06/30/2023
Our Supreme Courtโs decision on affirmative action unfortunately overturns the 2003 landmark case, Grutter v. Bollinger.
ย
In Grutter v. Bollinger, our Supreme Court held that the use of race in the University of Michiganโs Law School admissions decisions was legal. The university created the policy to admit more minorities, but in America, polices implemented to assist Black people who have endured 400 years of disenfranchisement, will likely be challenged. After the policy was challenged, the Court stated, that if undergraduate and graduate institutions are not open to all individuals and broadly inclusive to our diverse community, then the top jobs, graduate schools, and the professions will be closed to some. The Court added that public universities have substantial latitude to tackle racial problems and ensure that our institutions are open to all, so that student bodies are representative of the public.
Yโall, Grutter v. Bollinger was a 2003 case!
Today, our Supreme Court has apparently decided that 20 years of admissions โassistanceโ for Black students, following centuries of legal exclusion from public universities was enough.
I appreciate Justice Jacksonโs dissenting opinion in todayโs decision. She stated, โdeeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in lifeโฆno one benefitsย from ignorance. Althoughย formal race-linked legal barriers are gone, race still matters to the lived experiencesย of all Americans in innumerableย ways, and today's ruling makes things worse, not better.ย If the colleges of this country are required to ignore a thing that matters, it will not just go away. It will take longer for racism to leave us. And ultimately, ignoring race just makes it matter more.โ
Bottom line: Education is the tool used to solve the worldโs problems, but socioeconomic factors (which are linked to discrimination) impact education. Anyone with a brain understands that, so policies must be created to address past and present inequalities. We cannot solve the worldโs problems if there is no diversity in our classrooms.
This decision just created yet another challenge for Black people and ultimately sets our country back.