Amid the everlasting fight for the advancement of Black people and civil rights, the highest court in the land has ended one of the nation’s most effective social justice policies. Many may hold the argument that the reason being is anything that negates the sole single-handed advancement for white America is kryptonite to this country.
In layman terms, it has shown that anything that progresses the success for Blacks does not benefit their white-counterparts – a mindset that a positive for Black people is in turn, their negative.
The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday, leading towards the fact that race can no longer be a factor during universities application process. Which in turn pushes the institution to either create new ways to incorporate diversity, inclusion, and equity or overlook the need for diversity all together – the ladder just might cause society to regress and have history come around and repeat itself.
Also read: Michigan Universities React to Supreme Court Decision to Ban Affirmative Action
The court’s conservative majority overturned admissions plan at the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
That last bit is in some ways the most devastating: Black people are attacked and shamed simply because the policy exists, regardless of whether it benefited them or not. Black people often must work twice as hard just to receive half the recognition of their counterpart. For instance, if Blacks were to get into a higher position at their workplace or get admitted into Yale or Harvard – it is common to receive microaggressions stating that the opportunity came about only on the back of affirmative action.
Affirmative action is used by a certain kind of unwashed mindset as an excuse to denigrate the credentials of anything Black/Brown and successful.
Then, that same way of thinking leads to conversations of racial hang-ups as an argument to rid affirmative action, an entity that so many Americans fought so vigorously for. Furthermore, killing affirmative action innates Black colleagues as equals.
The vote was, 6-3, with all the justices appointed by Republican presidents standing together to revoke the policy. The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts himself, who ruled that affirmative action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Clarence Thomas, who happens to be Black, joined the majority opinion banning affirmative action. Thomas wrote a concurring opinion to make an “originalist” defense of a “color blind” Constitution, an argument that is contradictory given that the original Constitution was not color blind toward people who looked like Thomas.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson – the court’s first Black female justice – called the decision “truly a tragedy for us all.”
Jackson, who sat out the Harvard case because she had been a member of an advisory governing board, wrote, “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Michigan already outlawed affirmative action in college admissions after 58% of state voters in 2006 approved a state constitutional amendment banning public universities from considering a student’s race in admissions. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s constitutional amendment in a 6-2 ruling.
John E. Johnson, Jr., Executive Director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, issued the following statement on the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action:
“For hundreds of years our nation explicitly made race the excuse for harms levied upon people of color,” said John E. Johnson, Jr. “The Supreme Court decision trivializes the reality that much of the progress made over the last 60 years was due to programs that directly addressed our racial legacy. This ruling will damage the intellectual growth of future generations by robbing universities of the ability to guarantee an environment of robust diversity.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement:
“Today’s Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina is a step backward for our nation. It rolls back long-established precedent and will make it more difficult for students from underrepresented backgrounds to have access to opportunities that will help them fulfill their full potential.
It is well established that all students benefit when classrooms and campuses reflect the incredible diversity of our Nation. Colleges and universities provide opportunities for students to interact with Americans from all walks of life and learn from one another. By making our schools less diverse, this ruling will harm the educational experience for all students.
Our Nation’s colleges and universities educate and train the next generation of American leaders. Students who sit in classrooms today will be the leaders of our government, military, private sector, and academic institutions tomorrow. Today’s decision will impact our country for decades to come.
In the wake of this decision, we must work with ever more urgency to make sure that all of our young people have an opportunity to thrive.”
Historically, individuals who have benefited most from affirmative action have been white women. Women made up only 35 percent of bachelor degree-holders before affirmative action policies were re-introduced; now, women’s enrollment in college surpasses men, and has for some time. Now, elite colleges and universities are giving men an advantage when considering for admissions.
However, the Supreme Court did not ban gender consciousness in college admissions. Nor did it ban legacy consciousness, wealth consciousness, geographic consciousness, or athletic consciousness. Race, and only race, is the thing the conservatives don’t want colleges and universities to look at. Because race is the card that never gets declined.
About Post Author
