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union had to take in 500 new members and give them journey-men cards. But the part of the decision that I resented, and I told him this (I had lunch with him; I like him, and we have lunch a couple times a year -- and we talk about it; so long as the case is no longer before him, he has no trouble talking about it). In his decision what he said was 250 will be for whites and 250 for nonwhites. There were to be separate lines to pick up the union cards -- maybe not separate lines, but it would be 250 and 250. I said to him, “That is a goddamn outrage.” That happens to be my favorite expression. “Why should you allocate on the basis of race? If you said, ‘The first 500 that got in line’ or ‘Anybody could apply and each would get a number and the number would be thrown into a lottery bag and the first 500 that came out,’ the blacks would get more than 50% anyway because for some of these jobs, you wouldn't have as large a number of whites coming to seek them. So instead of getting 50%, they maybe would get 60%. But it wouldn't have a racial connotation. It would be any sonofabitch who wanted to apply for the job could get it. Why did you have to do it that way?”
Well, he didn't have an adequate answer in my judgment. I think we have to stop now.
What was his response?
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