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Why We Need to Talk About the Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Decision
Their decision deprives students of equitable opportunities
America is the land of inequitable opportunities. And the conservative-controlled Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision to ban race-based affirmative action on college campuses brings the conversation into focus. “The move is expected to lower the number of Black and Latino students at elite college campuses.” After the announcement of their decision, a common misconception keeps making the rounds. Some people suggest White women, the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action programs, will also suffer in their absence. However, the Supreme Court’s decision banned race-based affirmative action programs while leaving gender-based affirmative action programs, legacy admissions, and athletic admissions intact. So, Americans should acknowledge who their decision harms, Black students and other racial minorities.
As Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent in the Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina case, “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.” While conservative Supreme Court Justices want Americans to believe our country will be a better place without race-based affirmative action programs, the truth is their decision harms Black students who continue to experience racism in the college admissions process. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also noted in her dissent that “Gulf-sized race-based gaps exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens. They were created in the distant past but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations. Every moment these gaps persist is a moment in which this great country falls short of actualizing one of its foundational principles — the “self-evident” truth that all of us are created equal.”
The Supreme Court banning race-based affirmative action policies proves once and for all there is no gap between colorblind ideology and racism. Just as someone in denial about an illness refuses treatment, those who deny racial…
