The fact that Clarence Thomas fought so hard against affirmative action after being a recipient of it for his own education speaks volumes about the Conservative hypocrisy sweeping the nation right now.
I certainly have my issues with Thomas- many in fact, but I from a human perspective would think it’s possible for someone to benefit from a system they disagree with. I would propose we are all guilty of this to some degree. And for Thomas when born into a poor family, in the south, during segregation as a black man, I would think anyone in his shoes would take any opportunity thrown his/her way. I would also suggest Thomas, age 75 now, many not the same person he was some 50+ years ago- for better or for worse.
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I believe affirmative action is a very problematic way of doing things. Indeed we should strive for inclusivity and diversity in education, but it’s also not fair to rejecting otherwise better ranked applicants simply for the color of their skin. And it has been a problem for some time of more demanding academic programs accepting lower performing students based on race which ultimately sets them up for failure and arguably could make them less successful.
That said, if you have two applicants with the same merit and one student is from an underrepresented group, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to choose that student over the other.
Honestly, I think this whole discussion of colleges and affirmative action is a distraction from a much greater problem that frankly is an uncomfortable discussion. That is the poor levels of K-12 academic success in some minority communities, the black community perhaps being the most significant.
Indeed black people have suffered generational discrimination and injustices, but there is also a frequently “cultural” or “social” component within many Black communities or families where there is less emphasis on the value of education. If you look at school attendance rates in poor, urban, black schools, it’s quite alarming. Not surprisingly, this is probably, at least in part; responsible for worse testing scores. In 2021, in Hartford, CT (a poor city comprised mostly of Blacks and Latinos) almost 50% of students were absent more than 10% of the school year. Prior to the pandemic it was still around 30-40% as I recall. And these urban schools often spend more per student than affluent suburbs. It’s hard to imagine many students can be successful if they are missing so much school. In some Black communities (as well as very commonly in Native American communities), going to school/college can be seen as elitist or betraying your peers.
I would like to highlight however, when you have (often) generations of poor academic performance in families or communities, it’s not unreasonably to imagine parents might not know how to best help encourage and support their children in academic success.
IIRC Canada has far less “segregation” so to speak in their communities (communities are more likely to have black people living next to white people than the US) and there is a far smaller education gap than we have in the US.
If you look to so called “model minorities” - Asians, Indians, historically Jews, all these groups tend to have a significant community emphasis on education, working hard in school, being successful, etc, even among very poor families. But it’s not surprising that when families/communities value education very highly their children perform better. To be clear, this can have its negatives on mental health and such and this seems to be a growing issue in itself.
Focusing on affirmative action in higher education is incredibly shortsighted and frankly just morally wrong if you want to ensure the success of the disadvantaged minorities. We should be promoting academic achievement in K-12 students and their communities. The real issue here is the academic performance gap. Artificially promoting underperforming students is not solving the real problem at hand.
Unfortunately, I think this is often too taboo of a topic to talk about politically. Yet every teacher I know, including very liberal ones, cite these issues as being major barriers for certain racial groups. But apparently is being misconstrued as offensive is somehow worse than continuing the status quo.
I think there is also tremendous misunderstanding about the cost of college for people who are very poor. Especially at the most elite colleges, the financial aid available for those with nothing can frankly make education far more accessible (often free) than those from the middle class or even upper middle class. Cost is another discussion entirely though.
Its is my belief with academic success brings occupational success and advancement, which brings wealth, societal advancement and equality- which is what we should ultimately striving here. Not just statistics that bear out representative proportions in elite schools. The latter is how every other minority has brought themselves societal power, respect/acceptance, relative equality, etc.
At the end of the day- I’m really not sure how much this ruling will affect things. And frankly, I’m not sure how much affirmative action in schools was truly helping the poor, underrepresented minorities so much as it was helping middle class to affluent underrepresented racial minorities.
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