I don’t think I can put it any better than the folks at The Root, Betty DeVos is a stupid person. It may be malice, it may be white privilege, it may be actual white supremacists beliefs. For a politician to make a point by implying that segregation was a choice, that the oppressed people wanted separate facilities, is simply stupid. It goes beyond other tone deaf political statements, such as implying George Washington slaves were happy well cared for laborers.
So I will not dwell on the politics and qualifications of DeVos, which always devolves into ad hominem attacks. I will instead focus on an example of two law schools, one mile apart. The specifics of these law school, born in a segregated south, are not as important as the trend, which was to force non-whites, with even on drop, into separate facilities that were not equal.