On June 29, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that race-based admissions policies for higher education, also known as affirmative action, are unconstitutional because they violated the 14th amendment’s right to equal protection of the law. This makes it virtually impossible for colleges and universities to factor race into admission. Without race-based affirmative action, the evidence shows that the number of Black and Brown students admitted to elite institutions is predicted to drop dramatically. This is a major step backward for a nation still plagued by institutional racism and with a racial wealth gap that has only gotten bigger in the past few decades.
Affirmative action policies at universities are not codified into law, and thus vary widely by institution. The practice of universities prioritizing the admission of students of color, particularly Black and Latino students, originated from the Civil Rights movement and other racial justice struggles of the 1960s and 70s. University systems that have done away with this practice have seen their Black and Latino student populations plummet. In 1995, the University of California system banned affirmative action. In 1998, the first year affected by the ban, the number of Black and Latino first-year students nearly halved at the UC system’s two most competitive institutions.
The US Supreme Court took down nationwide abortion rights on June 24 last year. In doing so, the Court reversed its own Roe v. Wade decision, which established federal abortion rights in 1972 after a hard-fought struggle by the feminist movement. Soon after Roe was taken down, conservative justices such as Clarence Thomas hinted that there were other hard-won rights on the chopping block, namely, same-sex marriage and contraception rights.
The Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in two cases put forward by conservative group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). The two cases are Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students For Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, both of which challenged race-based admissions policies at the two universities.
SFFA, despite its name, is not led by students. The organization is spearheaded by Edward Blum, who has financially supported many racist Supreme Court cases such as Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, another hard-fought victory of the Civil Rights movement. Blum receives millions of dollars in funding from conservative benefactors.
Affirmative action goes beyond diversity
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on these two cases last year. It was clear, based on how the right-wing justices were responding to arguments, that race-conscious admissions policies were potentially in danger. At the time, right-wing media platforms extensively circulated Clarence Thomas’ response to an argument made by North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Y. Park, who argued on the side of the University of North Carolina. Thomas asks Park to “give us a clear idea of exactly what the educational benefits of diversity at the University of North Carolina would be.” Park responds that “diversity of all kinds leads to ‘a deeper and richer learning environment,’ leads to more creative thinking and exchange of ideas, and, critically, reduced bias between people of different backgrounds and not solely for racial backgrounds.” Thomas replies that “I guess I don’t put much stock in that because I’ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation too.”
Thomas, however, forgets, or omits, that the struggle for affirmative action was never solely about diversity, or the supposed benefits that white people reap from being around students of color. Affirmative action was developed, through struggle, as one of many ways to right past wrongs and eliminate disparities, such as the racist policies of the Jim Crow era. For example, the University of North Carolina did not admit Black students until the 1950s.
Gloria la Riva, former presidential candidate with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and beneficiary of affirmative action herself, writes in Liberation News, “The 1960s and 1970s social struggles—for voting and civil rights, the fight to desegregate transportation and housing, the rise of the Black Panthers and Black liberation—also brought the demand for programs to right historical wrongs in education. The unwritten policies of most universities discriminated against Black and other youth of color and the curricula perpetuated white supremacist ideas.” The struggle for affirmative action entered into nationwide politics amidst the struggle for racial justice more broadly.
“Students began to organize on their campuses to demand affirmative action programs, including quotas to ensure that the universities fulfilled meaningful goals of recruitment and retention of students historically disadvantaged,” writes La Riva. “Ethnic studies became a major flashpoint.” Arguments that focus only on the supposed benefits of diversity in terms of affirmative action action often strip it of this context.
Race-based admissions do not enjoy the same popularity as abortion rights, for example, but this changes drastically based on how the issue is framed.
As editor-in-chief of BreakThrough News and US historian Ben Becker said back in November, “A slim majority is in favor of affirmative action policies when framed in this way: should we increase the share of Black and Latino students in selective universities? But then when they ask the same question [and] say: should we decrease the share of white and Asian students to make room for others, then the number changes… only 19% defend affirmative action when it’s posed in the context of ‘should we take away educational opportunities for white and Asian people.’”
The right-wing often claims that affirmative action is racist against white people and Asian-Americans, although numerous studies have found that white women actually have historically benefited the most from affirmative action policies.
In response to the right, Becker says we should demand more educational opportunities for Black and Brown students, in conjunction with demanding more access to education for all. “It doesn’t have to be a zero sum game if you vastly expand educational opportunities in the country.” The US has some of the most expensive universities in the world, with the average undergraduate education costing over USD 145,000.
Legacy admissions, or the practice at elite institutions of prioritizing the admission of students whose family members also attended said elite schools, is still in place, and does not receive the same scrutiny as race-based affirmative action.
