From Lani Guinier’s interview on Booknotes (sharp cookie, I like everything about her):

“I believe that no one is irredeemably anything, so the claim that white Americans are implacably hostile to black progress is not something that I believe. I certainly have seen parts of this country in which the majority, who is white, have refused to cooperate with the minority, who is black, and have done more than refuse to cooperate. They have deliberately excluded the minority. I had a case in Louisiana in which the black legislators were deliberately excluded from the key reapportionment meeting, and we put members of the Louisiana Senate, staff on the witness stand who, number one, admitted that they had deliberately not invited the black lawmakers, although everyone else who had an interest in the plan had been invited. And then they said the reason that they didn't invite the black lawmakers to this critical meeting is that they knew that they, the black legislators, would not like the outcome. So I have seen instances. People have been even more blatant in their language. In this same case, one of the white legislators was adamant that he did not want to see ‘another nigger big shot’ in Louisiana because ‘they already have one nigger mayor.’ Does he represent all people in Louisiana? No, but he represented a key player in this particular case, and because of his influence I believed race was a factor in the decision as to how to draw the lines in that particular congressional reapportionment.“