If I could place but one book on the required reading list of every high school in the nation, it would be Lani Guiner's The Tyranny of the Majority: Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy. Early in his presidency, Bill Clinton nominated Guiner for the Supreme Court but threw her to the wolves when those with no understanding of her positions screeched from the right. I'm still pissed that he lost a few vertebrae so early after he took office. Tyranny contains the now infamous law review articles the media distorted in their presentation of her as "The Quota Queen," a title so far wide of Guinier's actual positions one wonders if they even read them. These articles not only call attention to the issues we face as an electorate in a racist society, they present thoughtful possibilities for solutions. It's not an easy subject; most don't want to know. That's why she isn't on the Supreme Court today. It really doesn't matter that we've elected a black president. What matters is that we start to understand as a nation the tyranny Guinier lays out in her book. It was published in 1994 and I believe it to be as relevant today as it was then.
