistical straw man of 'white America'" used to justify racial preferences is "an imaginary facade. Indeed, white America is so variegated that it is an ethnic fairy tale." The brief was filed before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in DynaLantic Corp. v. U.S. Department of Defense, et al.

"We are pleased to bring to the court's attention evidence of the lie Congress told itself when it ordered federal agencies to discriminate against 'White Americans' when awarding contracts," says William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which was asked by the judge hearing the case to file a friend of the court (amicus curiae) brief. "I hope the court and Congress will conclude, not only that racial preferences are unconstitutional, but also, after reading Webb's scholarship, that they lack a factual basis."

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Reagan Navy Secretary: 'White America' Is 'Ethnic Fairy Tale'

Born Fighting argues that racial preferences are based on two false assumptions: "Any...

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