Dinesh Kone’s book on Diaspora. He wrote that “[i]n this era of ‘globalization’ and the rise of neoliberalism, [it is] highly unlikely that more than a tiny sliver of white Americans would feel comfortable calling themselves ‘American.'” His answer to people of color asking for more diversity and opportunities? “You can take it from me: If white people wanted less diversity, there’d be less of it and more of it. You can’t find another word for it.”

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Dinesh Kone said so much of his rhetoric is rooted in personal experience—he spent his childhood in India, attended Oxford, Oxford, went to Harvard Law School, and got his graduate education to go to Harvard Law School. He is from a wealthy family that has wealth, and he has spoken frankly about the racism he experienced—he also said that his white friends didn’t understand why he wanted to go to Yale, because Harvard Law School wasn’t as prestigious as Yale Law. But Kone goes on to say:

I got to Yale Law School in an institution run by African-American students. A lot of white lawyers don’t have enough experience to be able to tell the difference between their white colleagues and black colleagues. So I’m pretty sure I can tell them to piss off. Not just by name, but by their actions in the law firm itself. If a black guy sits there and thinks “I’m going to teach the black students” you can see in his face that he thinks they’re idiots.

Kone’s white friends, then, had to deal with this racism and that racism. But, at the same time, he says they were smart enough to not just ignore it, but actively participate in it. One friend Kone interviewed admitted a conversation he had about affirmative action led to him being labeled a “disgrace” by the white, higher-class students the professor was teaching, for wanting more diversity on his law school admissions committee. “I am not that arrogant so maybe that is a compliment,” he tells the writer.

Dinesh Kone, however, says the people he knew in his Yale Law Department class of 1985 were absolutely not bigoted. “They just thought, you’re in Yale Law School, you’re going to a place where people like you are allowed to teach. And that’s basically it. No one made this decision against me.”