tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/affirmative-action-8939/articlesAffirmative action – The Conversation2024-03-13T12:38:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248922024-03-13T12:38:53Z2024-03-13T12:38:53ZWhat the numbers say about diversity on corporate boards<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581302/original/file-20240312-28-1hong4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=956%2C204%2C8157%2C5260&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Corporate diversity efforts have resulted in more women and minorities sitting on boards. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bright-clean-modern-style-conference-room-royalty-free-image/1667099947?phrase=corporate++board+directors&adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Through the decades, corporate boards have been mostly white and mostly male. </p>
<p>That started changing in the early 1970s. Fueled by the historic gains of the Civil Rights Movement that broke down racial and gender barriers, a variety of social groups such as the <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/promising-students-benefit-commitment-developing-170000223.html">National Black MBA Association</a> and the <a href="https://now.org/">National Organization for Women</a> pressured corporations to build diversity programs into their management structures. </p>
<p>Over the years, a dramatic change has occurred. My latest research on the corporate boards of the top 50 companies from 2011 to 2023 shows that the percentage of whites dropped to 73.6%, the percentage of men dropped to 65.3% and, rather remarkably, the percentage of white men dropped below 50%, to 49.5%. </p>
<p>My research included reviewing the published names of the members of the boards of directors of the top 50 companies on the 2011 and 2023 Fortune 500 lists, as well as information on company websites about each of these hundreds of directors. I coded for gender, ethnicity and educational background. </p>
<p>Though the patterns differ for each of these demographic groups, the percentages of white women, Asian, Hispanic and Black Americans increased by different amounts as the percentage of white men decreased.</p>
<h2>White female directors</h2>
<p>The percentage of white females serving on boards at the top-50 companies increased from 16.8% in 2011 to 24.1% in 2023. All of these white women had undergraduate degrees, and almost two-thirds had advanced degrees, including in business, law and medicine. Many of them were <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/06/05/fortune-500-companies-2023-women-10-percent/">current or former CEOs</a> of Fortune 500 companies.</p>
<p>Notably, and related to the increase in white female directors, between 2000 and 2020 there was <a href="https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/diversity_update_2020.html#fnr20">a dramatic increase</a> in the number of white female CEOs.</p>
<p>There were almost as many white female directors in 2023 as there were Blacks, Asian Americans and Latinos combined. In terms of sheer numbers, white men have been replaced by white women more than by any other single group.</p>
<h2>Asian American directors</h2>
<p>The changes can be seen clearly in a comparison between the makeup of the top-50 company boards <a href="https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/diversity/unexpected_increase_in_diversity.html">between 2011 and 2023</a>. </p>
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<p>During that time period, the percentage of Asian Americans more than tripled, from 1.8% to 6.1%. The percentages more than doubled for Asian American men, and increased almost ninefold for Asian American females. </p>
<p>Strikingly, 17 of the 20 Asian American men who were directors in 2023 were of Indian heritage – and most but not all were born in India. Only six of the 15 Asian American women were of Indian heritage, and seven were of Chinese background.</p>
<p>Asian Americans make up about 7% of the population, so they are now only slightly underrepresented on the top Fortune boards.</p>
<h2>Black and Hispanic directors</h2>
<p>Black Americans also showed a sizable increase, from 9.4% in 2011 to 15.1% in 2023. They, too, showed a bigger jump for women, from 1.9% to 5.9%, than for men, from 7.4% to 9.2%.</p>
<p>Black people made up about 13.6% of the population in 2023, so they were slightly overrepresented on these Fortune boards. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/race-in-the-workplace-the-frontline-experience">McKinsey & Company</a>, a management consulting firm, conducted a study of 53 corporations, most of which were Fortune 500 companies. The study, released in 2022, found that there were far fewer Black men and women in the pipeline leading to the CEO office than on the boards. That pipeline includes jobs such as managers, vice presidents and others on leadership teams.</p>
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<img alt="A Black woman is speaking as she sits in a chair on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Michelle Jordan, AT&T chief diversity officer, talks about equity and inclusion during a 2023 conference in Atlanta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/michelle-jordan-chief-diversity-officer-at-t-speaks-onstage-news-photo/1779377976?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/WireImage</a></span>
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<p>This suggests that these companies are trying to appear diverse through the makeup of their boards, even as they haven’t diversified the executive ranks.</p>
<p>Hispanic Americans showed only a slight increase in representation on the boards, from 4.7% in 2011 to 5.2% in 2023, with women almost doubling their representation, from 1.1% to 2.1%, and men decreasing from 3.6% to 3.1%. </p>
<p>Hispanic Americans make up about 19% of the U.S. population. As a group, they were very much underrepresented on corporate boards.</p>
<p>Many of those in all of the groups I looked at had attended elite colleges and universities, either as undergraduates or for postgraduate work. Recent evidence showing that Hispanic men and women have been <a href="https://edtrust.org/resource/private-universities-havent-increased-diversity/?emci=6e70acb4-83d5-ee11-85f9-002248223794&emdi=425387aa-41d6-ee11-85f9-002248223794&ceid=456745%5D">vastly underrepresented at elite colleges</a> over the past two decades suggests that few are making it through the pipeline from these schools to Fortune 500 boards.</p>
<h2>Recent attacks on diversity</h2>
<p>With <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-2003-supreme-court-decision-upholding-affirmative-action-planted-the-seeds-of-its-overturning-as-justices-then-and-now-thought-racism-an-easily-solved-problem-208807">the 2023 Supreme Court decision</a> against affirmative action in higher education – and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/diversity-equity-dei-companies-blum-2040b173">subsequent lawsuits</a> against the practices that some corporations have used to address inequality – the civil rights gains in higher education and on corporate boards are in jeopardy of being reversed by conservative resistance. </p>
<p>In fact, many big companies have been “backing away from efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in their ranks,” according to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/04/01/woke-capitalism-esg-dei-climate-investment/">Washington Post corporate culture reporter</a>.</p>
<p>The pattern that I have found in board composition between the 1990s and 2023 is consistent with data from 2013 to 2023 that was published by <a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/sp-500-new-director-and-diversity-snapshot">Spencer Stuart</a>, an executive search firm. It found that in 2013, only 39% of newly appointed directors were women and underrepresented minorities.</p>
<p>In the next decade, the percentage of new diversity appointments to boards increased dramatically, from the 39% in 2013, to 60% in 2018, to 86% in 2021, and then tapered off to 82% in 2022 and 75% in 2023.</p>
<p>Based on my findings and those of other researchers, it is likely that the ups and downs of diversity on corporate boards will serve as an indicator of the success – or failure – of ongoing efforts to increase inclusion in all walks of American life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richie Zweigenhaft does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since the 1970s, corporate boards have included more women and minorities. But those gains are likely to change after a US Supreme Court ruling and increased conservative resistance.Richie Zweigenhaft, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Guilford CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243702024-03-07T19:24:18Z2024-03-07T19:24:18ZPolitical power in Australia is still overwhelmingly male. But beneath the despair, there’s reason for hope<p>It’s 2024, but power still looks like a man. Despite Australia’s claim to egalitarianism, achieving equal political participation and representation remains a formidable challenge for women. Concerningly, the persistent and ingrained obstacles in women’s way are affecting the aspirations of the next generation of female leaders. </p>
<p>According to 2022 <a href="https://plan-international.org/uploads/2022/10/SOTWGR-2022-EN-Final-SD.pdf">research</a> spanning 29 countries, including Australia, satisfaction among young females aged 15-24 with their leaders’ decisions on issues they care about stands at a mere 11%. An overwhelming 97% acknowledged the importance of political participation. Yet, only 24% of those aspiring to engage in politics could see themselves running for office. </p>
<p>Worse still, 20% have been personally discouraged from political involvement. This is often because they’re either considered to be <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/05_women_lawless_fox.pdf">less qualified</a> or that they will inevitably <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/01/27/the-female-political-career-women-members-of-parliament-still-face-obstacles-to-elected-office">face discrimination</a> and gendered violence. </p>
<p>I crunched the numbers to assess the situation in Australia. While much has been said about the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjBo7vTp9SEAxU3amwGHUFXBH8QFnoECAYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fiview.abc.net.au%2Fshow%2Fms-represented-with-annabel-crabb&usg=AOvVaw1oHrBbmWBZQhhBmxEIv6gA&opi=89978449">mistreatment</a> of female leaders, how does this play into the psyche of female constituents? </p>
<p>I found gender gaps have persisted in almost every political measure over the past 20 years. But there’s a glimmer of hope, mostly found online. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-secret-to-attracting-more-women-into-politics-give-them-more-resources-222159">What's the secret to attracting more women into politics? Give them more resources</a>
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<h2>Politics still unwelcoming and unrepresentative</h2>
<p>Using the <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/">Australian Election Study</a>, I examined the gender gaps in political attitudes and behaviours across generations between 2001 and 2022.</p>
<p>The pathway to power for women in politics has never been easy, and it doesn’t get easier once elected. The prevalent discrimination, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiVwpWMp9SEAxW8UWcHHb4eCPAQtwJ6BAg4EAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dz8asUgiCjw0&usg=AOvVaw2_nNYywdfZNl9-qQxzlqys&opi=89978449">gender deafness</a>, sexism and overt abuse not only <a href="https://theconversation.com/expect-sexism-a-gender-politics-expert-reads-julia-gillards-women-and-leadership-142725">force women to abandon</a> their leadership aspirations, but also act as signals that discourage young women from corridors of power. </p>
<p>It is therefore not surprising younger generations of Australian women display a diminished interest in politics, more so than older generations.</p>
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<p>I found they’re less represented than men in traditional participatory practices, such as discussing politics or attending political meetings. They’re also less likely to contribute money to a party or campaign. Girls in various Western democracies reported <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249019872_Good_Girls_Go_to_the_Polling_Booth_Bad_Boys_Go_Everywhere_Gender_Differences_in_Anticipated_Political_Participation_Among_American_Fourteen-Year-Olds">similar</a> disinterest. </p>
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<p>Young Australian women are also less satisfied with democracy than men. They report lower trust in government than their male counterparts and are more likely to believe government is run for few big interests rather than for all. </p>
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<h2>Discouragement is everywhere</h2>
<p>Politics continues to be off-putting because sexism is normalised in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-australian-media-womens-voices-are-still-not-heard-172060">media</a>. </p>
<p>Numerous studies show young Australian women <a href="https://www.plan.org.au/publications/she-can-lead/">think</a> female leaders receive unfair treatment from the media. The gendered media coverage is often characterised by negative portrayals of “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167210371949">power-seeking</a>” ambitions, scrutiny of fashion choices, judgement based on reproductive decisions, and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-big-problem-with-the-murdoch-media-no-one-is-talking-about-how-it-treats-women-leaders-149986">failure to recognise</a> the mistreatment of female leaders (gender blindness). It all serves as a stark reminder of entrenched sexism in our national mindset.</p>
<p>Moreover, there’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-missing-women-of-australian-politics-research-shows-the-toll-of-harassment-abuse-and-stalking-168567">scepticism</a> in the personal circles of women aspiring to political roles. Friends and family can express concerns about their loved one’s safety working in parliament or for a political party. This undermines the progress of women in political leadership. </p>
<p>Women also hesitate to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-missing-women-of-australian-politics-research-shows-the-toll-of-harassment-abuse-and-stalking-168567">encourage</a> others to pursue political careers due to the potential for facing abuse.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/online-abuse-could-drive-women-out-of-political-life-the-time-to-act-is-now-214301">Online abuse could drive women out of political life – the time to act is now</a>
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<p>If the political landscape discourages the pool of potential female leaders, it’s understandable gender quotas have had <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/equal-representation-the-debate-over-gender-quotas-part-1/">mixed success</a>. Labor’s quotas have not been a panacea for attracting young women to politics. </p>
<p>The reality is women <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-politicians-pay-too-high-a-personal-cost-for-their-leadership-201028">pay too high</a> a personal price in leadership positions. Competing work and family roles create high levels of stress and burn-out. This particularly <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-secret-to-attracting-more-women-into-politics-give-them-more-resources-222159">deters</a> young women from running for local government, for example – more so than older women and men of all ages. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman uses her smartphone on public transport." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580075/original/file-20240306-20-s0fb71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Young women are increasingly engaging in political discussion online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-using-smartphone-subway-1060222451">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Bottom-up quest for parity</h2>
<p>Despite these challenges, the 2022 federal election emerged as a pivotal moment in Australian politics, highlighting a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-explained-the-seismic-2022-federal-election-the-australian-election-study-has-answers-195286">significant shift</a> in the engagement of women and young people. These two social bases turned away from major parties, signalling a growing disenchantment with the established political order. </p>
<p>Young women are actively challenging traditional power structures, leveraging their access to higher education and social media to redefine the political narrative. They are not hesitant to explore political alternatives to the two major parties. </p>
<p>Young women have also been challenging the established political order through getting involved in politics online. They are participating in political discussions, sharing and blogging political information, accessing election information and creating and joining political groups on social media platforms.</p>
<p><iframe id="Dais0" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Dais0/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jacinda-arderns-resignation-shows-that-women-still-face-an-uphill-battle-in-politics-an-expert-on-female-leaders-answers-5-key-questions-198197">Jacinda Ardern's resignation shows that women still face an uphill battle in politics – an expert on female leaders answers 5 key questions</a>
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<p>This has ushered in younger generations of Australian women who are unwilling to accept abuse and harassment as the inevitable costs of political engagement. With increasing education levels and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-young-people-are-moving-to-the-left-though-young-women-are-more-progressive-than-men-reflecting-a-global-trend-222288">more progressive</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/28/australian-voters-are-increasingly-driven-by-issues-rather-than-party-loyalty-and-thats-bad-news-for-the-old-political-order">issue-based mindset</a>, young women are raising their demands and expectations.</p>
<p>This is heartening. We’re starting to see a generation of women who refuse to accept the limitations imposed on them. This development signals a promising shift towards a more inclusive and representative political landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Intifar Chowdhury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data show young Australian women are less politically engaged than men. Given the negative experiences of female politicians, that’s hardly surprising. But there’s a glimmer of hope.Intifar Chowdhury, Lecturer in Government, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139412024-01-29T16:38:18Z2024-01-29T16:38:18ZAffirmative action policies to increase diversity are successful, but controversial, around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571167/original/file-20240124-27-lxpu7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C19%2C6536%2C4344&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-diverse-male-company-representatives-colleagues-1463772395">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a landmark judgment in June 2023, the US supreme court ruled against the use of race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities. This decision marked a controversial end to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/the-end-of-affirmative-action">affirmative action</a> in US higher education admissions. </p>
<p>Race-conscious admissions policies at American universities have a history that goes back to the 1960s <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/learn-origins-term-affirmative-action-180959531">civil rights movement</a>. These policies aimed to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups and build more racially diverse student populations. Writing for the supreme court majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">wrote</a> that many 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”.</p>
<p>But the US is not the only country with policies to correct or compensate for ethnic, religious or racial discrimination. Our <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-59-affirmative-action-around-world-new-dataset.pdf">working paper</a> compares the varying types and success of these policies around the world. </p>
<p>Affirmative action is a relatively recent tool for most countries, with policies <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-59-affirmative-action-around-world-new-dataset.pdf">gaining momentum</a> from the 1990s onwards, particularly in politics. This was followed by public sector employment and education in the 2000s, and later by private sector employment in the 2010s. </p>
<p>Affirmative action policies can include <a href="https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aeri.20200196">“soft” measures</a> designed to increase minority representation in a candidate pool. For instance, language in job postings that signals a commitment to diversity and encourages minority applicants.</p>
<p>They may also include “hard” measures, such as direct consideration of minority status in admissions or hiring decisions, or implementing quotas in national legislative bodies. New Zealand’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealand-elections-maori-seats-once-again-focus-of-debate-83293">“Māori seats”</a>, which give government representation to the indigenous Māori people, are an example of this.</p>
<h2>Differences around the world</h2>
<p>In Europe, <a href="https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/45515983-3e3e-4a24-bcbc-477f04f0ba04">“positive action”</a> is a more common term than affirmative action. In some contexts, “positive discrimination” is <a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/european-migration-network-emn/emn-asylum-and-migration-glossary/glossary/positive-discrimination_en">understood as a synonym</a> for both. </p>
<p>In some countries, there is a sharp distinction between terms. In <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/positive-action-in-the-workplace-guidance-for-employers/positive-action-in-the-workplace#what-is-positive-action">Great Britain</a>, employers are allowed to take positive action that may involve “treating one group that shares a protected characteristic more favourably than others”. This may mean providing targeted job training programmes. Positive discrimination, such as hiring a less-qualified candidate because she is from an underrepresented group, is prohibited under the Equality Act.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-15-impact-affirmative-action-India-United-States.pdf">India</a> is known as the first country to adopt affirmative action policies. The heart of Indian affirmative action lies in the reservation system. This system “reserves” spots in government employment, governing bodies, and educational admissions for <a href="https://socialjustice.gov.in/common/76750">“scheduled castes and tribes”</a> and other marginalised groups. This system has roots in similar practices during the colonial period.</p>
<p>Following its independence, India continued the reservation system through its <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/legal-basis-affirmative-action-india">1950 constitution</a> and subsequent amendment in 1951. These provisions ensured the representation of historically marginalised castes and tribes not just in politics, but also in employment and education sectors through set quotas. India later expanded these initiatives to “other backward classes” and “economically weaker sections”.</p>
<p>Like affirmative action in the US, India’s reservation system has been subject to intense debate. Members of groups not benefiting from reservations have publicly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/07/18/classes-clash-over-quotas-in-india/2989a918-9a92-4246-8ac2-50698511945a/">criticised</a> the ethnic- and class-based quotas. Critics argue that these measures promote unfair preferences and reverse discrimination. </p>
<p>But the two countries have taken <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-15-impact-affirmative-action-India-United-States.pdf">starkly different routes</a> in how they handled this contentious issue. In the US, court decisions progressively led to softening or abolishing affirmative action programmes. In <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2022-74-legal-basis-affirmative-action-India.pdf">India</a>, faced with similar court rulings, a series of constitutional amendments have preserved reservations.</p>
<h2>Does affirmative action work?</h2>
<p>With colleagues, we built a <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-59-affirmative-action-around-world-new-dataset.pdf">global dataset</a> of affirmative action policies around the world. We also conducted a <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2023-14-does-affirmative-action-address-ethnic-inequality.pdf">systematic review of the literature</a> to determine whether they are successful.</p>
<p>We found that 63% of the 194 studies we reviewed concluded that affirmative action programmes indeed served to improve outcomes for ethnic, religious or racial minorities. These measures helped the target groups gain better education and employment outcomes, as well as foster meaningful political participation. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, as the US and India show, affirmative action is often deeply controversial. Regardless of what the research shows about the success of these policies, they are often met with protest and resistance. </p>
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<p>In over half of the countries we studied, national <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2018/09/04/white-workers-in-s-africa-protest-against-discrimination-by-black-only-share//">protests</a> and <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/reform-in-malaysia-still-beholden-to-racial-politics/4728537.html">civic action</a> emerged in support of or against the conduct of affirmative action policies. And almost one in five saw <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/toi-original/not-just-violent-maratha-reservation-protests-eknath-shindes-added-troubles-include-his-own-mps-resigning/videoshow/104845275.cms">violent incidents</a> or riots directly linked to the introduction and implementation of affirmative action policies. </p>
<p>Governments hoping to implement or expand affirmative action programmes should consider these effects. </p>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">dissenting opinion</a>, US supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that affirmative action is a necessary corrective to advance equality. So, what can be done to shift public discourse and build support for these programmes?</p>
<p>In the US, recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/317006/affirmative-action-public-opinion.aspx">public opinion polls</a> suggest significant opposition to racial preferences in hiring decisions. The same polling shows strong support for equal opportunity and diversity. This suggests that the way forward may be to pursue soft over hard affirmative action measures – encouraging diversity without implementing quotas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel M Gisselquist receives funding from UNU-WIDER.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Min J. Kim is a Visiting Assistant Professor at George Washington University. </span></em></p>Affirmative action policies in politics, education and the labour force are often met with protest and resistance.Rachel M Gisselquist, Senior Research Fellow, World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), United Nations UniversityMin J. Kim, Visiting Assistant Professor at the George Washington University; Visiting Researcher, World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), United Nations UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170472023-12-06T13:26:28Z2023-12-06T13:26:28ZBook explores how colleges seek to increase racial diversity without relying on race in college admissions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562849/original/file-20231130-27-n0ksy6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C5699%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will commitments to diversity be enough?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-descent-male-college-student-graduation-on-royalty-free-image/1125957913?phrase=diverse+college+graduation">fstop123</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>When the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/20-1199">outlawed the use of race in college admissions</a> in June 2023, it forced colleges and universities to rethink how to maintain and increase diversity in their student bodies. It’s a topic that <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qmqHjM8AAAAJ&hl=en">political science professor Lauren Foley</a> had been exploring in her new book, “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479821662/on-the-basis-of-race/">On the Basis of Race: How Higher Education Navigates Affirmative Action Policies</a>.” Below, Foley expounds on what she sees as the future of diversity in higher education now that college admission officials can no longer consider race.</em></p>
<h2>Is racial diversity in higher education about to suffer?</h2>
<p>Yes, the likelihood of admission for racial minority students <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373713508810">will suffer</a> as a result of the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/20-1199">nationwide affirmative action ban</a> in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. We know this from research done in states with existing affirmative action bans. Courts and ballot initiatives have banned affirmative action state by state in the last three decades. These states include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001979390706000304">California in 1996</a>, <a href="https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2023/06/29/what-the-us-supreme-court-decision-rejecting-affirmative-action-means-in-washington">Washington in 1998</a>, <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/news/sixteen-years-ago-affirmative-action-was-banned-in-michigan-with-upcoming-supreme-court-lawsuit-it-may-be-banned-nationwide/">Michigan in 2006</a>, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Affirmative_action_in_Nebraska">Nebraska in 2008</a> and <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Affirmative_action_in_Arizona">Arizona in 2010</a>. In 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/78/932/504514/">Hopwood v. Texas</a> banned affirmative action across its jurisdiction: Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.</p>
<p>Regardless of how selective a public university may be, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904820961007">the enrollment of racial minorities at those schools declines</a> if they are located in states that ban affirmative action.</p>
<p>The largest effects are felt at the most selective flagship universities, like <a href="https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/uc-affirmative-action.pdf">University of California Berkeley, UCLA</a> and the <a href="https://record.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/220804_AmicusBrief.pdf">University of Michigan</a>. All of these schools self-reported dramatic declines in representation, particularly among Black, Hispanic and Native students. According to this data, underrepresented groups declined by 12% across the University of California system. At the University of Michigan, Black and Native undergraduate enrollment fell by 44% and 90%, respectively, in the years following the affirmative action ban.</p>
<p>Affirmative action was a precise tool in that it allowed universities to pay specific attention to specific populations of applicants. Without this tool, universities are left with blunt policy solutions and struggle to maintain and increase student racial diversity.</p>
<h2>What lessons does your book offer for colleges and universities?</h2>
<p>A ban on the method is not a ban on the goal.</p>
<p>Nationally, universities can <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">no longer practice affirmative action</a> as a way to maintain racial diversity among their students. This does not mean, however, that universities will abandon their commitments to racial diversity.</p>
<p>Even in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/us/politics/affirmative-action-ban-states.html">states that already had bans on affirmative action</a> before the Supreme Court banned the practice, universities <a href="https://news.umich.edu/u-m-president-mary-sue-coleman/">reiterated</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2999406">their commitments to racial diversity</a>. They also reaffirmed that they would both comply with the ban and find ways to prioritize diversity. </p>
<p>Still, I believe affirmative action bans could have a chilling effect on the willingness of some universities to explicitly mention race in their discussions and policies regarding diversity and inclusion. Bans on affirmative action discourage university administrators from <a href="https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v4-18-449/">using race</a> as a criteria in admissions, even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/590673">when they are otherwise allowed</a> to do so. This research demonstrates how universities that are less selective have adopted broader statements about diversity and student recruitment that do not explicitly mention race.</p>
<h2>How are colleges responding?</h2>
<p>When colleges use race-neutral strategies to increase racial diversity, <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/94/3/712/58001/The-Effects-of-Affirmative-Action-Bans-on-College">they don’t get</a> <a href="https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/reardon_white_paper.pdf">the same results</a> that they did with race-conscious affirmative action. There simply are no policy tools <a href="https://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Kidder-D64-update.pdf">that work as well</a> as affirmative action at producing racial diversity.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, universities will now seek out race-neutral methods to maintain or increase racial diversity on campus.</p>
<p>One example is <a href="https://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/diversity-university-admissions-affirmative-action-percent-plans-and-holistic-review">holistic admissions</a>. This involves assessment of an applicant’s academic achievements using multiple factors. These factors include socioeconomic hardship, educational disadvantages or other forms of adversity. <a href="https://news.umich.edu/applications-to-u-m-are-the-highest-in-the-school-s-history/">Computer software</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/s1059-433720190000080001">can aid</a> universities in making demographic factors like the educational backgrounds of parents, the number of students on free or reduced lunch at the schools an applicant attended and the family’s socioeconomic status part of the admissions review.</p>
<p>Other states have tried legislative solutions, such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643283/">guaranteeing</a> <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED592617">enrollment</a> at state universities to graduating high school seniors in the top percent of their class.</p>
<p>Following the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling, some colleges and universities have pursued creative solutions to comply with the Supreme Court decision. For example, at Sarah Lawrence College, the admissions application <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/07/20/new-application-essay-prompt-cites-affirmative-action">cites language from the decision</a> when it asks students to comment on the role race has played in their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Foley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The author of a new book on affirmative action in higher education discusses how colleges might still be able to become more diverse now that affirmative action has been banned.Lauren Foley, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Western Michigan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152232023-11-30T19:30:10Z2023-11-30T19:30:10ZEdward Blum’s crusade against affirmative action has used the legal strategy developed by civil rights activists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557181/original/file-20231101-22-7fzxyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=552%2C143%2C2443%2C1850&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Edward Blum stands in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 20, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/edward-blum-the-affirmative-action-opponent-behind-the-news-photo/1348676191?adppopup=true">Shuran Huang for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Few people have been <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/10/supreme-court-edward-blum-unc-harvard-myth.html">more associated</a> with rolling back modern-day civil rights laws than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/08/us/edward-blum-affirmative-action-race.html">Edward Blum</a>, the former stockbroker who has successfully challenged many affirmative action and voting rights laws.</p>
<p>Blum has no formal legal training. He, in fact, refers to himself as an “<a href="https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/05/29/meet-edward-blum-the-man-behind-the-harvard-affirmative-action-case/">amateur litigator</a>.” Yet, he was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/affirmative-action-supreme-court-ed-blum-100b36c3">instrumental in engineering several legal cases</a> that ultimately led to the June 29, 2023, U.S. Supreme Court decision that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/us/politics/supreme-court-admissions-affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html">banned the use of race</a> in college admissions. </p>
<p>Spared from that decision were <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-affirmative-action-military-academies-exemption/">U.S. military academies</a>. In a brief footnote in the 237-page decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that those institutions have “potentially distinct interests” from other universities and thus made them exempt from the court’s decision banning affirmative action programs.</p>
<p>That exemption – and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s use of race in its admissions – are Blum’s latest targets. </p>
<p>On Sept. 19, 2023, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/19/west-point-affirmative-action-lawsuit-race">Blum filed a suit</a> in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against West Point over its racial-balancing admission goals. </p>
<p>Given Blum’s strategy of appealing lower court rulings to the nation’s highest court, his latest test case has the potential to once again bring the issue of affirmative action back to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>In an October 2022 interview, Blum said he believes that <a href="https://time.com/6225372/edward-blum-affirmative-action-supreme-court-interview/">diversity on campus</a> is a good thing, but “there is a way to go about doing this without putting a thumb on the scale.”</p>
<h2>A political awakening</h2>
<p>Until recently, Blum’s <a href="https://time.com/6225372/edward-blum-affirmative-action-supreme-court-interview/">legal activism</a> rarely gave rise to widespread public praise, condemnation or even scrutiny. His crusade began in the early 1990s when Blum <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/shape-up/">lost a 1992 congressional election</a> in Texas. </p>
<p>Blum and others eventually sued Texas, claiming that political districts created in 1990 to increase minority voter participation were unconstitutional. The case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In its 1996 decision in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/517/952/">Bush v. Vera</a>, the Court agreed with Blum and his fellow litigants. Justices held that race was the dominant factor in the creation of those districts, and thus violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. </p>
<p>As a result, the court redrew the political boundaries of 13 congressional districts and ordered the state to conduct special elections in those districts they deemed were racially gerrymandered.</p>
<p>“After the Supreme Court opinion came down, my interest in the world of business and investment dramatically declined and my interest in law and public policy dramatically increased,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/24/edward-blum-supreme-court-harvard-unc/">Blum later told The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>But Blum’s subsequent conservative crusade and legal strategies derive from an unlikely source – the <a href="https://naacp.org/">National Association for the Advancement of Colored People</a>, known as the NAACP, the very civil rights group that used the courts to dismantle racial segregation in its seminal 1954 case <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/brown_v_board_of_education_(1954)">Brown v. Board of Education</a>.</p>
<p>History is not without irony. </p>
<h2>The NAACP’s legal legacy</h2>
<p>The NAACP was <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807855959/the-naacps-legal-strategy-against-segregated-education-1925-1950/">one of the first advocacy organizations</a> to recognize that litigation had the power to change social life. </p>
<p>Long before civil rights activists took to the streets after the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/montgomery-bus-boycott">Montgomery bus boycott</a> in the 1950s, the NAACP had set its sights on what is now known as <a href="https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4997&context=ndlr">institutional reform litigation</a>. </p>
<p>The idea? </p>
<p>During the 1930s and 1940s, the NAACP and its <a href="https://www.naacpldf.org/ldf-mission/">Legal Defense Fund</a>, led by brilliant legal minds like <a href="https://legacyofslavery.harvard.edu/alumni/charles-hamilton-houston">Charles Hamilton Houston</a> and future Supreme Court justice <a href="https://www.naacpldf.org/about-us/history/thurgood-marshall/">Thurgood Marshall</a>, began to challenge the inherent inequalities of legal segregation by using what became known as <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/history-brown-v-board-education-re-enactment">test cases</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2004/cottrol_diamond_ware_naacp">These test cases</a> targeted racial discrimination in voting, housing and education. They also served a higher purpose in trying to end the system of racist laws known as <a href="https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1035&context=edu_fac">Jim Crow</a> – the very laws that established segregation across the South and disenfranchised Black voters. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black man dressed in a business suit is sitting behind a desk with his hands crossed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562154/original/file-20231128-19-un7l1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall sits behind his desk in 1952.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-american-lawyer-and-special-counsel-of-the-news-photo/666092350?adppopup=true">PhotoQuest/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The NAACP also very carefully <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brown-v-board/bios.html">chose litigants</a> and test cases. </p>
<p>For instance, the lion’s share of the NAACP’s plaintiffs were respected citizens in both Black and white communities. A good number of <a href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/naacp-carries-teacher-salary-fight-into-va-1938/">these cases derived from Southern border states</a> such as Virginia, where racial tensions between white and Black people were less hostile than in deep Southern states such as Mississippi and Alabama.</p>
<p>Using this strategy, the organization filed dozens of test cases against segregation.</p>
<p>Marshall <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/thurgood-marshall">argued 32 cases alone</a>, winning 29 of them. </p>
<h2>A new conservative playbook</h2>
<p>Blum and his allies are using similar strategies and have been widely successful in achieving their conservative political ideals. </p>
<p>Blum’s strategy against minority voting protections that started in Texas eventually ended in the 2015 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/shelby-county-decision">Shelby County v. Holder</a> decision. </p>
<p>In Shelby, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/07/selective-originalism-and-selective-textualism-how-the-roberts-court-decimated-the-voting-rights-act/">gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>. And they did it by eliminating the requirement that states with a history of racial disenfranchisement needed federal approval when making changes to voting rules. </p>
<p>Blum specifically encouraged Shelby County officials in Alabama to challenge <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-section-5-voting-rights-act#:%7E:text=Under%20Section%205%2C%20any%20change,makes%20a%20submission%20to%20th">Sections 5 of the Voting Rights Act</a>. That section required Shelby County and certain other Southern jurisdictions to report all proposed voting-related changes to the U.S. Justice Department. </p>
<p>The review process was meant to ensure that the changes would not, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-section-5-voting-rights-act#:%7E:text=Under%20Section%205%2C%20any%20change,makes%20a%20submission%20to%20th">as the Justice Department wrote</a>, “deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.”</p>
<p>From its very start, Southerners <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43626/15">fought against the law</a> and spent decades trying to dismantle Section 5, especially because it required direct federal supervision over state and local elections. </p>
<p>That day came with the Shelby County v. Holder decision. Blum’s case helped eliminate a major component of the landmark Voting Rights Act – federal oversight – and has since given rise to <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-supreme-court-decision-gerrymandering-fix-is-up-to-voters-117307">partisan gerrymandering</a> in the states previously under federal scrutiny for their legacy of discriminatory voting practices.</p>
<p>By the early 2000s, Blum turned his attention toward affirmative action in higher education. Much like the NAACP during the civil rights era, Blum carefully chose his plaintiffs and test cases. </p>
<p>Blum hand-picked <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/a-colorblind-constitution-what-abigail-fishers-affirmative-action-case-is-r">Abigail Fisher</a>, a white woman that his alma mater, the University of Texas Austin, had rejected. Fisher, who was a legacy candidate because her father graduated from there, claimed that she was a victim of reverse discrimination as a result of the school’s affirmative action policies. If successful, the case would have meant the end of race-based admission polices at the Texas school and consequently at other colleges across the country.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court ultimately disagreed in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/579/14-981/">Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin</a> in 2016 and reaffirmed its belief in schools that “train students to appreciate diverse viewpoints, to see one another as more than mere stereotypes, and to develop the capacity to live and work together as equal members of a common community.”</p>
<p>But that didn’t stop Blum. </p>
<p>In new lawsuits against the University of North Carolina and Harvard, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/edward-blum-lawsuits-affirmativeaction-law-firms-b8871ab1">Blum strategically featured</a> the plight of Asian Americans, in part because they could be depicted as especially sympathetic victims and model minorities cruelly harmed by affirmative action. </p>
<p>“I needed Asian plaintiffs,” Blum <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiBvo-05JRg">told a group</a> gathered by the Houston Chinese Alliance in 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court, from left in front row, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan, and from left in back row, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/02/1183981097/affirmative-action-asian-americans-poc">He found them</a>, and they became the plaintiffs in the cases that led to the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">decisions</a> in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/politics/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html">Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-university-of-north-carolina/">Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina</a> that banned the use of race in college admissions. </p>
<p>Both cases were brought by <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students For Fair Admission</a>, an anti-affirmative action group <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/05/29/meet-edward-blum-the-man-behind-the-harvard-affirmative-action-case/">created by Blum</a>. </p>
<p>Blum’s focus on race neutrality often overlooks one very important historical reality – the <a href="https://medium.com/new-american-history/how-black-history-shaped-history-abbf7dec8804">white backlash</a> that followed the enactment of civil rights laws in the 1960s. In some ways, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/affirmative-action-supreme-court-ed-blum-100b36c3">Blum’s crusade</a>, I believe as a historian of the civil rights movement, embodies that anxiety – and arguably makes a case for why laws protecting minority rights are still needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Maxwell Hayter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Without much scrutiny or fanfare, Edward Blum has led the attack against federal minority voter protection laws and the use of race in college admissions.Julian Maxwell Hayter, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2129442023-09-13T16:49:32Z2023-09-13T16:49:32ZA constitutional revolution is underway at the Supreme Court, as the conservative supermajority rewrites basic understandings of the roots of US law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547245/original/file-20230908-19-u5ekav.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C5443%2C3639&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, written in 1787 on parchment paper.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-is-the-preamble-to-the-us-constitution-it-starts-with-news-photo/144085092?adppopup=true">Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a 2006 episode of the television show <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402711/">“Boston Legal</a>,” conservative lawyer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzmrZWe_9eg">Denny Crane</a> asserted that he had a constitutional right to carry a concealed firearm: “And the Supreme Court is going to say so, just as soon as they overturn Roe v. Wade.” </p>
<p>That was a joke, an unimaginable event, when the show aired 17 years ago. Then in 2022, the court announced <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court.html">both</a> <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/in-6-3-ruling-court-strikes-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-law/">changes</a>, shifting the butt of a joke to the law of the land in a brief span of years – and signaling the start of what is sometimes called a “constitutional revolution.” </p>
<p>Scholars describe a constitutional revolution as “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300231021/constitutional-revolution/">a historic constitutional course correction</a>,” or a “<a href="https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3910&context=mlr">deep change in constitutional meaning</a>.” </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.constitutionday.com/">Constitution Day</a> is celebrated this year on Sept. 17 – the anniversary of the signing of <a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript">America’s basic law</a> in 1787 – I believe a shift of that magnitude is clearly occurring in the recent rulings of the Supreme Court.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nine people in black robes seated together in an elegant, high-ceilinged room under a chandelier." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547247/original/file-20230908-23-fzjq97.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Justices of the Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/justices-of-the-us-supreme-court-pose-for-their-official-news-photo/1243795208?adppopup=true">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Revolutionary rulings</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-seismic-change-has-taken-place-at-the-supreme-court-but-its-not-clear-if-the-shift-is-about-principle-or-party-190815">In the 2021-22 term</a>, the Supreme Court’s dramatic rulings focused on <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolutionary-ruling-and-not-just-for-abortion-a-supreme-court-scholar-explains-the-impact-of-dobbs-185823">abortion</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-sweeps-aside-new-yorks-limits-on-carrying-a-gun-raising-second-amendment-rights-to-new-heights-183486">guns</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-supreme-courts-football-decision-is-a-game-changer-on-school-prayer-184619">religion</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-supreme-court-has-curtailed-epas-power-to-regulate-carbon-pollution-and-sent-a-warning-to-other-regulators-185281">the power of federal agencies</a>. In a nutshell, the justices removed the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights and religious rights, and restricted the power of agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency to craft regulations.</p>
<p>In the recent 2022-2023 term, the court again addressed <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-business-can-decline-service-based-on-its-beliefs-supreme-court-rules-but-what-will-this-look-like-in-practice-207073">religion</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-that-president-bidens-student-loan-cancellation-program-has-been-canceled-heres-whats-next-208551">power of the federal bureaucracy</a>, also adding <a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-lasted-over-50-years-3-essential-reads-explaining-how-it-ended-209273">race</a> as a major area of controversy in a decision that ended affirmative action in college admissions.</p>
<p>The core rulings on these disputes were all 6-3, with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-a-6-3-supreme-court-would-be-different-146558">court’s new supermajority</a> of conservative justices on one side and the three remaining liberals in dissent.</p>
<p>Here are the three major cases from the past term expanding the constitutional revolution:</p>
<h2>Race: Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf">This case</a> challenged the constitutionality of affirmative action programs at American universities. Unlike previous affirmative action cases, which featured white applicants who claimed to have been discriminated against in favor of minority students, this lawsuit focused on another minority – Asians – who believed they were treated worse than other minorities and whites in the Harvard admissions process.</p>
<p>The heart of the controversy is about the meaning of the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xiv/clauses/702">equal protection clause</a> of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment">Fourteenth Amendment</a>: “No State shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”</p>
<p>The court ruled that the equal protection principle means public institutions may not take race into account, even when they are using racial preferences to the advantage of minority groups who suffered a history of oppression.</p>
<p>The Harvard case effectively overrules <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/02-241">a prior decision</a> in 2003 that allowed universities to use racial preferences in order to achieve a degree of diversity on campus.</p>
<p>The new constitutional rule is that the equal protection clause is a promise to treat all citizens of all races the same, rather than the alternative understanding of the clause’s promise to move society toward equity among racial groups, which allows or even encourages the differential treatment of some groups in order to make up for past injustices.</p>
<h2>Religion: 303 Creative v. Elenis</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf">This case</a> asked whether the First Amendment’s protections of religion and speech override the protections for LGBT citizens in state laws. Does a business owner who wants to provide only wedding websites for celebrations that comport with their religious convictions have to provide the same service for couples whose unions they do not endorse?</p>
<p>The court ruled that regardless of the religious component, it is a violation of free speech for the government to compel the expression of any messages inconsistent with one’s beliefs, even in the context of a business transaction.</p>
<p>While technically a ruling on speech, this is a controversy about religious citizens demanding exemptions from anti-discrimination laws. The ruling is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/christianity-at-the-supreme-court-from-majority-power-to-minority-rights-119718">long trend expanding religious liberty</a>.</p>
<p>The new rule in this case extended the previous term’s dramatic change in the constitutional law of religion in the praying coach case, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/kennedy-v-bremerton-school-district-2/">Kennedy v. Bremerton</a>. In that case, the court ruled that the religion clauses at the beginning of the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">First Amendment</a> have a clear meaning: The government may not coerce any citizen when it comes to religion – either toward or away from religious beliefs. If any action of the government is pushing someone to abandon or embrace religious behavior, that is not allowable. </p>
<p>In the case of the praying coach, this meant a public school could not block his display of prayer at a sporting event, something that would have been seen as an unconstitutional entanglement of government with religion under previous courts. The new interpretation of the First Amendment explained in this line of rulings – giving the benefit of the doubt to religious believers whenever there is a judgment call – dramatically increases the protections for religious citizens.</p>
<h2>The administrative state: Biden v. Nebraska</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf">The justices in this case</a> struck down President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement">student loan forgiveness program</a>, which would have eliminated up to US$20,000 of debt for millions of Americans, with a total price tag of approximately $430 billion. The decision to bar the administration’s program was grounded in a new principle known as the “<a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12077">major questions doctrine</a>.”</p>
<p>This principle diminishes the power of many federal agencies. It first appeared in the court’s rulings during the pandemic, halting the Biden administration’s <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/21a23_ap6c.pdf">eviction moratorium</a> and <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf">vaccine mandate</a>. The clearest statement of the doctrine came in 2022 in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/west-virginia-v-environmental-protection-agency/">West Virginia v. EPA</a>, limiting the agency’s ability to introduce new regulations curbing greenhouse gas emissions and shifting energy production toward cleaner sources. </p>
<p>The doctrine asserts that an administrative agency – like the Department of Education, which initiated the loan forgiveness program – cannot decide what the court sees as a major political question, which includes doing something with a large price tag or making a dramatic change in policy, unless the agency has explicit authorization from Congress. </p>
<p>The justification for the new doctrine, expressed most clearly by <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/21a23_ap6c.pdf#page=40">Justice Neil Gorsuch</a>, is that only Congress wields the authority delegated by the voters, who can reward or punish those members of Congress in the next election. Federal agencies are not limited by the same control through elections, and are wielding the delegated authority of Congress rather than their own inherent power. The major question doctrine argues that if agencies are allowed to make major policy decisions, we do not have representative government as demanded by the Constitution.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large granite building with a sign in front of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547263/original/file-20230908-27-trso3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Supreme Court has issued rulings in the past two years curbing the power of government agencies such as the EPA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpFuelEconomy/2cc48b47e8604200bbe08d2653d69bcd/photo?Query=EPA%20headquarters%20building%20Clinton&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=638&currentItemNo=7&vs=true">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Destination unknown</h2>
<p>This constitutional revolution could lead far beyond abortion, guns, race, religion or the administrative state. What is known on this Constitution Day is that the revolution will likely continue, expressed in Supreme Court opinions crafted by the new supermajority of conservative justices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The changes wrought by the new conservative majority in the US Supreme Court are revolutionary.Morgan Marietta, Professor of Political Science, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2096472023-08-03T12:22:53Z2023-08-03T12:22:53ZEnding affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540851/original/file-20230802-26048-4myl04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=476%2C325%2C4568%2C3033&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Participants at Harvard marching at a rally protesting the Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action on July 1, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-march-and-chant-slogans-at-a-rally-protesting-news-photo/1426846815?adppopup=true"> Ziyu Julian Zhu/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In two cases challenging the use of race in college admissions, the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">U.S. Supreme Court ruled</a> that the educational benefit of racial diversity is no longer what it once called a “compelling interest.” </p>
<p>These decisions effectively end race-conscious college admissions. In my view, as a legal <a href="https://jerrykang.net">scholar of implicit bias and critical race studies</a>, they do not end discrimination against Asian Americans, which was the advertised goal of the lawsuits. </p>
<p>The cases against Harvard and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were both brought by <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students For Fair Admission</a>, an organization created by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/08/us/edward-blum-affirmative-action-race.html">Ed Blum</a>, a California businessman who has successfully challenged many affirmative action and voting rights laws.</p>
<p>In the lawsuits, Blum strategically featured the plight of Asian Americans. </p>
<p>But before he could initiate the lawsuits, he needed people with the standing to sue.</p>
<p>“I needed Asian plaintiffs,” Blum <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiBvo-05JRg">told a group</a> gathered by the Houston Chinese Alliance in 2015.</p>
<p>Why did Blum need Asian Americans? It’s my belief he felt the need because Asian Americans can be depicted as especially sympathetic victims and model minorities cruelly harmed by affirmative action.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising, then, to hear <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-01/shyong-supreme-court-affirmative-action-what-have-we-won">some Asian Americans celebrating</a> the Supreme Court’s decision as striking down discrimination against them.</p>
<p>That’s not what actually happened. </p>
<h2>Discrimination against Asian Americans</h2>
<p>Are Asian Americans discriminated against in college admissions? That’s a hard question to answer, for two reasons. </p>
<p>First, in order to know what counts as discrimination, a baseline is needed for comparison. In other words, you must ask, “As compared to whom?” </p>
<p>For race discrimination, the natural comparison is with white people because historically that race has received the best treatment. This is why important civil rights statutes, passed after the Civil War, explicitly guarantee the same <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1981">contracting</a> and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1982">property rights</a> “as is enjoyed by white citizens.” </p>
<p>Second, in order to uncover subtle discrimination, analysts often need statistical techniques. Both sides in the litigation <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/11/13/admissions-data/">used multiple regression</a>, which selects a specific set of predictor variables – such as test scores, grade-point averages and race – and then calculates how much each variable affects the admissions decision controlling for all the others. </p>
<p>The two sides bickered over which variables should be included in the model. Harvard sought to include far more variables. In contrast, Students For Fair Admission wanted fewer. </p>
<p>It turned out that including more variables, such as personal ratings and legacy status, made race less important to the admissions decision. </p>
<p>That’s partly because personal ratings and legacy status are themselves correlated with race, and adding overlapping variables into the model blurs each variable’s unique impact. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Supreme Court, from left, front row: Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; and from left, back row: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In the end, the trial court sided with Harvard’s model, which meant that, in a comparison between an Asian and white applicant with identical test scores, GPAs, personal ratings, legacy status and so forth, the applicant’s race did not matter in the regression. </p>
<p>Thus, the court found no discrimination. </p>
<p>This finding was affirmed on appeal by the <a href="http://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/19-2005P-01A.pdf">1st Circuit Court of Appeals</a>, and the Supreme Court did not overturn that finding. </p>
<p>In my view, it’s simply erroneous to think that the Supreme Court struck down discrimination against Asian Americans since none was ever found.</p>
<h2>Ending affirmative action</h2>
<p>Although the lawsuits emphasized the problem of discrimination against Asian Americans, their real target was the use of race in affirmative action programs that benefit underrepresented racial minorities. </p>
<p>Over the past 45 years, the court had <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-2003-supreme-court-decision-upholding-affirmative-action-planted-the-seeds-of-its-overturning-as-justices-then-and-now-thought-racism-an-easily-solved-problem-208807">cobbled together a compromise</a> on affirmative action in higher education.</p>
<p>On the one hand, explicit race-conscious decision-making <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1841">must satisfy strict scrutiny</a> under the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">equal protection clause</a>, with a requirement that it further a “compelling interest” through “narrowly tailored” means. <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12391">Strict scrutiny</a> is the most rigorous form of judicial review used to determine the constitutionality of certain laws.</p>
<p>On the other hand, in the rarefied domain of higher education, diversity would count as a “compelling interest.” </p>
<p>This diversity rationale was introduced by Justice Lewis Powell in his concurring opinion in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)#:%7E:text=Primary%20tabs-,Regents%20of%20the%20University%20of%20California%20v.,Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of%201964">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a> in 1978. </p>
<p>In his analysis, Powell rejected the justification for affirmative action as a way to remedy centuries of past societal discrimination. He considered that justification “an amorphous concept of injury that may be ageless in its reach into the past.” </p>
<p>Instead, Powell settled on the concept of diversity. </p>
<p>Although no other justice joined Powell’s opinion, it broke the tie and decided the case. It’s this understanding of diversity-as-a-compelling-interest that eventually garnered majority support in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/grutter-v-bollinger-et-al">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> and <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/11-345">Fisher v. University of Texas</a> that allowed the use of race in college admissions to continue. </p>
<p>In 2023’s Students For Fair Admission cases, the Supreme Court tore up this delicate truce that enabled race to be used as a factor in college admissions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man dressed in a dark business suit is walking on marbled stairs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540870/original/file-20230802-23-4tickl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A longtime opponent of affirmative action, Edward Blum, walks on the steps of the Supreme Court building in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/edward-blum-a-long-time-opponent-of-affirmative-action-in-news-photo/1437982045">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that the educational benefits of diversity were too unmeasurable to be compelling.</p>
<p>Whether the benefit was framed as training future leaders, better educating students through diversity or preparing engaged and productive citizens, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">Roberts wrote</a> that these interests were “not sufficiently coherent for purposes of strict scrutiny.”</p>
<p>Robert’s opinion effectively ended affirmative action in higher education. </p>
<h2>Does nothing to stop discrimination against Asian Americans</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action was a happy result for <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2023-06-29/republican-presidential-hopefuls-celebrate-supreme-court-ruling-on-affirmative-action">some conservative politicians</a> and horrifying for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/key-civil-rights-groups-blast-supreme-court-sharply-curtailing-affirma-rcna91829">civil rights advocates</a>. </p>
<p>What’s important is to avoid confusion about the reasons why.</p>
<p>It’s my belief that the end of affirmative action does nothing to end discrimination against Asian Americans as compared to whites. </p>
<p>The reason why Asian Americans are treated worse than whites in college admissions is because <a href="https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/12633/legacy-and-athlete-preferences-at-harvard">huge preferences are given to legacy applicants</a>, who are disproportionately white. </p>
<p>Another reason is that huge <a href="https://www.uclalawreview.org/race-and-privilege-misunderstood-athletics-and-selective-college-admissions-in-and-beyond-the-supreme-court-affirmative-action-cases/">preferences are given to athletes</a> in sports that include tennis, lacrosse and fencing. These athletes are also disproportionately white. </p>
<p>Finally, Asian Americans likely <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-study-exposes-racial-preferences-americans-n413371">suffer some discrimination</a> in personal ratings because of implicit biases. </p>
<p>Recommendations and interviews are highly subjective, based on gut-level enthusiasm and reactions. That means they are vulnerable to implicit biases that frame Asians as mathematically competent but cold, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32911985/">foreign</a> and <a href="https://jerrykang.net/research/2010-are-ideal-litigators-white/">unlikable</a>. </p>
<p>If Students For Fair Admission’s true objective were to end discrimination against Asian Americans vis-a-vis whites, it would have asked the court to end legacy and athlete preferences and build procedural guardrails against implicit bias. It did not.</p>
<h2>Zero-sum game</h2>
<p>Of course, the point could be made – as the chief justice did – that “college admissions is a zero-sum game.”</p>
<p>“A benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter,” <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">Roberts wrote</a>. </p>
<p>Under this logic, by ending affirmative action, Asian Americans as a group receive some small benefit in admissions chances. But remember that whites receive the exact same benefit. And legacy status, athletic experience and implicit biases will continue to favor whites over Asian Americans. </p>
<p>Finally, is this tiny benefit worth the cost of decreasing the number of Black, Latinx, Native American and underrepresented Asian and Pacific Islander students at elite colleges and universities? </p>
<p>In my view, the answer is no, but that question merits a hard conversation about the policies and principles underlying a racially just society. </p>
<p>I believe that Americans deserve to have that conversation without being misled into thinking that keeping affirmative action is the same thing as tolerating anti-Asian discrimination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Kang lectures on topics including race and implicit bias to various audiences, including judges, government agencies, and firms on a pro bono and paid basis. </span></em></p>In their lawsuits against affirmative action, Students For Fair Admission claimed to want to protect Asian Americans. A law professor explains why the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t achieve that goal.Jerry Kang, Distinguished Professor of Law and (by courtesy) Asian American Studies; Founding Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (2015-20), University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2096702023-07-26T12:19:54Z2023-07-26T12:19:54ZSupreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts uses conflicting views of race to resolve America’s history of racial discrimination<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538755/original/file-20230721-8728-1u9uyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=161%2C0%2C4508%2C3044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts attends the State of the Union address on Feb. 7, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chief-justice-of-the-united-states-john-roberts-attends-the-news-photo/1246877708?adppopup=true">Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 summer recess, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/29/politics/john-roberts-affirmative-action-race/index.html">Chief Justice John Roberts</a> wrote majority opinions that involved the use of race.</p>
<p>In the court’s 5-4 <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1086_1co6.pdf">Allen v. Milligan</a> decision, Roberts wrote that states must consider race in some circumstances when drawing congressional districts. </p>
<p>But in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College</a> – and its companion case involving the University of North Carolina – <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">Roberts virtually eliminated</a> the use of race in college admissions.</p>
<p>Though Roberts’ opinions appear at odds, his general disdain for the use of race is not. In both cases, he was clear that his preference is for as little use of race as possible, a position he has held for decades. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/washington/29scotus.html">he famously wrote in a 2007</a> case that <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2006/05-908">limited the use of race</a> in school integration plans, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating based on race.” </p>
<h2>Use of race to determine political districts</h2>
<p>At issue in the Alabama case was whether the power of Black voters was diluted by dividing them into districts where white voters dominate. </p>
<p>After the 2020 census, the Republican-controlled Alabama legislature <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-rules-favor-black-142654715.html">redrew the state’s seven congressional districts</a> to include only one in which Black voters would likely be able to elect a candidate of their choosing. </p>
<p>Black residents make up about 27% of the state’s population, and <a href="https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/merrill-v-milligan-faq/">voting rights advocates</a> argued that they deserved not one but two political districts. </p>
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<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Supreme Court, from left in front row: Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; and from left in back row: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court relied on a nearly 40-year-old case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1985/83-1968">Thornburg v. Gingles</a>, that determined a state should often draw a majority-minority district if <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Thornburg_v._Gingles">three conditions</a> are met. </p>
<p>First, if the racial minority can be a majority in a reasonably drawn district. Second, if the racial minority is politically cohesive, meaning that its members tend to vote together for the same candidates. And third, if the racial minority faces <a href="https://www.mississippifreepress.org/33699/alabama-violated-black-voters-rights-u-s-supreme-court-rules">bloc voting by a racial majority</a> that tends to vote against the racial minority’s candidate of choice. </p>
<p>All three conditions were true in Alabama, and the totality of the circumstances suggested minority voters did not participate equally in the political process in the area.</p>
<p>In his opinion, Roberts explained how racially motivated voter suppression in the century after the Civil War led to the initial passage of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act">Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>. </p>
<p>“A district is not equally open,” Roberts wrote, “when minority voters face – unlike their majority peers – bloc voting along racial lines, arising against the backdrop of substantial racial discrimination within the State, that renders a minority vote unequal to a vote by a nonminority voter.” </p>
<p>Given the court’s recent history of restricting rights protected under the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 – and <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/john-roberts-voting-rights-act-121222/">Roberts’ past opposition</a> – Roberts’ opinion surprised many civil and voting rights advocates. </p>
<p>“States shouldn’t let race be the primary factor in deciding how to draw boundaries, but it should be a consideration,” Roberts wrote. “The line we have drawn is between consciousness and predominance.”</p>
<p>That line of thinking is a far cry from Roberts’ unrelenting opposition to key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. In the 1980s, as a young lawyer in the U.S. Justice Department during the Reagan administration, Roberts wrote 25 memos <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/john-roberts-voting-rights-act-121222/">in opposition to the Voting Rights Act</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A gray-haired white man is applauding about white man dressed in a business suit as his wife looks on approvingly." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539104/original/file-20230724-23-x5uiid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">U.S. President George W. Bush, left, applauds as John Roberts, center, stands with his wife, Jane, after Roberts was sworn in as the 17th chief justice of the United States on Sept. 29, 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-george-w-bush-left-applauds-as-john-roberts-news-photo/525584818?adppopup=true">Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Roberts went even further as chief justice. In the 2013 <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/570/529/">Shelby County v. Holder</a> case, Roberts and the court’s conservative majority eliminated provisions of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of voting discrimination to get voting changes cleared by the federal government before they went into effect.</p>
<h2>The use of race in college admissions</h2>
<p>Roberts had a different view of race and its importance in diversifying college campuses. </p>
<p>The anti-affirmative action organization <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students for Fair Admissions</a> argued that the schools’ race-conscious admissions process was unconstitutional and discriminated against high-achieving Asian American students in favor of traditionally underrepresented Blacks and Hispanics who may not have earned the same grades or standardized test scores as other applicants, such as Asian Americans.</p>
<p>Roberts agreed in his <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">majority opinion</a>. </p>
<p>He argued that the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/equal_protection">Equal Protection Clause</a> of the <a href="https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/14th-amendment.htm#:%7E:text=Passed%20by%20the%20Senate%20on,laws%2C%E2%80%9D%20extending%20the%20provisions%20of">14th Amendment</a> – and <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/regulatory/statutes/title-vi-civil-rights-act-of-1964">Title VI of the Civil Rights Act</a> – strictly limited how schools could use race in admissions. </p>
<p>“College admissions are zero sum, and a benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former at the expense of the latter,” Roberts wrote. </p>
<p>Though Roberts could have used previous U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1978’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a> or its 2003 <a href="https://casetext.com/case/grutter-v-bollinger-et-al">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> decision to continue to allow the use of race in college admissions, he did not.</p>
<p>Those cases, he argued, had been interpreted too permissively by schools. He wrote that Harvard’s and UNC’s race-infused admissions guidelines “cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.”</p>
<p>But near the end of his opinion, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">Roberts appears to backtrack slightly</a> by writing that each prospective student should be evaluated “as an individual – not on the basis of race,” although universities can still consider “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” </p>
<h2>Roberts’ opinions reveal racial ambivalence</h2>
<p>Roberts’ arguments for the conflicting rulings on the use of race may appear puzzling.</p>
<p>In the Alabama case, Roberts ruled that the law requires the state to explicitly use race to ensure minority race voters who are currently being shut out of the political process may receive their fair share of representation.</p>
<p>In the affirmative action cases, Roberts ruled that the law prevents universities from explicitly using race to ensure minority race applicants who have historically been shut out of the admissions process may be admitted in even rough proportion to their population.</p>
<p>In both circumstances, the use of race worked as a corrective to discriminatory voting laws and college admissions practices.</p>
<p>In congressional redistricting, race is used to build districts to counter racial bloc voting and de facto residential and ideological segregation. In admissions, race was used to increase diversity that helped the learning atmosphere for all students. It also had the effect of adding underrepresented minority students with diverse backgrounds to student bodies.</p>
<p><a href="https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Jackson-dissent.pdf">In her dissent</a> in the North Carolina affirmative action case, Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson spells out the problem with Roberts’ ambivalence on race. </p>
<p>“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness,” Jackson wrote, “the majority pulls the rip cord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry L. Chambers Jr. does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two Supreme Court rulings on the use of race appear at odds with each other. Blame Chief Justice Roberts’s ambivalence on race, a constitutional law scholar writes.Henry L. Chambers Jr., Professor of Law, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2086472023-07-17T12:26:53Z2023-07-17T12:26:53ZWhat the US can learn from affirmative action at universities in Brazil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537512/original/file-20230714-20840-9sb46u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C31%2C5252%2C3491&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Affirmative action for college students in Brazil led to better employment prospects for those who benefited from the policy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brazilian-students-royalty-free-image/623768390?phrase=brazil+college+&adppopup=true">Cesar Okada via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Brazil <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/americas/brazil-enacts-affirmative-action-law-for-universities.html">implemented affirmative action</a> at its federal universities in 2012, the policy prompted a public debate that largely resembles the debate over affirmative action in the United States.</p>
<p>Brazil’s affirmative action policy requires every federal university to reserve at least half of all seats for students from certain groups. Out of that half, about half of the seats go solely to Black, mixed and Indigenous Brazilians. The other half go to low-income public-school students. Other universities are free to set their admissions policies. </p>
<p>Like many Americans, some Brazilians worried that affirmative action would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/world/americas/brazil-enacts-affirmative-action-law-for-universities.html">reduce the quality of education in public universities</a>. Some were concerned that only <a href="https://www.scielo.br/j/op/a/QyKvRBhmPkKc5f8v7LHFWbg/?lang=pt">the more privileged members in the targeted groups would benefit</a> and that affirmative action wasn’t worth it. Others doubted that beneficiaries could keep up academically and feared that their <a href="https://ojs.ufgd.edu.br/index.php/movimentacao/article/viewFile/5113/3957">peers would suffer</a> as a result.</p>
<p>As researchers who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ma37cqEAAAAJ&hl=en">college admissions</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V6FhDu4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">economics</a> and the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AfGX7nYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">equity of social interventions and policies</a>, we took a critical look at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12564">effects of affirmative action in Brazil</a>. To do this, we examined prior research, as well as the effects of affirmative action on student learning and future earnings. In America, these outcomes are difficult to study because, prior to the use of race being banned in college admissions, schools implemented affirmative action as they saw fit. In Brazil, all federal universities had to implement affirmative action the same way.</p>
<h2>Unfounded fears</h2>
<p>Brazilian federal universities are some of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-has-tuition-free-college-but-it-only-serves-a-portion-of-its-citizens-2015-6">best in the country</a>. Even more importantly, they are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-has-tuition-free-college-but-it-only-serves-a-portion-of-its-citizens-2015-6">tuition-free</a>. They are the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/brazil-where-free-universities-largely-serve-the-wealthy/389997/">preferred universities</a> for most high school students and their families. Historically, mostly well-off students attended these universities.</p>
<p>Through our research, we concluded not only that Brazilians’ fears about affirmative action lowering the quality of the nation’s universities were largely unwarranted, but also that across most measures the policy has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12564">proved to be quite beneficial</a>. </p>
<p>Specifically, we found that:</p>
<p>• Those admitted to universities via affirmative action performed quite well in their studies. By the time they graduated, their grade-point averages were not much different from the GPAs of other students. In the most selective majors, the disparities in GPAs that existed when students began their studies <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joes.12564">had largely disappeared by graduation</a>. </p>
<p>• Students admitted through affirmative action <a href="https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.47.3.754">did not hamper the learning of their peers</a>. Sometimes, they outperformed peers who entered college the regular way without affirmative action. This is a reminder that traditional admissions processes may not be as meritocratic as some people may think.</p>
<p>• Students admitted via affirmative action were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.06.017">7% more likely</a> to work as managers or directors later in their careers than if the policy were not in effect. Such students also end up with many more years of education than they would otherwise. This means that many of these students would not pursue a higher education degree at all if these places were not reserved for them.</p>
<h2>Implications for the United States</h2>
<p>As elite colleges and universities in the U.S. grapple with how to achieve diversity after the Supreme Court banned the use of race in college admissions, we believe our findings bear particular relevance.</p>
<p>Some Americans argue that schools can achieve diversity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104839">through race-neutral policies</a>. At least in the Brazilian context, we found that race-neutral policies were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12564">ineffective for achieving racial diversity</a>.</p>
<p>We found that race-targeted policies were associated with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.101931">significant increase in Black students</a>, whereas race-neutral policies didn’t affect the percentage of Black, mixed and Indigenous Brazilian students in college. Part of the reason is because a large share of candidates, white and nonwhite, compete under income-based quotas. Thus, income-based quotas do not effect the racial composition of university students because these quotas benefit students from all racial backgrounds.</p>
<p>Race-based affirmative action seems necessary to achieve racial diversity, according to the Brazilian evidence. This is consistent with at least one other study from the U.S., where race-neutral policies have been shown to be <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161290">less effective than those explicitly considering race</a>. </p>
<p>By almost every measure studied, affirmative action in Brazil worked to generate a more diverse student body without reducing the quality of education. Even so, the inequality in Brazil’s higher education system remains. </p>
<p>In 2000, out of the 853,000 students enrolled in tuition-free public universities, around 596,000 were white and 239,000 were Black. By 2010, the system had expanded to 1,788,000 places, <a href="https://www.scielo.br/j/cp/a/tttVNfkLTtGXpmB8JDFcdnD/?lang=pt#ModalFigf4">with white students numbering 1,063,000 and Black students 689,000</a>. Brazil’s congress successfully made affirmative action mandatory in part because of the large impact of the many-but-scattered initiatives by public universities in the 2000s. </p>
<p>As the U.S. grapples with issues of equity and access to higher education, Brazil’s experience imparts valuable lessons. There, race-based affirmative action policies promote diversity and the values of equal opportunity that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01339-1">American universities like to espouse</a>. Race-based affirmative action can effectively increase enrollment of underrepresented minorities without compromising academic performance. This is something that income-based quotas may not be able to accomplish. Further, the Brazilian experience shows that these policies do not negatively impact other students.</p>
<p>Now that the U.S. courts have banned the use of race in college admissions, college and university leaders must find and adopt new ways to make their campuses more diverse. How to achieve that may be a challenge, but it seems to remain a worthwhile pursuit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research has found that race-neutral policies were not enough to achieve diversity in Brazil’s higher education system. Three scholars probe what that means for the United States.Neil Lewis Jr., Associate Professor of Communication and Social Behavior, Cornell UniversityInácio Bó, Associate Professor of Economics, University of MacauRodrigo Zeidan, Professor of Practice, NYU Shanghai and Fundação Dom Cabral, NYU ShanghaiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093012023-07-13T12:39:43Z2023-07-13T12:39:43ZSupport for legacy admissions is rooted in racial hierarchy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536923/original/file-20230711-8310-5fk3le.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=266%2C95%2C3923%2C3029&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Critics of legacy admissions argue they maintain racial hierarchies that disproportionately benefit white students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/high-school-teenager-students-attending-graduation-royalty-free-image/186834119?phrase=college%2Bgraduation">YinYang/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not long after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">ban the use of race in college admissions</a>, people began to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/legacy-college-admissions-under-scrutiny-again-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-affirmative-action">ask questions once again</a> about the fairness of legacy admissions.</p>
<p>Legacy admission is a practice in which colleges give a preference to the children of graduates when deciding which students to let in.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angelica-Gutierrez-12/research">researcher who specializes in education and workplace policies</a>, I have examined why people support legacy admissions and not affirmative action. I found that even though legacy admissions are based on parental connections to a given school, support for the policy actually has something to do with race.</p>
<p><a href="http://lawyersforcivilrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Federal-Civil-Rights-Complaint-Against-Harvard.pdf">Race is at the heart of a complaint</a> that <a href="https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/activists-challenge-harvard-s-legacy-admissions/7168000.html">Black and Latino community groups</a> filed against Harvard University just days after the court’s 6-3 ruling against affirmative action. The groups filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The complaint argues that legacy admissions are tantamount to racial discrimination because Harvard grants preferential treatment to legacies – 70% of whom are white. The complaint alleges that Harvard’s use of legacy admissions therefore violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in institutions that receive federal funds.</p>
<p>The groups – the Chica Project, African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network – are among the <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4084026-attention-turns-to-legacy-admissions-after-affirmative-action-ruling/">growing number</a> of those who question the double standard that lurks behind legacy admissions. And that is: Why can family ties be considered in the college admission process, but not race?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a person hunches over a poster showing support for affirmative action but not legacy admissions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536922/original/file-20230711-27-ijmj52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Legacy admissions have faced growing criticism after the recent Supreme Court decision that ended the consideration of race in college admissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-rally-against-the-us-supreme-courts-latest-decisions-news-photo/1375289467?adppopup=true">Anadolu Agency/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Examining rationales</h2>
<p>As a researcher, I began to probe <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.10.011">people’s attitudes about legacy admissions</a> – and whether the practice is fair – over a decade ago. I found that those who support legacy admissions do so in part because they want to maintain a racial hierarchy. In this hierarchy, white Americans are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.741">dominant group</a>, and ethnic minorities are subordinates.</p>
<p>Dominance is based on group access to resources that have positive social value. These resources include power, status and prestige. Relative to ethnic minorities, white Americans have higher levels of <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/racial-inequality-in-the-united-states">wealth, education and labor market participation</a>. They also occupy more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001020">positions of authority</a>.</p>
<p>To examine people’s beliefs about racial hierarchy and how much they support it, I used a construct called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.741">social dominance orientation</a>. Researchers have described social dominance orientation as the degree to which individuals support a group-based hierarchy and the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D-Worley/publication/360669756_Sidanius_and_Pratto_Social_Dominance_1999/links/62847984a5268672baf92726/Sidanius-and-Pratto-Social-Dominance-1999.pdf">domination of “inferior” groups</a>.</p>
<p>Those who seek to maintain the hierarchy will support policies that benefit the dominant group. Similarly, they will oppose policies that they believe threaten the hierarchy by benefiting ethnic minorities. </p>
<h2>Taking a closer look</h2>
<p>I used social dominance orientation in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.10.011">two different studies</a> to examine people’s attitudes toward legacy admissions versus affirmative action. In the first study, I recruited 80 UCLA students from an online database maintained by the university. Of that group, 38 were Asian, 36 were white, four were Latino and two were multiracial. </p>
<p>I first measured social dominance orientation by asking participants to rate how positively or negatively they felt about the eight statements in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000033">social dominance orientation scale</a>. Examples of the statements include: “It’s probably a good thing that certain groups are at the top and other groups are at the bottom.” Another one is: “Some groups are simply inferior to other groups.”</p>
<p>After completing the measure, participants were randomly assigned to review either a legacy policy or an affirmative action policy. I then measured participants’ policy support by asking them to rate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with various statements about the policy that they were assigned to review. One statement was: “This admissions policy will help admit highly qualified individuals.” Another statement was: “To what extent do you agree or disagree that this policy is legitimate and should be continued?”</p>
<p>Just as was found in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.476">previous research</a>, I found that people who wanted to maintain social dominance for white people were largely the same people who supported legacy admissions. They also largely opposed affirmative action.</p>
<p>These findings are consistent with the idea that individuals who seek to maintain the existing hierarchy will not support a policy that benefits ethnic minorities. However, they will support a policy that benefits the dominant group. This is relevant to the discussion of legacy admissions because members of the dominant group – in this case, white Americans – are more likely to have parents who went to college.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three students wearing mortarboards and graduation gowns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536928/original/file-20230711-17-ur6l4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research shows that those who support legacy admissions also largely oppose affirmative action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/three-university-graduates-smiling-in-a-row-royalty-free-image/172585547?phrase=college+graduation&adppopup=true">XiXinXing via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Underlying motives</h2>
<p>In the second study, I took a closer look at support for legacy admissions. Even though Asian American and white American students were supportive of legacy admissions in the first study, I couldn’t establish why. Both Asian Americans and white Americans were the <a href="https://apb.ucla.edu/file/78a10987-9501-4822-8bed-1f6504775dc9">majorities in the student population at UCLA</a> – 37% and 32%, respectively – so it was unclear whether their support for legacy admissions reflected a desire to maintain the existing hierarchy or self-interest. In other words, it was possible that both Asian American and white American students supported legacy admissions not because they wanted to uphold the hierarchy. Rather, their support could have been because both groups believed their children and grandchildren would benefit from the policy in the future.</p>
<p>To better determine the underlying motivation for support of legacy admissions, in the second study I examined only the views of Asian Americans. Fifty-four self-identified Asian students participated.</p>
<p>Consistent with the first study, I first measured participants’ social dominance orientation. I then randomly assigned participants to read about legacy admissions that would benefit either Asian Americans or white Americans. Half the participants received an admissions excerpt that concluded: “Because legacy policies improve the admissions prospects for alumni children, Asians will be the primary beneficiaries.” For the other half, the excerpt concluded: “Because legacy policies improve the admissions prospects for alumni children, whites will be the primary beneficiaries.” I then measured participants’ support for the legacy policy by using the same items from the first study.</p>
<p>If Asian Americans supported legacy admissions in the first study simply because they believed that their children and grandchildren would benefit from this policy in the future, then in the second study we would have seen support for the use of legacy admissions when they read that the policy would benefit Asian Americans. Instead, I found that support is driven not by self-interest but a desire to maintain the hierarchy. The results revealed that Asian Americans supported legacy admissions only when white Americans were the perceived beneficiaries. There was no significant support for legacy admissions when Asian Americans were the perceived beneficiaries.</p>
<p>In all, the results show that support and opposition to policies doesn’t depend on the actual policies. Rather, it depends on the perceived effect the policies will have on the racial hierarchy. </p>
<h2>The quest for equality</h2>
<p>Policies like affirmative action <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373713508810">can level the playing field and increase access</a> to college for historically excluded groups. However, legacy admission policies can maintain the hierarchy because they disproportionately benefit white people – the historically advantaged group.</p>
<p>Now that consideration of race in college admissions has been banned, universities have an opportunity to revamp how they decide which students to admit. In writing for the majority, Justice John Roberts noted that the Constitution requires schools to be colorblind. He wrote that a student “must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race.” But if colorblind is the standard, do legacy admissions meet it? Based on my analysis of the evidence, the answer would have to be no.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angelica S. Gutierrez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some colleges grant preferential treatment in the admission process to children of alumni. A researcher examines what’s behind people’s support for the practice.Angelica S. Gutierrez, Professor of Management, Loyola Marymount UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092732023-07-07T12:26:54Z2023-07-07T12:26:54ZAffirmative action lasted over 50 years: 3 essential reads explaining how it ended<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536124/original/file-20230706-22749-n7njvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=172%2C112%2C5581%2C3718&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harvard students protesting on July 1, 2023, after the Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/harvard-students-joined-in-a-rally-protesting-the-supreme-news-photo/1448852658?adppopup=true">Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever since U.S. President Lyndon Johnson enacted affirmative action in 1965, white conservatives have challenged the use of race in college admissions. </p>
<p>Their arguments against such policies are typically based on the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/equal_protection">use of the equal protection clause</a> of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which prohibits discrimination against American citizens on the basis of their race, religion or sexuality.</p>
<p>According to this conservative thinking, race-based solutions are discriminatory by their very definition and, as such, are unconstitutional.</p>
<p>The question, then, is how does an institution try to offer a modern-day remedy to atone for long-standing patterns of racial discrimination?</p>
<p>Over the years, The Conversation U.S. has published numerous stories exploring affirmative action – and what diversity on college campuses means with race-neutral admission policies. Here is a selection from our archive.</p>
<h2>1. An ambitious start to level the playing field</h2>
<p>During his 1965 commencement address at Howard University, Johnson explained how he intended to make right the wrongs of the past.</p>
<p>“Freedom is not enough,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcfAuodA2x8">he declared in his speech</a>, “To Fulfill These Rights.” “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.”</p>
<p>One of Johnson’s solutions, as affirmative action scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/travis-knoll-1377873">Travis Knoll</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-is-poised-to-dismantle-an-integral-part-of-lbjs-great-society-affirmative-action-201247">pointed out</a>, was affirmative action.</p>
<p>Unlike the conservative majority on today’s Supreme Court, “Johnson understood that the U.S. could not serve as a moral leader around the world if it did not acknowledge its past of racial injustices and try to make amends,” Knoll contended. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-is-poised-to-dismantle-an-integral-part-of-lbjs-great-society-affirmative-action-201247">Supreme Court is poised to dismantle an integral part of LBJ's Great Society – affirmative action</a>
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<h2>2. Court’s mixed history on affirmative action</h2>
<p>The battle over affirmative action heated up during the 1970s when a legal challenge reached the U.S. Supreme Court in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)#:%7E:text=Primary%20tabs-,Regents%20of%20the%20University%20of%20California%20v.,Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of%201964">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a>.</p>
<p>In that 1978 case, Associate Justice Lewis Powell wrote that while race can still be one of several factors in the admissions process, a separate admissions process for minority students was unconstitutional.</p>
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<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Current members of the Supreme Court, from left in front row: Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; and from left in back row: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Since then, the Supreme Court has issued different rulings on whether race could be used in college admissions.</p>
<p>As University of Pennsylvania race and equity legal scholar <a href="https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/shrop/">Kenneth Shropshire</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-2003-supreme-court-decision-upholding-affirmative-action-planted-the-seeds-of-its-overturning-as-justices-then-and-now-thought-racism-an-easily-solved-problem-208807">wrote</a>, the court had subtly established an affirmative action expiration date in its 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision.</p>
<p>In that case, Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that the “Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” </p>
<p>But Shropshire explained that that O'Connor’s deadline was one of desire and not reality. </p>
<p>“The vestiges of past discrimination and the unfortunate existence of ongoing discrimination continue,” Shropshire wrote. “No deadline has made these wrongs and their impact disappear.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-2003-supreme-court-decision-upholding-affirmative-action-planted-the-seeds-of-its-overturning-as-justices-then-and-now-thought-racism-an-easily-solved-problem-208807">A 2003 Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action planted the seeds of its overturning, as justices then and now thought racism an easily solved problem</a>
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</em>
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<h2>3. Selective colleges will become less diverse</h2>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SE2WERAAAAAJ&hl=en">Natasha Warikoo</a>, a sociology professor at Tufts University and author of “<a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=is-affirmative-action-fair-the-myth-of-equity-in-college-admissions--9781509549368">Is Affirmative Action Fair?: The Myth of Equity in College Admissions</a>,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">shared insights</a> on how the racial and ethnic makeup of student bodies at selective colleges and universities will change now that the Supreme Court has decided to outlaw affirmative action.</p>
<p>As she pointed out, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-might-states-ban-affirmative-action/">nine states already have bans</a> on affirmative action, and studies of college enrollment in those states suggest that enrollment of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720904433">Black, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate</a> students will decline in the long term.</p>
<p>“Ending affirmative action will make it harder to increase the percentage of professionals and leaders from minority backgrounds,” she explained. “This is because, as research has shown, affirmative action has increased the number of Black college graduates and, in turn, increased the number of Black professionals with advanced degrees.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Affirmative action bans make selective colleges less diverse – a national ban will do the same</a>
</strong>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action programs reverses nearly 50 years of its own decisions that ruled diversity was of vital national importance.Howard Manly, Race + Equity Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2051122023-06-30T12:41:25Z2023-06-30T12:41:25ZMilitary academies can still consider race in admissions, but the rest of the nation’s colleges and universities cannot, court rules<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534925/original/file-20230629-25-jj8v31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=116%2C35%2C5820%2C3889&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A person protests outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXSupremeCourtAffirmativeAction/3df7c369e0494252b2d9e333d079c0bf/photo?Query=affirmative%20action&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=642&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a 6-3 <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">ruling</a> on Thursday, June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/29/us/affirmative-action-supreme-court">struck down the use of race in college admissions</a> at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, outlawing the use of race in college admissions in general. The Conversation reached out to three legal scholars to explain what the decision means for students, colleges and universities, and ultimately the nation’s future.</em></p>
<h2>Kimberly Robinson, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia</h2>
<p>Writing for the majority in a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf">case that bans affirmative action in college admissions</a>, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that such programs “unavoidably employ race in a negative manner” that goes against the Constitution.</p>
<p>The research, however, shows that the ban could potentially harm many college students and ultimately the United States. The reason this can be said with certainty is because in states where affirmative action has been banned, such as California and Michigan, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/race-conscious-admission-bans">many selective state colleges and universities have struggled</a> to maintain the student body diversity that existed before affirmative action was banned.</p>
<p>Robust research shows how students who engage with students from different racial backgrounds <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309352495">experience</a> <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/258117/pdf?casa_token=q8qNOOU6_RsAAAAA:ypmjnl3Bwxzo1r-NxasqzKkCcgfN-x_ijZFd-SL3awMASAjcR0wn9EkMPIOAzjUp01XBx5XWSA">educational benefits</a>, such as cognitive growth and development and creating new ideas. For those reasons, a substantial decline in enrollment for underrepresented minority students carries many repercussions. </p>
<p>It means, for instance, that many students at selective colleges will have far fewer opportunities to learn from and interact with students from different racial backgrounds.</p>
<p>The nation’s elite colleges, such as Harvard and the University of North Carolina, educate a <a href="https://www.tulanelawreview.org/pub/volume96/issue1/affirmative-action-and-the-leadership-pipeline">disproportionately high share</a> of America’s leaders. Those who don’t attend these selective schools are dramatically <a href="https://www.tulanelawreview.org/pub/volume96/issue1/affirmative-action-and-the-leadership-pipeline">less likely</a> to complete a graduate or professional program. This is because these selective schools carry certain advantages. For instance, students who attend them are statistically more likely to graduate and be admitted to professional and graduate programs.</p>
<p>That means for students from underrepresented groups who don’t get into selective colleges, the chances of getting an advanced degree – which often paves the way to leadership positions – will be even lower.</p>
<p>The decision may also affect the workplace. Research shows that in states that eliminated affirmative action, <a href="https://gap.hks.harvard.edu/impact-eliminating-affirmative-action-minority-and-female-employment-natural-experiment-approach">meaningful drops in workplace diversity</a> took place. Asian and African American women and Hispanic men experienced the most significant declines.</p>
<p>These shifts in elite college enrollment, leadership and workplaces will weaken long-standing efforts to dismantle the nation’s <a href="https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4420&context=nclr">segregationist past</a> and the privilege that this segregationist past affords to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Black-Wealth--White-Wealth-A-New-Perspective-on-Racial-Inequality/Oliver-Shapiro/p/book/9780415951678">wealth</a> and <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-privilege">whiteness</a>.</p>
<p>To help mitigate these potential harms, selective colleges will have to devote their attention to limiting what I believe are the decision’s harmful impacts and reaffirming their commitment to diverse student bodies through all <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-130/fishers-cautionary-tale-and-the-urgent-need-for-equal-access-to-an-excellent-education/">lawful means</a>.</p>
<h2>Kristine Bowman, Professor of Law and Education Policy, Michigan State University</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protestors holding posters saying, 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Defend Diversity.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534940/original/file-20230629-26-bekrzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtAffirmativeAction/de1a9f99d5854446b9283100babf7778/photo?Query=court%20affirmative%20action&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=328&currentItemNo=16">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span>
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<p>In striking down race-conscious admissions practices, the Supreme Court overturns the court’s <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1979/76-811">1978 decision</a> that held that race-conscious admissions were constitutional.</p>
<p>This reversal was not unexpected, but it will have profound implications for building and maintaining diverse and inclusive colleges and universities, particularly among selective institutions. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720904433">most effective way to enroll a diverse student body</a> – and achieve the educational and social benefits that come with it – is to consider race as a factor in admissions. In the 10 states that have had affirmative action bans in admissions, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720904433">diversity in selective institutions has declined</a>.
This remained true even as alternative strategies were employed to achieve racial diversity, such as targeting recruitment efforts and focusing more on socioeconomic status diversity.</p>
<p>Although the court does not say outright that institutions cannot pursue diversity, it is not clear what diversity-related goals, if any, could constitutionally support race-conscious admissions. The court states that the benefits of diversity that Harvard and UNC articulate are not sufficiently “measurable,” “focused,” “concrete” or “coherent.” “How many fewer leaders Harvard would create without racial preferences, or how much poorer the education at Harvard would be, are inquiries no court could resolve,” the court wrote.</p>
<p>And yet, as Justice Sotomayor’s dissent highlights, the majority also says that race-conscious admissions with a “focus on numbers” or particular “numerical commitments” are also unconstitutional.</p>
<p>The opinion did not go as far as it could have in restricting the consideration of race. Institutions can still consider what a student’s comments about their racialized experiences reveal about their characteristics, such as “courage,” “determination” or “leadership.”</p>
<p>This provides a way for institutions to consider how race has impacted a student’s life. Although this unfairly places the burden on students of color to write about their racialized experience, it is arguably lighter than the burden that would have been borne if the court had attempted to prohibit consideration of such experiences. </p>
<p>Furthermore, efforts to pursue diversity through other means remain lawful. These alternative means include <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/UH4YSS3QHRCBY2VJEKPT/full">increasing attention to socioeconomic status</a>, making campus communities more inclusive. It also involves checking whether students are passing classes and graduating at the same rate regardless of race. </p>
<p>Research <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720904433">hasn’t shown</a> that these efforts will result in as much diversity at selective colleges as race-conscious college admissions. These efforts, however, now stand as a critical way forward to keep America’s elite colleges and universities diverse.</p>
<h2>Vinay Harpalani, Associate Professor of Law, University of New Mexico</h2>
<p>Although the court struck down the use of race in college admissions – as predicted by many experts and observers – the court left room for one narrow exception.</p>
<p>The majority opinion stated in a brief footnote that its ruling does not apply to race-conscious admissions at the nation’s military academies, such as West Point or the Naval Academy. </p>
<p>This issue had come up at oral arguments. When articulating the U.S. government’s position, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar raised the point that the military may have compelling interests beyond those that universities have. Specifically, the U.S. government argued that a racially diverse military officer corps was necessary for national security. In response, Chief Justice Roberts briefly noted the possibility of a military academy exception. This was not lost in his ruling.</p>
<p>The majority opinion stated that there could be “potentially distinct interests that the military academies may present.” Because the academies were not parties to these cases, the court did not directly address this issue and left it unsettled. </p>
<p>This was not the first time that the military influenced the court’s view of race-conscious admissions. Twenty years ago, national security interests played a significant role in the majority opinion in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/02-241">Grutter v. Bollinger</a>.</p>
<p>Citing the amicus brief of former military leaders, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s majority opinion in the Grutter case noted that diverse military leadership was “essential to the military’s ability to fulfill its principle mission to provide national security.” She found that “[i]t requires only a small step from this analysis to conclude that our country’s other most selective institutions must remain both diverse and selective.”</p>
<p>In its latest rulings, the court left alone O'Connor’s claim that diverse military leadership is essential to national security, but it soundly rejected her view that diversity can justify race-conscious admissions at the nation’s colleges and universities.</p>
<p>The military is not the only place where the court has noted that security interests can justify use of race. The court also cited a 2005 ruling, Johnson v. California, where the justices held that prison officials could temporarily segregate prisoners by race to prevent violence. </p>
<p>It seems that the court is willing to uphold use of race when government power is at stake – as with the military and law enforcement. But it will not do so for the education of America’s citizenry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205112/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three legal experts weigh in on what the Supreme Court’s ban on race in college admissions means for students, colleges and universities, and the nation’s future.Kristine Bowman, Professor of Law and Education Policy, Michigan State UniversityKimberly Robinson, Professor of Law, Professor of Law, Education and Public Policy, University of VirginiaVinay Harpalani, Associate Professor of Law and Henry Weihofen Professor, University of New MexicoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088072023-06-30T00:45:28Z2023-06-30T00:45:28ZA 2003 Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action planted the seeds of its overturning, as justices then and now thought racism an easily solved problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534883/original/file-20230629-21-kbgai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8267%2C5366&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court issued a decision on June 29, 2023, that ends affirmative action in college admissions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-u-s-supreme-court-is-shown-at-dusk-on-june-28-2023-in-news-photo/1260960662?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/29/politics/affirmative-action-supreme-court-ruling/index.html">an anticipated but nonetheless stunning decision</a> expected to have widespread implications on college campuses and workplaces across the country, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 2023, outlawed affirmative action programs that were designed to correct centuries of racist disenfranchisement in higher education. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">the majority opinion</a> about the constitutionality of admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Harvard’s and UNC’s race-based admission guidelines “cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.”</p>
<p>“College admissions are zero sum, and a benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former at the expense of the latter,” Roberts wrote. </p>
<p>Though not a surprise, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">the decision</a> in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/politics/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html">Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-university-of-north-carolina/">Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina</a> drew widespread <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/key-civil-rights-groups-blast-supreme-court-sharply-curtailing-affirma-rcna91829">condemnation from civil rights groups</a> and <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2023-06-29/republican-presidential-hopefuls-celebrate-supreme-court-ruling-on-affirmative-action">praise from conservative politicians</a>. </p>
<p>In my view as a <a href="https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/shrop/">race and equity legal scholar focused on business</a>, the court had subtly established an affirmative action <a href="https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/can-critical-race-theory-save-pro-sports/">expiration date</a> in its 2003 <a href="https://casetext.com/case/grutter-v-bollinger-et-al">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> decision. </p>
<p>In that case, Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in her majority opinion that “race-conscious admissions policies must be limited in time,” adding that the “Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” </p>
<p>In this opinion, the court moved that deadline to the forefront, and it is no longer the throwaway line that some believed at the time.</p>
<p>What the court’s decision in these 2023 cases means for college admissions officers is that the mere mention of using race to address racial and arguably gender disparities is unconstitutional. By their very nature, academia and corporations are conservative, and general counsels at these entities are likely to caution against any program targeting historically underrepresented people.</p>
<p>At the most optimistic, this ruling forces higher learning institutions to revise programs and look to remedy past wrongs on a case-by-case basis. </p>
<p>But its my belief that O'Connor’s deadline was one of desire and not reality. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/">vestiges of past discrimination</a> and the unfortunate existence of ongoing discrimination continue. No deadline has made these wrongs and their impact disappear.</p>
<p><a href="https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Jackson-dissent.pdf">In her dissent</a> in the UNC case, Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson details the reality: </p>
<p>“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, 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. And having so detached itself from this country’s actual past and present experiences, the Court has now been lured into interfering with the crucial work that UNC and other institutions of higher learning are doing to solve America’s real-world problems.”</p>
<h2>The court’s opposition grew slowly</h2>
<p>In their lawsuits against North Carolina and Harvard, the anti-affirmative action organization <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students for Fair Admissions</a> argued that the schools’ race-conscious admissions process was unconstitutional and discriminated against high-achieving Asian American students in favor of traditionally underrepresented Blacks and Hispanics who may not have earned the same grades or standardized test scores as other applicants.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Supreme Court, from left in front row: Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; and from left in back row: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The primary Supreme Court-level battle over affirmative action started during the 1970s when a legal challenge reached the Supreme Court in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)#:%7E:text=Primary%20tabs-,Regents%20of%20the%20University%20of%20California%20v.,Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of%201964">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a>. </p>
<p>In that 1978 case, Allan Bakke, a white man, had been denied admission to University of California at Davis’ medical school. Though ruling that a separate admissions process for minority medical students was unconstitutional, Associate Justice Lewis Powell wrote that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/10/how-lewis-powell-changed-affirmative-action/572938/">race can still be one of several factors</a> in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Since then, the Supreme Court has issued different rulings on whether race could be used in college admissions.</p>
<p>In the 2003 <a href="https://casetext.com/case/grutter-v-bollinger-et-al">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> case, O’Connor wrote the <a href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep539/usrep539306/usrep539306.pdf">majority opinion</a> that endorsed the University of Michigan’s “highly individualized, holistic review” that included race as a factor and had been legally challenged. </p>
<p>Most recently, in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-981_4g15.PDF">Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin</a> in 2016, the court reaffirmed its belief in schools that “train students to appreciate diverse viewpoints, to see one another as more than mere stereotypes, and to develop the capacity to live and work together as equal members of a common community.”</p>
<h2>A colorblind society?</h2>
<p>The ruling is not a complete loss for supporters of diversity efforts. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23864004-students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-and-fellows-of-harvard-college">Roberts wrote</a> that prospective students should be evaluated “as an individual — not on the basis of race,” although universities can still consider “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing a robe poses for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1138%2C97%2C2678%2C2443&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas opposes all race-conscious college admissions policies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-clarence-news-photo/1431382313?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Applicants then are still able to explain their background in their essays submitted for college admissions. But even that is fraught with problems. </p>
<p>As novelist <a href="https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/g32842156/james-baldwin-quotes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=arb_ga_opr_m_bm_prog_org_us_g32842156&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo5CX_-Po_wIVbs_jBx243Aw3EAAYASAAEgJ8DvD_BwE">James Baldwin once asked</a>: How does one articulate the constant presence of race to someone who is not experiencing it? </p>
<p>For governmental entities, like public schools or those receiving substantial state funding, the ruling forces them to detail not only how using race will further compel government interests but also whether such a program is necessary to achieve that interest. </p>
<p>As Jackson explains <a href="https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Jackson-dissent.pdf">in her dissent</a>:</p>
<p>“The only way out of this morass – for all of us – is to stare at racial disparity unblinkingly, and then do what evidence and experts tell us is required to level the playing field. It is no small irony that the judgment the majority hands down today will forestall the end of race-based disparities in this country, making the colorblind world the majority wistfully touts much more difficult to accomplish.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth L. Shropshire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate affirmative action programs sent shock waves across the US and is expected to impact racial diversity throughout society.Kenneth L. Shropshire, Professor Emeritus of Legal Studies and Business Ethics; Faculty Director, Wharton Coalition for Equity & Opportunity, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2012472023-06-06T12:31:30Z2023-06-06T12:31:30ZSupreme Court is poised to dismantle an integral part of LBJ’s Great Society – affirmative action<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530134/original/file-20230605-15-3psr8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=271%2C116%2C2319%2C1487&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Lyndon Johnson delivers the commencement address at Howard University on June 4, 1965. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>Of all the civil rights policies enacted by U.S President Lyndon Johnson, affirmative action is arguably one of the most enduring – and most challenged. </p>
<p>Johnson made it clear during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcfAuodA2x8">commencement address</a> at <a href="http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/selected-speeches/1965/06-04-1965.html">Howard University</a> on June 4, 1965, where he stood. </p>
<p>In his speech, “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/to-fulfill-these-rights/9780231183093">To Fulfill These Rights</a>,” Johnson argued that civil rights were only as secure as society and the government were willing to make them.</p>
<p>“Nothing in any country touches us more profoundly, and nothing is more freighted with meaning for our own destiny than the revolution of the Negro American,” Johnson said. </p>
<p>In my view as a scholar of the history of affirmative action, Johnson’s speech and the legal structure it helped produce directly contradict those who would dismantle affirmative action and besmirch diversity programs today.</p>
<p>As the Supreme Court looks ready to strike down affirmative action in college admissions, it’s my belief that unlike the court’s conservative majority, Johnson understood that the U.S. could not serve as a moral leader around the world if it did not acknowledge its past of racial injustices and try to make amends. </p>
<h2>‘Equality as a result’</h2>
<p>Johnson knew that changing laws was only part of the solution to racial disparities and systemic racism. </p>
<p>“<a href="http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/selected-speeches/1965/06-04-1965.html">Freedom is not enough</a>,” he declared. “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” </p>
<p>In proposing to address these injustices, Johnson laid out a phrase that would become a defense of affirmative action.</p>
<p>“We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.” </p>
<p>Achieving this latter goal, Johnson explained, would be the “more profound stage of the battle for civil rights.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man dressed in a business suit talks with a Black woman who is smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529379/original/file-20230531-21-dofez7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Lyndon Johnson chats with Howard law professor Patricia Harris after Howard’s commencement on June 4, 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-dc-president-johnson-chats-with-mrs-patricia-r-news-photo/514870364?adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>Johnson rejected the idea that individual merit was the sole basis for measuring equality. </p>
<p>“Ability is stretched or stunted by the family that you live with, and the neighborhood you live in – by the school you go to and the poverty or the richness of your surroundings,” <a href="http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/selected-speeches/1965/06-04-1965.html">Johnson said</a>. “It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing upon the little infant, the child, and finally the man.” </p>
<p>Johnson took a structural view of discrimination against Black Americans and explained that racial differences could not “be understood as isolated infirmities.”</p>
<p>“They are a seamless web,” Johnson said. “They cause each other. They result from each other. They reinforce each other.” </p>
<p>“Negro poverty is not white poverty,” Johnson said, “but rather the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice and present prejudice.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle-aged white man stands in front of a crowd of people as he hands a pen to a Black man dressed in a business suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529629/original/file-20230601-27-eg58z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Lyndon Johnson hands a pen to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-lyndon-b-johnson-hands-a-pen-to-civil-rights-news-photo/1749781?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Johnson also rejected comparisons to other minorities who immigrated to the U.S. and had allegedly overcome discrimination through assimilation. </p>
<p>“They did not have the heritage of centuries to overcome,” Johnson said, “and they did not have a cultural tradition which had been twisted and battered by endless years of hatred and hopelessness, nor were they excluded – these others – because of race or color – a feeling whose dark intensity is matched by no other prejudice in our society.”</p>
<h2>A constant challenge</h2>
<p>That profound battle over how to address the <a href="https://glc.yale.edu/legacies-american-slavery/what-is-a-legacy-of-slavery">legacies of slavery</a>, <a href="https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/what.htm">Jim Crow</a> and <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/racial-inequality-in-the-united-states">modern-day inequalities</a> is once again before the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Though the court is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-diverse-supreme-court-grapples-with-affirmative-action-with-its-justices-of-color-split-sharply-on-the-meaning-of-equal-protection-196554">most diverse in American history</a> – with three justices of color and four women – the conservatives, who have historically <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/159007/conservative-misdirection-affirmative-action-debate">opposed affirmative action programs</a>, hold a 6-3 majority. </p>
<p>And that majority has the power to ban the use of race when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/politics/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html">the court issues a decision</a> in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. A decision is expected in June 2023.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Supreme Court, from left in front row: Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; and from left in back row: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>At the time of Johnson’s speech, the U.S. faced <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/vietnam-war-protests-at-the-white-house">growing opposition</a> to its escalating war in Vietnam and <a href="https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/content/CivilRights">racial unrest</a> across the country. </p>
<p>But Johnson was determined to achieve his goal of racial equality. During his commencement address, Johnson heralded the passage of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act">1964 Civil Rights Act</a> that he signed into law on July 2, 1964, and prohibited workplace discrimination. He also promised passage of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act#:%7E:text=This%20act%20was%20signed%20into,as%20a%20prerequisite%20to%20voting">Voting Rights Act</a> that would ban discriminatory voting practices. Johnson signed that into law on Aug. 6, 1965. </p>
<p>And shortly after his speech, Johnson signed <a href="https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/11246.html">Executive Order 11246</a> on Sept. 24, 1965. </p>
<p>It charged the Department of Labor with taking “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed … without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” </p>
<p>For Johnson, racial justice was attainable and, once achieved, would alleviate social strife at home and advance the United States’ standing abroad. </p>
<p>Despite urging civil rights activists to “light that candle of understanding in the heart of all America,” even Johnson became disillusioned with the racial politics of forming a more perfect union.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of urban riots in Newark, New Jersey, Detroit and other U.S. cities in 1967, Johnson created the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders – better known as the <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/national-advisory-commission-civil-disorders-report">Kerner Commission</a> – to investigate the causes of the riots and suggest remedies. </p>
<p>The commission recommended billions of dollars’ worth of new government programs, including sweeping federal initiatives directed at improving educational and employment opportunities, public services and housing in Black urban neighborhoods.</p>
<p>The commission found that “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10730.html">white racism</a>” was the basic cause of the racial unrest.</p>
<p>Although the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/589351779/report-updates-landmark-1968-racism-study-finds-more-poverty-more-segregation">report was a bestseller</a>, Johnson found the conclusions politically untenable and distanced himself from the commission report.</p>
<p>Torn between his need to balance Southern votes and his ambition to leave a strong civil rights legacy, Johnson proceeded along a very cautious path. </p>
<p>He did nothing about the report. </p>
<p>U.S. Sen. Edward W. Brooke, Black Massachusetts Republican, was one of the 11 members on the commission.</p>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/bridging-the-divide/9780813539058">Bridging the Divide</a>,” Brooke explained Johnson’s reticence. </p>
<p>“In retrospect,” he wrote, “I can see that our report was too strong for him to take. It suggested that all his great achievements — his civil rights legislation, his antipoverty programs, Head Start, housing legislation, and all the rest of it – had been only a beginning. It asked him, in an election year, to endorse the idea that white America bore much of the responsibility for black rioting and rebellion.”</p>
<p>Even for a politician like Johnson, that proved too much to handle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Travis Knoll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Lyndon Johnson’s commencement address at Howard University in 1965 offered a compelling argument on the need for affirmative action. His policies have been challenged ever since.Travis Knoll, Adjunct Professor of History, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2019002023-04-19T12:45:25Z2023-04-19T12:45:25ZTo understand American politics, you need to move beyond left and right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520636/original/file-20230412-18-9xinwa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C0%2C6968%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's a more sophisticated way to understand how Americans divide themselves politically.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-us-election-badges-with-the-national-flag-royalty-free-image/1340786091?phrase=right%20and%20left%20in%20politics%20U.S.%20&adppopup=true">Torsten Asmus/ iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are Americans really as politically polarized as they seem – and everybody says? </p>
<p>It’s definitely true that Democrats and Republicans <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034">increasingly hate and fear one another</a>. But this animosity seems to have more to do with tribal loyalty than liberal-versus-conservative <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy005">disagreements about policy</a>. Our research into what Americans actually want in terms of policy shows that many have strong political views that can’t really be characterized in terms of “right” or “left.” </p>
<p>The media often talks about the American political landscape as if it were a line. Liberal Democrats are on the left, conservative Republicans on the right, and a small sliver of moderate independents are in the middle. But <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/about/people/wright.html">political scientists</a> <a href="https://cssh.northeastern.edu/student/sasha-volodarsky/">like us</a> have long argued that a line is a bad metaphor for how Americans think about politics. </p>
<p>Sometimes scholars and pundits will argue that views on economic issues like taxes and income redistribution, and views on so-called social or cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage, actually represent two distinct dimensions in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060314-115422">American political attitudes</a>. Americans, they say, can have liberal views on one dimension <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/351494/americans-divided-social-economic-issues.aspx">but conservative views on the other</a>. So you could have a pro-choice voter who wants lower taxes, or a pro-life voter who wants the government to do more to help the poor. </p>
<p>But even this more sophisticated, two-dimensional picture doesn’t reveal what Americans actually want the government to do – or not do – when it comes to policy. </p>
<p>First, it ignores some of the most contentious topics in American politics today, like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/31/1131789230/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard-unc">affirmative action</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-convention-embraces-black-lives-matter/2020/08/18/f1de2ce8-e0f7-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html">Black Lives Matter movement</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/16/desantis-anti-woke-law-00087483">attempts to stamp out “wokeness”</a> on college campuses.</p>
<p>Since 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidency while simultaneously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-fresh-look-back-at-2016-finds-america-with-an-identity-crisis/2018/09/15/0ac62364-b8f0-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html">stoking racial anxieties</a> and bucking Republican orthodoxy on <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-breaks-gop-orthodoxy-taxes-msna670121">taxes</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-says-he-s-fine-gay-marriage-60-minutes-interview-n683606">same-sex marriage</a>, it has become clear that what Americans think about politics can’t really be understood without knowing what they think about racism, and what – if anything – they want done about it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a white shirt and tie with gray hair, standing at a lectern outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Racial Justice Communitarians’ have liberal views on economic issues and moderate or conservative views on moral issues; some Black evangelicals supported Barack Obama but were troubled by his support for same-sex marriage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-barack-obama-speaks-at-capital-university-on-news-photo/160056112?adppopup=true">Charles Ommanney/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Recently, some political scientists have argued that views on racial issues represent a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/96/4/1757/4781058">third “dimension” in American politics</a>. But there are other problems with treating political attitudes as a set of “dimensions” in the first place. For example, even a “3D” picture doesn’t allow for the possibility that Americans with conservative economic views tend to also hold conservative racial views, while Americans with liberal economic views are deeply divided on issues related to race. </p>
<h2>A new picture of American politics</h2>
<p>In our new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12517">article in Sociological Inquiry</a>, we analyzed public opinion data from 2004 to 2020 to develop a more nuanced picture of American political attitudes. Our aim was to do a better job of figuring out what Americans actually think about politics, including policies related to race and racism. </p>
<p>Using a new analytic method that doesn’t force us to think in terms of dimensions at all, we found that, over the past two decades, Americans can be broadly divided into five different groups.</p>
<p>In most years, slightly less than half of all Americans had consistently liberal or conservative views on policies related to the economy, morality and race, and thus fall into one of two groups. </p>
<p>“Consistent Conservatives” tend to believe that the free market should be given free rein in the economy, are generally anti-abortion, tend to say that they support “traditional family ties” and oppose most government efforts to address racial disparities. These Americans almost exclusively identify themselves as Republicans.</p>
<p>“Consistent Liberals” strongly support government intervention in the economy, tend to be in favor of abortion rights and pro-same-sex marriage and feel that the government has a responsibility to help address discrimination against Black Americans. They mostly identify as Democrats.</p>
<p>But the majority of Americans, who don’t fall into one of these two groups, are not necessarily “moderates,” as they are often characterized. Many have very strong views on certain issues, but can’t be pigeonholed as being on the left or right in general. </p>
<p>Instead, we find that these Americans can be classified as one of three groups, whose size and relationship to the two major parties change from one election cycle to the next: </p>
<p>“Racial Justice Communitarians” have liberal views on economic issues like taxes and redistribution and moderate or conservative views on moral issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. They also strongly believe that the government has a responsibility to address racial discrimination. This group likely includes many of the Black evangelicals who strongly supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, but were also deeply uncomfortable with his expression of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/05/10/152442748/black-voters-likely-to-stick-with-obama-despite-gay-marriage-stance">support for same-sex marriage in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>“Nativist Communitarians” also have liberal views on economics and conservative views on moral issues, but they are extremely conservative with respect to race and immigration, in some cases even more so than Consistent Conservatives. Picture, for instance, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/08/24/545812242/1-in-10-sanders-primary-voters-ended-up-supporting-trump-survey-finds">those voters in 2016</a> who were attracted to both Bernie Sanders’ economic populism and Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants. </p>
<p>“Libertarians,” who we find became much more prominent after the tea party protests of 2010, are conservative on economic issues, liberal on social issues and have mixed but generally conservative views in regard to racial issues. Think here of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/18/d-c-silicon-valley-00087611">Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists</a> who think that the government has no business telling them how to run their company – or telling gay couples that they can’t get married.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large collection of colorful campaign signs placed in the ground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Three groups of Americans have a difficult time fitting in with either of America’s two major parties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/campaign-signs-are-shown-near-voters-waiting-in-line-at-news-photo/1244613234?adppopup=true">Ronda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Five groups – but only two parties</h2>
<p>These three groups of Americans have a difficult time fitting in with either of the two major parties in the U.S. </p>
<p>In every year we looked, the Racial Justice Communitarians – who include the largest percentage of nonwhite Americans – were most likely to identify as Democrats. But in some years up to 40% still thought of themselves as Republicans or independents.</p>
<p>Nativist Communitarians and Libertarians are even harder to pin down. During the Obama years they were actually slightly more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. But since Trump’s rise in 2016, both groups are now slightly more likely to identify as Republicans, although large percentages of each group describe themselves as independents or Democrats.</p>
<p>Seeing Americans as divided into these five groups – as opposed to polarized between the left and right – shows that both political parties are competing for coalitions of voters with different combinations of views.</p>
<p>Many Racial Justice Communitarians disagree with the Democratic Party when it comes to cultural and social issues. But the party probably can’t win national elections without their votes. And, unless they are willing to make a strong push for promoting “racial justice,” the Republican Party’s national electoral prospects probably depend on attracting significant support from either the economically liberal Nativist Communitarians or the socially liberal Libertarians. </p>
<p>But perhaps most importantly, these five groups show how diverse Americans’ political attitudes really are. Just because American democracy is a two-party system doesn’t mean that there are only two kinds of American voters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We often talk about the American political landscape as if it were a line – Democrats on the left, Republicans on the right. Two political scientists say that view doesn’t reflect reality.Graham Wright, Associate Research Scientist, Maurice & Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis UniversitySasha Volodarsky, Ph.D. Student in Political Science, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1934292023-03-02T13:24:59Z2023-03-02T13:24:59ZAt a small liberal arts college, Black students learned to become ‘bicultural’ to succeed and get jobs – but stress followed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512362/original/file-20230227-4087-z3vk0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C78%2C6538%2C4240&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black students reported stress as a result of trying to downplay their cultural identities. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/happy-young-university-student-with-book-standing-royalty-free-image/1340017268?phrase=black%20college%20students&adppopup=true">Halfpoint Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In her forthcoming book, “<a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">The Impact of College Diversity: Struggles and Successes at Age 30</a>,” Amherst College <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k9DLURIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">psychology professor Elizabeth Aries</a> discovered a disturbing dual reality for Black students going to the small, private liberal arts college where she teaches. On the one hand, interacting with students from different backgrounds better prepared them for the world of higher education and work. But Black students also felt pressured to sacrifice their cultural identities in favor of “whiteness” in order to succeed. In the following Q&A, Aries elaborates on her findings and what they mean as the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2023/02/06/colleges-start-prepare-losing-supreme-court-case">decides whether to restrict or outlaw</a> the use of race in college admissions.</em></p>
<h2>1. What prompted you to do this research?</h2>
<p>In 2003, Amherst College began to <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/news/magazine/issues/2011summer/nationalinterest">more actively recruit and enroll students of color and individuals from low-income backgrounds</a>. The idea was to promote equity and social mobility. But the effort was also driven by the belief that students benefit educationally when they interact daily with classmates whose experiences and views are different from their own.</p>
<p>I wanted to understand how living in a diverse community would affect students. To do that, I interviewed Black and white students, both affluent and lower-income, three times over a period of 12 years. The interviews were conducted during their <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/race-and-class-matters-at-an-elite-college">first year of college</a>, at the end of their <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/speaking-of-race-and-class">senior year</a> and at <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">age 30</a>.</p>
<p>I chronicled the nature and extent of what students learned about race and class from engagement with racially and socioeconomically diverse classmates. I also examined the challenges students faced on campus because of their race and class. I believe my findings have great relevance at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is about to again <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2023/02/06/colleges-start-prepare-losing-supreme-court-case">consider the legality of the use of race</a> in admission decisions.</p>
<h2>2. What is the main takeaway from your book?</h2>
<p>At age 30, the vast majority of Black and white Amherst graduates I interviewed – 81% – <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">told me they gained insight from interacting regularly with classmates of different races</a>. For instance, over their four years of college, the white graduates gained a deeper understanding of the harm of racial stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, and of their own racial privilege. Black graduates acquired coping strategies to deal with racial prejudice. They also <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">learned to be “bicultural</a>,” enabling success in predominantly white settings. </p>
<p>Through cross-class interactions, lower-income students gained higher aspirations to seek graduate and professional degrees. They also accessed social networks that connected them to desired internships, graduate programs and jobs. They reported greater social mobility as a result of the skills they learned from living and learning in such a diverse environment.</p>
<p>Almost all strongly agreed that a diverse student body is essential to teaching skills to succeed and lead in the work environment.</p>
<h2>3. Why do Black students benefit from learning to be ‘bicultural’?</h2>
<p>Black graduates enter the professional work world where positions of power are largely held by white people, and racial biases are present. At age 30, 77% of the Black graduates I interviewed <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">reported facing racial bias at work</a>, and <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">47% felt they faced a career ceiling</a> because of their race. They reported learning during college how to be <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">bicultural – to adjust their presentation and behavior</a> and be Black in “the right way” to facilitate their success. This required being attentive to self-presentation in speech, dress, hair and demeanor so that it came closer to whiteness, making it more acceptable to the middle-class white people around them.</p>
<p>While Black graduates benefited from learning to be bicultural, they reported this performance came at a cost. Fitting in to standards of whiteness entailed the stress of hiding parts of themselves and thus made it difficult to feel fully true to themselves.</p>
<p>That said, engagement with diverse peers during college can help lead to the creation of more equitable workplaces. Research has found interaction among people from different racial backgrounds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.751">leads to a decrease in racial prejudice</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2006.11778933">increases knowledge and acceptance</a> of different races or cultures and openness to diversity. Further, when students participate in interracial dialogues, after college they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2009.01193.x">more likely to commit and take action</a> to redress inequality. </p>
<p>A third of the white graduates in my study said they were <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">actively addressing systemic inequalities in their work lives</a>. Further, 52% aspired to <a href="https://tupress.temple.edu/books/the-impact-of-college-diversity">teach their future children</a> to be aware of the internalization of racial stereotypes and of the prejudice and discrimination faced by people of color.</p>
<h2>4. Did Amherst need affirmative action to achieve diversity?</h2>
<p>The use of race-conscious admissions undoubtedly enabled Amherst to build a richly diverse community. Today <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/about/facts">49% of U.S. Amherst College students</a> self-identify as students of color. </p>
<p>Amherst has for many years reviewed applicants holistically and by using a wide range of factors. This includes, of course, the standard measures on applications, such as the student’s academic program and record, intellectual talent and creativity, nonacademic achievement and leadership. Also factored into Amherst’s admissions process, though, are such aspects as diversity of socioeconomics, family education, background, life experiences and geography. And, yes, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232512/20220801174102841_20-1199%20and%2021-707_Brief%20of%20Amici%20Curiae%20Amherst%20et%20al%20Colleges%20and%20Bucknell%20et%20al%20Universities.pdf#page=19">race is also one factor</a> of many in such a holistic consideration.</p>
<h2>5. What happens if affirmative action is banned?</h2>
<p>A decision by the Supreme Court to end race-conscious admissions would severely impede colleges’ ability to attain the kind of diversity needed to achieve their educational goals.</p>
<p>Where states have banned the consideration of race in admission, the proportion of students from underrepresented groups fell precipitously. California, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/us/affirmative-action-admissions-supreme-court.html">banned consideration of race in admissions in 1996</a>, saw <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232355/20220801134931730_20-1199%20bsac%20University%20of%20California.pdf#page=22">50% declines for African American and Latino students</a> at the most selective campuses between 1995 and 1998.</p>
<p>Many students from underrepresented backgrounds - who previously would have been accepted at flagship schools – went to less selective public and private universities. At these less selective schools, <a href="https://cshe.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/publications/rops.cshe.10.2020.bleemer.prop209.8.20.2020_2.pdf">degree attainment declined, leading to lower wages</a>, thereby increasing socioeconomic inequities.</p>
<p>The use of race-neutral admissions policies after Michigan <a href="https://diversity.umich.edu/about/history/legal-matters/2006-proposal-2/">passed a ballot initiative in 2006</a> to ban the use of race in college admissions was as catastrophic: It resulted in a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232447/20220801155455154_Nos.%2020-1199%2021-707%20U-M%20amicus%20ISO%20resps..pdf#page=9">44% drop in the enrollment of Black students</a> from 2006 to 2021. Meanwhile, the enrollment of Native American students <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232447/20220801155455154_Nos.%2020-1199%2021-707%20U-M%20amicus%20ISO%20resps..pdf#page=9">dropped nearly 90%</a> despite considerable efforts using race-neutral alternatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Aries does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black students told a researcher they felt conflicted about hiding parts of themselves in order to get ahead.Elizabeth Aries, Professor of Psychology, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1965542023-02-15T13:24:14Z2023-02-15T13:24:14ZA diverse Supreme Court grapples with affirmative action, with its justices of color split sharply on the meaning of ‘equal protection’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508701/original/file-20230207-27-kr58qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3621%2C1733%2C5005%2C4009&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the Heritage Foundation in 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/associate-supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-speaks-at-news-photo/1236038291?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States Supreme Court is deciding a pair of cases that could end affirmative action programs that consider race in college admissions.</p>
<p>Though the court is the most diverse in American history – with three justices of color and four women – the conservatives, who have <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/159007/conservative-misdirection-affirmative-action-debate">historically opposed</a> affirmative action programs, hold a 6-3 majority. And that majority has the power to ban the use of race when the court issues a decision in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/politics/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html">Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina</a>. A decision is expected in June 2023. </p>
<p>If the court were to ban affirmative action, the decision would be part of a larger, <a href="http://www.iconnectblog.com/2022/07/from-the-least-dangerous-branch-of-government-to-the-most-democratically-disruptive-court-in-the-world/">profound conservative transformation</a> of constitutional law. The court, for example, demonstrated its willingness to reconsider landmark rulings when it <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/dobbs_v._jackson_women%27s_health_organization_%282022%29">overturned</a> the 1973 abortion decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/113">Roe v. Wade</a>. </p>
<p>Justice <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/06/24/195182864/justice-thomas-says-court-should-have-gutted-affirmative-action">Clarence Thomas</a>, a leading Black conservative, is <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/ivy-educated-thomas-and-sotomayor-divide-on-affirmative-action">a well-known opponent</a> of affirmative action programs and recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that allow the use of race as a factor in college admissions.</p>
<p>Thomas’ views are in stark contrast with those of the two other justices of color – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/justice-sonia-sotomayor-defends-affirmative-action/2014/06/22/cfdbe774-fa22-11e3-8176-f2c941cf35f1_story.html">Sonia Sotomayor</a>, a Latina, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/11/affirmative-action-supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/671954/">Ketanji Brown Jackson</a>, a Black woman. </p>
<p>As scholars of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aIWyIH8AAAAJ&hl=en">constitutional law</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aIWyIH8AAAAJ&hl=en">civil rights</a>, we believe that the ideological disagreements among the justices of color reflect the national division over how to address the <a href="https://glc.yale.edu/legacies-american-slavery/what-is-a-legacy-of-slavery">legacies of slavery</a>, <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/what.htm">Jim Crow</a> and <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/racial-inequality-in-the-united-states">modern-day inequalities</a>.</p>
<h2>Historical underpinnings of affirmative action</h2>
<p>Following the Civil War, the nation grappled with building a multiracial democracy.</p>
<p>Congress sought to construct that new democracy in part by <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1306&context=faculty-articles">enacting laws that provided race-conscious remedies</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to enacting laws, the nation <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393358520">transformed the U.S. Constitution</a> by adopting the Reconstruction Amendments. These amendments included the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/#:%7E:text=Neither%20slavery%20nor%20involuntary%20servitude,place%20subject%20to%20their%20jurisdiction">13th Amendment</a>, which ended slavery, and <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/15th-amendment#:%7E:text=Passed%20by%20Congress%20February%2026,men%20the%20right%20to%20vote">the 15th Amendment</a>, which provides that the right to vote may not be denied or abridged on “account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”</p>
<p>But it was the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/#:%7E:text=No%20State%20shall%20make%20or,equal%20protection%20of%20the%20laws">the 14th Amendment</a> that addressed discrimination against Black Americans by ensuring that no state may deprive any person “the equal protection of the laws.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five men and four women are wearing black robes as they pose for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508673/original/file-20230207-29-owvlbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court, from left in front row, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan, and from left in back row, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-sonia-news-photo/1431388794?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Written in broad, general language, the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause was designed by <a href="https://history.house.gov/Congressional-Overview/Profiles/39th/">the 39th Congress</a> to open the door to <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393358520">different interpretations by future generations</a>. Today’s arguments for and against affirmative action are based on differing interpretations of the meaning of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. </p>
<h2>Thomas’ opposition to affirmative action</h2>
<p>In their suits against Harvard and UNC, the anti-affirmative action organization <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students for Fair Admissions</a> argues that schools’ race-conscious admissions process violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and discriminates against high-achieving Asian American students in favor of traditionally underrepresented Black and Hispanic people. </p>
<p>Thomas takes that argument a step further.</p>
<p>He has argued that all racial classifications – regardless of their perceived benefit in remedying inequality – are harmful because they stigmatize minorities. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing a robe poses for a portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1138%2C97%2C2678%2C2443&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508683/original/file-20230207-27-bavjpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas opposes all race-conscious college admissions policies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-states-supreme-court-associate-justice-clarence-news-photo/1431382313?phrase=us%20supreme%20clarence%20thomas&adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Race-conscious admissions policies, he wrote <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-241.ZX1.html">in his dissent</a> of the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, “stamp minorities with a badge of inferiority.” </p>
<p>In addition, Thomas argued that university administrators lack a pressing or compelling reason to divide Americans into racial classes, since African Americans can and will succeed without this help.</p>
<p>“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-241.ZX1.html">Thomas concluded</a>. </p>
<p>Thomas made another point in October 2022, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2022/21-707_9o6b.pdf">during oral arguments</a> in the affirmative action cases currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>“I may be tone-deaf when it comes to all these other things that happen on campus, about feeling good and all that,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/politics/takeaways-supreme-court-harvard-north-carolina-affirmative-action">Thomas said to one of the attorneys defending affirmative action</a>. “I’m really interested in a simple thing: What benefits academically are there to your definition or the diversity that you’re asserting?”</p>
<h2>Sotomayor’s and Jackson’s support of affirmative action</h2>
<p>Justice Sotomayor’s line of <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2022/21-707_9o6b.pdf">questioning during oral arguments</a> in the cases against Harvard and UNC strongly suggest that she believes that diversity is constitutional.</p>
<p>Sotomayor, for example, pointed out that the 39th Congress that wrote the
14th Amendment invested “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2022/21-707_9o6b.pdf">a lot of money in trying to get Black children, whether they were children of slaves or free slaves … educated in integrated schools</a>.”</p>
<p>She emphasized in her questions that race is only one factor and is never a quota in either the UNC or Harvard admissions policies.</p>
<p>Sotomayor also has said that she is the “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/08/08/sonia-sotomayor-supreme-court-five-years/13715203/">product of affirmative action</a>.” </p>
<p>Justice Jackson has not ruled or participated in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/29/supreme-justices-affirmative-action-statements/">affirmative action case</a> as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. She took office in June 2022, and the Harvard and UNC cases are her first opportunity to rule on this issue.</p>
<p>But her line of <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2022/21-707_9o6b.pdf">questioning during oral arguments</a> in the Harvard and UNC cases suggests she also believes that race-based efforts to obtain diversity are constitutional. </p>
<p>Jackson asked attorneys representing Students for Fair Admissions if their client endured harm from an admissions process in which race was one of 40 factors that are considered. Other factors include demonstrated leadership skills, grade point average and resilience. </p>
<h2>Ending affirmative action will not end diversity efforts</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2022/07/22/lessons-learned-from-the-post-george-floyd-protests/">the wake of protests</a> after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">George Floyd’s murder</a> in 2020 by a white Minneapolis police officer, most Americans see racism as a major problem.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/21/881477657/poll-majority-of-americans-say-racial-discrimination-is-a-big-problem">2020 Monmouth University poll</a> found that 76% of Americans surveyed called racism a big problem, up 25% from just five years previously. </p>
<p>Yet, while many Americans think that racism is a problem, a majority of Americans also think that affirmative action is problematic. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/25/most-americans-say-colleges-should-not-consider-race-or-ethnicity-in-admissions/">A 2022 Pew Research poll</a> found that 73% responded that race or ethnicity should not be considered when making decisions about student admissions.</p>
<p>In our view, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on affirmative action in these two cases, attempts to achieve a diverse student body or corporate workforce will continue – just in new ways. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-31/california-banned-affirmative-action-uc-struggles-for-diversity">California ended affirmative action</a>, minority enrollment in state universities initially plummeted dramatically. </p>
<p>But in recent years, the California university system <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-affirmative-action-college-17542979.php">has increased minority enrollment</a> by relying on socioeconomic factors, location and recruitment.</p>
<p>Other state universities have adopted race-neutral programs that promote student diversity.</p>
<p>Texas, for example, <a href="https://www.ppic.org/blog/race-and-college-admissions-in-texas/">enacted a law</a> in 1998 that allows students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school class to automatically gain admission to state universities. </p>
<p>This plan <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/01/1133041101/what-college-admissions-would-look-like-if-affirmative-action-is-reversed">enhanced student diversity</a> by ensuring that students in poor and ethnically diverse districts could gain admission to elite public universities. </p>
<h2>Affirmative action and the legacy of Reconstruction</h2>
<p>The idea that <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-14/section-1/race-based-classifications-overview">the Constitution is colorblind and prohibits racial classifications</a> has <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xiv/clauses/702">become popular</a> today, but it was not the <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/bibliography/brown-originalism-and-constitutional-theory-a-response-to-professor-mcconnell/">mainstream understanding of equal protection in the 19th century</a>. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">1954 Brown v. Board of Education</a> decision, the Supreme Court conducted <a href="https://openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/3415">exhaustive historical research</a> and pointed out that there was no consensus on whether segregation should be illegal in public schools when the 14th Amendment was adopted.</p>
<p>Disagreements over the equal protection clause are sure to continue, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides in the Harvard and UNC cases – as will the nation’s efforts to construct a just, multiracial democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Lain is affiliated with Polk County Bar Association and the ACLU of Iowa.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miguel Schor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most Americans believe that racial inequality is a significant problem. They also believe that affirmative action programs aimed at reducing those inequalities are a problematic tool.Miguel Schor, Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Drake University Constitutional Law Center, Drake UniversityErin Lain, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994052023-02-13T04:45:17Z2023-02-13T04:45:17ZAustralia is lagging when it comes to employing people with disability – quotas for disability services could be a start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509648/original/file-20230213-4534-aaexj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C46%2C10324%2C6851&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-american-male-sits-workplace-wheelchair-788315545">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia is lagging behind other countries when it comes to employing people with disability. </p>
<p>A gulf exists between the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/disability/people-with-disability-in-australia/contents/employment/employment-rate-and-type">employment rates</a> of working-aged Australians with and without disability. The gap here is 32%, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/6181592/3-02122014-BP-EN.pdf/aefdf716-f420-448f-8cba-893e90e6b460">much higher</a> than countries such as Sweden (9.5%), Finland (12.4%), France (9.9%) and Italy (13.3%).</p>
<p>Clearly, Australia needs to do a far better job of employing people with disability. My <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/spol.12898">research</a>, as someone with lived experience of disability, suggests disability services could be a good place to start.</p>
<h2>Out of step with an inclusive ethos</h2>
<p>A 2021 workforce census published by <a href="https://www.nds.org.au/news/december-2020-nds-workforce-census-data-released-2">National Disability Services</a> (NDS) – Australia’s peak body for non-government disability services – included new questions about the employment of staff with disability. </p>
<p>Our research team analysed the responses. They indicated many Australian disability services don’t include people with lived experience of disability among their workforce. In fact, almost a quarter of the 288 disability services surveyed said they don’t employ anyone with disability.</p>
<p>Further, only 24% of the organisations said they had someone with disability on their board. Even fewer organisations (19%) employed people with disability in management positions. </p>
<p>This fresh data is timely given the Albanese government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-a-return-to-labor-government-its-time-for-an-ndis-reset-183628">election promise</a> to include more people with disability as board members and in senior roles. In September, the government <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-disabled-ndia-chair-is-a-great-first-move-in-the-ndis-reset-heres-what-should-happen-next-191419">appointed</a> Kurt Fearnley as National Disability Insurance Agency chair, along with two new directors: Graeme Innes (former disability discrimination commissioner) and Maryanne Diamond (Australian Network on Disability board member). The appointments brought the number of people with disability on the NDIA board to five.</p>
<p>But with lots of “don’t know” and “we don’t keep records” responses to the NDS census questions, it appears many disability service organisations are not collecting data about employees with disability. By not investing in this data collection, organisations are sending a message they don’t value disability as a part of diversity or inclusion. </p>
<p>This message is out of step with an inclusive ethos which celebrates the contributions Australians with disability make in our communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C3%2C2485%2C1657&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two people sit on sofa drinking coffee, mobility scooter nearby" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C3%2C2485%2C1657&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509645/original/file-20230213-24-sq1kfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lived experience of people with disability should be valued.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://disabledandhere.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/disabledandhere-t03.jpg">Disabled and Here</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-disabled-ndia-chair-is-a-great-first-move-in-the-ndis-reset-heres-what-should-happen-next-191419">A disabled NDIA chair is a great first move in the NDIS reset. Here's what should happen next</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Policy is soft</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://workforcecapability.ndiscommission.gov.au/">NDIS Workforce Capability Framework</a>, which will be rolled out this year, and the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-publications-articles/ndis-national-workforce-plan-2021-2025">NDIS National Workforce Plan: 2021–2025</a> both recommend employing more people with disability. But both national polices are limited to “soft statements” rather than the steps required to achieve this goal.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/disability-and-carers-publications-articles/ndis-national-workforce-plan-2021-2025">NDIS National Workforce Plan</a> recommends educators promote the demand for disability service workers. This might encourage job seekers with disability to apply. But these kinds of indirect policy approaches lean on the goodwill of the disability services sector. </p>
<p>This soft policy approach also fails to value and support the <a href="https://theconversation.com/everyone-is-talking-about-the-ndis-we-spoke-to-participants-and-asked-them-how-to-fix-it-193524">untapped work potential</a> of people with disability in a sector that is experiencing significant workforce shortages. </p>
<p>Within the disability services sector, lived experience should be valued as a key capability. The National Workforce Plan should be forthright in actions to harness the skills, knowledge and experience of people with disability for roles across the sector. </p>
<p>The Albanese government could also look to its current <a href="https://engage.dss.gov.au/a-new-act-to-replace-the-disability-services-act-1986/">review of the 1986 Disability Services Act</a> as a legislative mechanism to enforce inclusive action. </p>
<p>Through non-compliance taxation, where companies have to pay additional taxes if they do not employ sufficient numbers of people with disability, the Australian government could encourage disability service organisations to meet <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---inst/documents/publication/wcms_646041.pdf">disability employment quotas</a>. Initiatives like this have been implemented in many other countries including <a href="https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/18801/1/Disability%20quotasfeb1a.pdf">Italy</a> and <a href="https://hal.science/hal-03232751/document.">France</a> </p>
<p>Quotas are aligned with the concept of “<a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/quick-guide/12099">affirmative action</a>”, which aims to achieve equality for groups of people who have historically experienced discrimination, especially in areas such as employment and education.</p>
<p>Alternatively, service providers who currently receive <a href="https://www.ndis.gov.au/">National Disability Insurance Scheme</a> funding could be registered with a condition that requires compliance with disability employment quotas.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1585807856837591041"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/low-staff-turnover-high-loyalty-and-productivity-gains-the-business-benefits-of-hiring-people-with-intellectual-disability-180587">Low staff turnover, high loyalty and productivity gains: the business benefits of hiring people with intellectual disability</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Expect initial resistance</h2>
<p>Our research underlines the need for strong policy measures to employ more people with disability. Disability service and leadership roles are a logical place to start this process.</p>
<p>Disability service organisations are missing out on a range of benefits that come from employing more people with lived experience of disability. These <a href="https://www.australianchamber.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/eotb_-_disability.pdf">benefits</a> include improvements in productivity, staff morale and organisational culture.</p>
<p>The introduction of disability employment quotas might encounter initial resistance. But if the Australian government is serious about improving employment prospects for people with disability, including career prospects within disability services, it will need to take affirmative action.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: This article originally stated the 2021 NDS workforce census was its most recent. A subsequent census was published in 2022, which reported similar figures.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Mellifont receives funding from NDS. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen Smith-Merry receives funding relevant to this article from National Disability Services, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, Independent Community Living Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Disability Insurance Agency, the NSW Department of Education, the National Disability Research Partnership, Community Options Australia, the Canadian New Frontiers in Research Fund and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Bulkeley receives funding from the Australian Research Council; Monash University; ASPECT; MacKillop Family Services; NDS. Kim is affiliated with the Centre for Research Excellence - Disability and Health. Kim is on the Practice Governance Committee for Life Without Barriers. Kim is the president of Disability SPOT. </span></em></p>Less than a quarter of disability services who responded to a workforce survey employed people with disability.Damian Mellifont, Lived Experience Fellow, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of SydneyJennifer Smith-Merry, Director, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of SydneyKim Bulkeley, Research Fellow, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1936942022-11-07T13:35:05Z2022-11-07T13:35:05ZWhat is affirmative action, anyway? 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493356/original/file-20221103-13-ektkq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C5964%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court is deciding a case on whether, and how, universities may consider an applicant's race when making admissions decisions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtAffirmativeAction/fbd3e6c1fd874e8abdfda436c87b422a/photo">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions could soon be a thing of the past. At least that’s the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/30/affirmative-action-supreme-court-harvard-unc">impression many observers got</a> after listening to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/supreme-court-affirmative-action-cases-college-admissions-north-carolina-harvard/">oral arguments about the practice</a> before the U.S Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Scholars writing for The Conversation U.S. have taken a closer look at affirmative action and how it has been seen and used in the realm of higher education.</p>
<h2>1. Even some supporters don’t know how it works</h2>
<p>When <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DMreKvQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">OiYan Poon</a>, a race and education scholar at Colorado State University, traveled across the nation to ask Asian Americans what they knew about affirmative action, they found that even people who were part of organizations that publicly supported or opposed it didn’t quite understand how affirmative action works.</p>
<p>For instance, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-colleges-use-affirmative-action-even-some-activists-dont-understand-105453">30 out of 36 presented outdated myths</a>” about affirmative action, she wrote. “These 30 included 13 affirmative action supporters and 17 opponents,” who talked about ideas such as “‘racial quotas,’ which were declared unconstitutional in [1978]. They also thought it involved ‘racial bonus points’ for Black and Latino applicants,” Poon found.</p>
<p>In fact, Poon wrote, “race-conscious admissions is now practiced through holistic review of individual applicants. Such individualized review is meant to recognize, in a limited way, how race and racism might have shaped each applicant’s perspectives and educational opportunities.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-colleges-use-affirmative-action-even-some-activists-dont-understand-105453">How do colleges use affirmative action? Even some activists don't understand</a>
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<h2>2. Banning affirmative action has clear effects</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black woman wearing a black graduation cap and gown is seated in between two white male college graduates." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Some researchers say graduation is less likely for Black, Hispanic and Native American students when affirmative action is outlawed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-at-commencement-ceremony-royalty-free-image/88170494?adppopup=true">Andy Sacks via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>It’s possible to predict what could happen if the Supreme Court rules against affirmative action. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SE2WERAAAAAJ&hl=en">Natasha Warikoo</a>, a Tufts University professor who studies racial equity in education, pointed out: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Since nine states already have bans on affirmative action</a>, it’s easy to know what will happen if affirmative action is outlawed. Studies of college enrollment in those states show that enrollment of Black, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students will decline in the long term.”</p>
<p>“Undergraduate enrollment is not the only area of higher education that will be affected. A ban on affirmative action will ultimately lead to fewer graduate degrees earned by Black, Hispanic and Native American students,” she wrote.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/affirmative-action-bans-make-selective-colleges-less-diverse-a-national-ban-will-do-the-same-189214">Affirmative action bans make selective colleges less diverse – a national ban will do the same</a>
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<h2>3. The difference is big</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4538%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two female students walk on the campus of UCLA." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4538%2C3263&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368016/original/file-20201106-15-117hmso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Public universities in California cannot consider race in admissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-walk-through-the-campus-of-the-ucla-college-in-news-photo/1205520367?adppopup=true">Mark Ralston/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lK3kzlYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Vinay Harpalani</a>, a scholar of discrimination at the University of New Mexico, delivered some numbers: After California banned affirmative action at its state universities, “[t]he enrollment of Black, Latino and Native American students dropped dramatically in the University of California system. For example, at UCLA, the percentage of underrepresented minorities dropped from 28% to 14% between 1995 and 1998. There was a similar drop at UC Berkeley.”</p>
<p>In more recent years, he reported, “The enrollment numbers have recovered, largely due to increased Latino enrollment. Currently at UCLA, 22% of the undergraduate student body is Latino and 3% is Black. But it is also important to note that the number of Latino high school graduates has more than tripled since 1997.”</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-california-vote-to-keep-the-ban-on-affirmative-action-means-for-higher-education-149508">What the California vote to keep the ban on affirmative action means for higher education</a>
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<h2>4. A military case for affirmative action</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A wounded white soldier is carried by a Black soldier during the Vietnam War." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A wounded soldier is carried by members of the 1st Cavalry Division near the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wounded-soldier-is-carried-by-members-of-the-1st-calvary-news-photo/514870008?phrase=vietnam%20war%20black%20soldiers&adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>In an article explaining the point of view of 35 military officers who have asked the Supreme Court to continue to allow affirmative action, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/travis-knoll-1377873">Travis Knoll</a>, a historian at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, looked to the nation’s – and the military’s – racial experience during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>“[I]n 1962, when U.S. involvement was starting to grow in Vietnam, <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-us-supreme-court-reconsidering-affirmative-action-leaving-the-use-of-race-in-college-admissions-on-the-brink-of-extinction-190313">Black commissioned officers</a> represented only 1.6% of the officers corps,” he wrote. “Military academies remained virtually segregated, with Black people making up less than 1% of enrollees. As a result, the number of Black officers didn’t grow much.”</p>
<p>That led to unrest in the ranks: “Over the next five years, the number of Black soldiers fighting and dying on the front lines grew to about 25%. Racial tensions between white and Black soldiers led to at least 300 fights in a two-year-period that resulted in 71 deaths,” Knoll wrote. “Fueling those fights was the belief among Black soldiers that the largely white officers didn’t care about their lives.”</p>
<p>That experience, Knoll explained, drove home to the military the idea that diversity in leadership was extremely important. “It also began the military’s use of affirmative action, including race-conscious admissions policies at service academies and in ROTC programs.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-us-supreme-court-reconsidering-affirmative-action-leaving-the-use-of-race-in-college-admissions-on-the-brink-of-extinction-190313">Conservative US Supreme Court reconsidering affirmative action, leaving the use of race in college admissions on the brink of extinction</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Scholars explain what affirmative action is – and isn’t – as well as what its effects are, and why, among others, the military has supported it for decades.Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation USJamaal Abdul-Alim, Education Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903132022-11-01T12:48:27Z2022-11-01T12:48:27ZConservative US Supreme Court reconsidering affirmative action, leaving the use of race in college admissions on the brink of extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492555/original/file-20221031-27-pmpisx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=185%2C353%2C3808%2C2395&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court in its official portrait on Oct. 7, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/justices-of-the-us-supreme-court-pose-for-their-official-news-photo/1243795466?phrase=us%20supreme%20court%20justices&adppopup=true">Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. military learned a valuable lesson about race during the Vietnam War: Diversity does not happen without affirmative action.</p>
<p>That helps explain why a <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3699673-military-leaders-affirmative-action-is-a-national-security-imperative/">distinguished group of 35 military officials</a> wrote <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232531/20220801183329801_20-1199%20and%2021-707_Brief%20of%20Amici%20Curiae%20Former%20Military%20Leaders.pdf">a brief to the Supreme Court</a> supporting the use of race as a part of college admissions – as the U.S. military has done at its four service academies over the last nearly 50 years.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/harvard-race-admissions-case-tests-oconnors-25-year-prediction">Supreme Court has agreed in the past</a> that racial diversity on college campuses is an important goal, the problem is just how to achieve that goal without using race as a factor.</p>
<p>In two cases that are expected to determine the fate of affirmative action programs across the country, the court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/21-707.html">heard oral arguments on Oct. 31, 2022,</a> that could bring an end to using race as one of many factors in college admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Questions from the justices reflected the ideological divisions on the court. Conservative justices argued that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/31/supreme-court-race-college-admissions-harvard-unc/">race-based admissions policies had no defined end point</a>. </p>
<p>“I don’t see how you can say that the program will ever end,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. </p>
<p>Associate Justice Clarence Thomas cut right to the point in his questions. </p>
<p>“I may be tone-deaf when it comes to all these other things that happen on campus, about feeling good and all that,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/politics/takeaways-supreme-court-harvard-north-carolina-affirmative-action">Thomas said to one of the attorneys defending affirmative action</a>. “I’m really interested in a simple thing: What benefits academically are there to your definition or the diversity that you’re asserting.”</p>
<p>In sharp contrast, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor reminded the court that diversity was deemed an issue of national importance in previous rulings and that without such programs, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/supreme-court-affirmative-action-oral-arguments/index.html">the number of historically disadvantaged applicants decreases substantially</a>. </p>
<p>“What we know,” Sotomayor said about the nine states who have tried dropping affirmative action programs, “in each of them, white admissions have either remained the same or increased. And clearly, in some institutions, the numbers for underrepresented groups has fallen dramatically, correct?” </p>
<h2>The US military experience</h2>
<p>In my view as a scholar of the history of affirmative action, the military officers make the <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters">case that diversity</a> is a matter of life and death.</p>
<p>The officers <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232531/20220801183329801_20-1199%20and%2021-707_Brief%20of%20Amici%20Curiae%20Former%20Military%20Leaders.pdf">argued in their brief</a> that barring universities from taking race into account in admissions risks sowing “internal resentment, discord, and violence” in an era when “diversity is imperative to our military’s dealings with international allies and complex global challenges.”</p>
<p>In addition, the military leaders argued that overturning affirmative action would damage the extremely successful talent pipeline that the officer corps has set up directly through military academies and indirectly through the university-based ROTC programs.</p>
<p>This is not the first time former military officials have weighed in on affirmative action. They <a href="https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3167&context=penn_law_review">did so</a> in the 2003 case against the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan in <a href="https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/future/landmark_grutter.html">Grutter vs. Bollinger</a>.</p>
<p>“The importance of maintaining a diverse, highly qualified officer corps has been beyond legitimate dispute for decades,” the military officials wrote. </p>
<p>Indeed, in 1962, when U.S. involvement was starting to grow in Vietnam, Black commissioned officers represented only 1.6% of the officers corps. Military academies remained virtually segregated, with Black people making up less than 1% of enrollees. As a result, the number of Black officers didn’t grow much.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A wounded white solider is carried by a black soldier during the Vietnam War." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492564/original/file-20221031-7911-wj31l2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A wounded soldier is carried by members of the 1st Calvary Division near the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/wounded-soldier-is-carried-by-members-of-the-1st-calvary-news-photo/514870008?phrase=vietnam%20war%20black%20soldiers&adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>Over the next five years, the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Blacks_and_the_Military_in_American_Hist.html?id=5JJ2AAAAMAAJ">number of Black soldiers fighting and dying</a> on the front lines grew to about 25%. Racial tensions between white and Black soldiers <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232531/20220801183329801_20-1199%20and%2021-707_Brief%20of%20Amici%20Curiae%20Former%20Military%20Leaders.pdf">led to at least 300 fights</a> in a two-year-period that resulted in 71 deaths.</p>
<p>Fueling those fights was the belief among Black soldiers that the largely white officers didn’t care about their lives. </p>
<p>The lack of diversity, the military leaders wrote in their brief, “led to a complete breakdown in understanding between minority enlisted service members and the white officers who led them.” </p>
<p>In what they described as “a painful chapter,” military officials said the Vietnam War “brought home the importance of cultivating diversity across all levels of leadership.”</p>
<p>It also began the military’s use of affirmative action, including race-conscious admissions policies at service academies and in ROTC programs.</p>
<h2>Conservative target for decades</h2>
<p>In their lawsuits now in the Supreme Court against <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-fellows-of-harvard-college/">Harvard</a> and the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-university-of-north-carolina/">University of North Carolina</a>, the anti-affirmative action organization <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students for Fair Admissions</a> argued that the schools’ race-conscious admissions process was unconstitutional and discriminated against high-achieving Asian American students in favor of traditionally underrepresented Blacks and Hispanics.</p>
<p>These cases mark the second time the Students for Fair Admissions and its founder, Edward Blum, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/30/politics/scotus-affirmative-action-college-admissions-edward-blum/index.html">a conservative activist</a> who has raised millions of dollars from right-wing donors, have reached the Supreme Court in their efforts to dismantle affirmative action.</p>
<p>In 2016, they challenged the University of Texas on behalf of white and Asian students, but lost. That didn’t stop Blum from filing the latest challenges before the Supreme Court – all in the effort to eliminate the use of race in college admissions. </p>
<p>In an October 2022 interview, Blum said <a href="https://time.com/6225372/edward-blum-affirmative-action-supreme-court-interview/">he believes that diversity on campus is a good thing</a>, but “there is a way to go about doing this without putting a thumb on the scale.”</p>
<p>Given the conservative 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn">its controversial ruling</a> that overturned the landmark <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/">1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade</a>, it does not appear likely that affirmative action as it’s known will survive, despite decades of rulings that protected the use of race as an admissions criteria.</p>
<p>In 2007, for instance, Chief Justice Roberts wrote <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/23/306173835/two-justices-debate-the-doctrine-of-colorblindness">in a school busing case</a> that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”</p>
<p>Forms of that argument have been around since the 1970s, when a legal challenge reached the Supreme Court in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)#:%7E:text=Primary%20tabs-,Regents%20of%20the%20University%20of%20California%20v.,Civil%20Rights%20Act%20of%201964">Regents of the University of California v. Bakke</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man wearing a black robe is seen graduating from medical school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492560/original/file-20221031-24-5dk3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Allan Bakke, 42, receives his medical diploma in 1982 after successfully challenging affirmative action admissions policies to the Supreme Court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/allan-bakke-enters-freeborn-hall-to-receive-his-medical-news-photo/1096096308?phrase=allan%20bakke&adppopup=true">Bettmann Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that 1978 case, Allan Bakke, a white man, had been denied admission to University of California at Davis’ medical school. Though ruling that a separate admissions process for minority medical students was unconstitutional, Associate Justice Lewis Powell wrote that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/10/how-lewis-powell-changed-affirmative-action/572938/">race can still be one of several factors</a> in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Since then, the Supreme Court has issued different rulings on whether race could be used in college admissions.</p>
<p>In the 2003 <a href="https://casetext.com/case/grutter-v-bollinger-et-al">Grutter v. Bollinger</a> case, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the <a href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep539/usrep539306/usrep539306.pdf">majority opinion</a> that endorsed the University of Michigan’s “highly individualized, holistic review” that included race as a factor and had been legally challenged. </p>
<p>Most recently, in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-981_4g15.PDF">Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin</a> in 2016, the court reaffirmed its belief in schools that “train students to appreciate diverse viewpoints, to see one another as more than mere stereotypes, and to develop the capacity to live and work together as equal members of a common community.”</p>
<h2>If not race, then what?</h2>
<p>Race-neutral admissions policies have had mixed results.</p>
<p>In the cases before the Supreme Court, the University of California <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232355/20220801134931730_20-1199%20bsac%20University%20of%20California.pdf">also filed a brief urging the Court to allow the use of race</a>. The school argued that the elimination of its affirmative action program in 1996 has caused its diversity numbers to decline in some cases by more than 50%.</p>
<p>“UC’s experience demonstrates that the race-neutral methods which it has diligently pursued for 25 years have been inadequate to meaningfully increase student-body diversity,” the school said in its brief.</p>
<p>The impact on the number of Black and Latino students was virtually immediate. At UCLA, for instance, African American students made up 7.13% of the freshman class in 1995, and only 3.43% in 1998.</p>
<p>More than two decades later, the numbers have not improved. Though Latino students comprise 52.3% of California public high school graduates, only about 25.4% of college freshmen in the UC system identified as Latino. For Black students, the number graduating from high school was 5%, while the number of Black college freshmen was about 4%.</p>
<p>“UC’s decades-long experience with race-neutral approaches demonstrates that highly competitive universities may not be able to achieve the benefits of student body diversity through race-neutral measures alone,” the UC brief stated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Travis Knoll received funding from the Social Science Research Council in 2018-2019 to study the history of affirmative action in Brazil.</span></em></p>The US Supreme Court is poised to determine the fate of the use of race in college admissions. Supporters of affirmative action, like the military, fear the worst.Travis Knoll, Adjunct Professor of History, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892142022-10-06T12:17:22Z2022-10-06T12:17:22ZAffirmative action bans make selective colleges less diverse – a national ban will do the same<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487587/original/file-20221001-25-5op2nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C17%2C5923%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graduation is less likely for students at less selective schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-at-commencement-ceremony-royalty-free-image/88170494?adppopup=true">Andy Sacks via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in two lawsuits on Oct. 31, 2022, brought by a group that opposes affirmative action in college admissions. Here, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SE2WERAAAAAJ&hl=en">Natasha Warikoo</a>, a sociology professor at Tufts University and author of the newly released “<a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=is-affirmative-action-fair-the-myth-of-equity-in-college-admissions--9781509549368">Is Affirmative Action Fair?: The Myth of Equity in College Admissions</a>,” shares insights on how the racial and ethnic makeup of student bodies at selective colleges and universities will change if the Supreme Court decides to outlaw affirmative action.</em></p>
<h2>What’s at stake with the cases against affirmative action?</h2>
<p>Currently, <a href="https://thesocietypages.org/discoveries/2017/10/17/race-for-admissions-changing-affirmative-action/">many selective colleges consider race</a> when they make decisions about which students to admit. In several cases since 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that it is constitutional to do so to ensure diversity on campus. </p>
<p>A ruling in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiffs in the case, would require all colleges – both private and public – to no longer consider race when they make admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Since <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/04/12/why-might-states-ban-affirmative-action/">nine states already have bans on affirmative action</a>, it’s easy to know what will happen if affirmative action is outlawed. Studies of college enrollment in those states show that enrollment of Black, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students will <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720904433">decline in the long term</a>.</p>
<p>Undergraduate enrollment is not the only area of higher education that will be affected. A ban on affirmative action will ultimately lead to fewer graduate degrees earned by Black, Hispanic and Native American students.</p>
<p>One study found that medical school enrollment for underrepresented minorities <a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-4312">fell by an average of 5%</a> in eight states with bans on affirmative action. Wages will also be affected: A recent study estimates that among Hispanic young adults in California who applied to University of California colleges after the the state’s ban on affirmative action, earnings were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab027">5% less</a> than for Hispanics who applied before the ban. The evidence suggests that applicants after the ban attended lower-ranked colleges and, consequently, were less likely to graduate from college, which drove down their wages as graduates.</p>
<h2>What do people regularly get wrong about affirmative action?</h2>
<p>Many assume that affirmative action plays a bigger role in admissions decisions than it actually does. Some worry that the policy leads colleges to admit students who cannot cope with the academic demands of the colleges to which they are admitted. This “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-needlessly-polarized-mismatch-theory-debate/420321/">mismatch theory</a>,” as it is sometimes called, has not proved to be true.</p>
<p>Research shows that Black students who are admitted with help from affirmative action are <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691050195/the-shape-of-the-river">more likely to go on to earn advanced degrees</a> than Black students with similar academic achievement but whose admission was not helped by affirmative action.</p>
<p>And California’s 1998 ban led to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/137/1/115/6360982?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=true">fewer STEM degrees attained by Black and Hispanic students</a> in California colleges. This was especially true for those with weaker academic preparation – that is to say, those thought to be most negatively affected by “mismatch.”</p>
<h2>How will things change if affirmative action ends?</h2>
<p>Based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720904433">what happened in states</a> where affirmative action has already been banned, there will be sharp drops in the numbers of Black, Hispanic and Native American students at selective colleges, especially those that are the most selective.</p>
<p>Students who end up at less selective colleges will be <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ctr/undergrad-retention-graduation">less likely to graduate</a>. That’s because lower-ranked colleges tend to have fewer resources to support student success and, as a result, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ctr/undergrad-retention-graduation">tend to have lower graduation rates</a>.</p>
<p>Ending affirmative action will make it harder to increase the percentage of professionals and leaders from minority backgrounds. This is because, as research has shown, affirmative action has increased the number of Black college graduates and, in turn, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691050195/the-shape-of-the-river">increased the number of Black professionals with advanced degrees</a>. </p>
<p>If such a setback takes place, it will come at a time when many organizations and companies are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/george-floyd-corporate-america-racial-justice/">pledging support for racial justice</a> and an <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/inspiration-for-ramping-up-diversity-inclusion-efforts/">increase diversity among their staff and leadership</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s the main takeaway from your book?</h2>
<p>Overall, I argue that admissions should be less about who gets into college and more about what students will do once they get out. I believe this requires less emphasis on individual achievements – and more emphasis on the broader mission of college. That mission includes preparing people from a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds to make <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3838697">contributions to society</a>. Affirmative action, I argue, is one tool to do just that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Warikoo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>America’s selective colleges and universities become less diverse if the Supreme Court shoots down affirmative action in higher education, an expert on the subject warns.Natasha Warikoo, Lenore Stern Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908192022-09-30T19:19:45Z2022-09-30T19:19:45ZThe Supreme Court is back in session, with new controversial cases that stand to change many Americans’ lives – here’s what to expect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487386/original/file-20220929-24-y1wyxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court is set to start its latest term on Oct. 3, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/two-civilians-walk-past-the-fenced-off-united-states-supreme-court-picture-id1411738675">Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-seismic-change-has-taken-place-at-the-supreme-court-but-its-not-clear-if-the-shift-is-about-principle-or-party-190815">dramatic year of controversial rulings</a>, the Supreme Court began hearing new cases on Oct. 3, 2022, with a full agenda. </p>
<p>The court <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolutionary-ruling-and-not-just-for-abortion-a-supreme-court-scholar-explains-the-impact-of-dobbs-185823">overturned abortion rights</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-sweeps-aside-new-yorks-limits-on-carrying-a-gun-raising-second-amendment-rights-to-new-heights-183486">expanded gun rights</a> in June 2022 as the <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/video/conservative-supreme-court-spells-america-095209727.html">new conservative supermajority</a> began to exert its influence. </p>
<p>Some of the court’s most important upcoming cases focus on the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-fellows-of-harvard-college/">future of affirmative action</a>, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/303-creative-llc-v-elenis/">equal treatment of LGBTQ people</a>, and the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/moore-v-harper-2/">control of election laws</a>. The court will hear the cases in the fall and then likely issue rulings in spring 2023. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.springer.com/series/16259">close observer of the court</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-aGQIZwAAAAJ&hl=en">I think</a> this term’s rulings will continue to reject the court’s previous liberal decisions and instead reflect a conservative interpretation of the historical meaning of the Constitution. At least three of those upcoming rulings are likely to profoundly influence people’s everyday lives in the United States. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person walks through brick gates, with a large brick building in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487387/original/file-20220929-14-nwwafp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the Supreme Court’s most publicized cases this term focuses on whether Harvard University unfairly discriminates against Asian American student applicants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/scenes-around-harvard-yard-at-harvard-university-in-cambridge-ma-on-picture-id1237976584">Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Affirmative action</h2>
<p>College admissions and scholarships can alter the trajectory of a life. </p>
<p>College administrators want diverse student populations but are less clear about which categories – including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity and wealth – should influence admission and financial aid decisions. When it comes down to the specifics of which people are underrepresented in higher education, and which are overrepresented, the questions become thorny. </p>
<p>Many different groups feel that they are being mistreated when their specific circumstances and histories are taken into account.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2022/">will hear two lawsuits</a> on Oct. 31, 2022, brought by the anti-affirmative action organization <a href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/">Students for Fair Admissions</a>. This group argues that Harvard and other schools blatantly discriminate against Asian students. But the claim is a proxy for all other preferences grounded in identity, including those in favor of Black applicants and those disadvantaging whites. </p>
<p>The two cases – one against <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-president-fellows-of-harvard-college/">Harvard</a> and the other against the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/students-for-fair-admissions-inc-v-university-of-north-carolina/">University of North Carolina</a> – address private as well as public institutions. </p>
<p>Nine states currently have laws <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/us/affirmative-action-admissions-supreme-court.html">that ban</a> affirmative action in college admissions. The extent and focus of existing <a href="https://www.acenet.edu/Policy-Advocacy/Pages/Law-Courts/Diversity-in-Admissions.aspx">diversity policies vary widely</a>. </p>
<p>Universities justifying their diversity policies argue that the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/">14th Amendment</a> and its guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” encourage giving an advantage to historically oppressed groups. </p>
<p>The opponents of affirmative action argue that the 14th Amendment was <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/169941/20210225095525027_Harvard%20Cert%20Petn%20Feb%2025.pdf#page=34">meant to uphold racial neutrality</a>, meaning all individuals should be treated the same, regardless of race. In this view, the Constitution forbids considering race in almost any decisions that influence individual advancement.</p>
<p>The core conflict is whether the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">equal protection clause</a> protects <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/equity-vs-equality-4767021">equality or equity</a>. </p>
<p>If is it equality – the same treatment of all races, regardless – this supports the argument that universities may not give preferences to applicants of one race over another. </p>
<p>If the 14th Amendment is found to guarantee equity – or trying to create equal outcomes for all by favoring historically disadvantaged groups – this supports the argument that affirmative action policies are constitutionally sound, and perhaps even required in public institutions.</p>
<p>The current court, with a conservative majority, almost certainly favors the argument that the equal protection clause endorses equality, not equity. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/23/306173835/two-justices-debate-the-doctrine-of-colorblindness">2007 ruling on public high schools</a>, for example, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-908.pdf#page=48">on the basis of race</a>.” </p>
<h2>LGBTQ equality versus religious liberty</h2>
<p>Another major case, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/303-creative-llc-v-elenis/">303 Creative v. Elenis</a>, asks the court whether state law can compel a private business to serve LGBTQ clients – or whether the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment</a> protects business owners who violate those laws on religious grounds.</p>
<p>The controversy focuses on a website designer who wants to expand her business to offer personal wedding sites – but not for same-sex couples, as required by <a href="https://one-colorado.org/lgbtq-resources/anti-discrimination-laws-colorado/">Colorado’s nondiscrimination laws</a>.</p>
<p>The case comes close to addressing the long-standing conflict between a person’s free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, and a state’s power to enforce the equal treatment of all citizens. </p>
<p>But the question presented in this case focuses on the website designer’s free speech and artistic expression, rather than the <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-liberty-has-a-long-and-messy-history-and-there-is-a-reason-americans-feel-strongly-about-it-186613">religious motivation</a> at the heart of the conflict. </p>
<p>The court’s recent history of <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-liberty-has-a-long-and-messy-history-and-there-is-a-reason-americans-feel-strongly-about-it-186613">supporting religious liberty</a> suggests that the website designer will prevail. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People hold up cut-out blue and red maps of states that say things like 'balance power,' and a sign that says 'end gerrymandering now,' outside the Supreme Court." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487388/original/file-20220929-1555-nmk8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People protest against gerrymandering outside the Supreme Court in March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/fair-maps-rally-was-held-in-front-of-the-us-supreme-court-on-tuesday-picture-id1153804265">Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who controls election laws</h2>
<p>The third major case this term – <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/moore-v-harper-2/">Moore v. Harper</a> – is about the control of election law and what is known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-independent-state-legislature-doctrine-could-reverse-200-years-of-progress-and-take-power-away-from-the-people-186282">independent state legislature theory</a>. </p>
<p>The somewhat arcane question is whether only the U.S. Constitution controls state legislatures’ decisions regarding federal elections rules within their states or whether state constitutions and courts can also oversee the election laws that apply to national elections.</p>
<p>In this case, the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/moore-v-harper-explained">court will rule</a> on whether the North Carolina Supreme Court can strike down and replace the Legislature’s congressional map, which the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/04/north-carolina-congressional-map-struck-down-00005974">state court found</a> was gerrymandered in violation of the North Carolina Constitution.</p>
<p>In an atmosphere of political distrust and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elections-democracy-opinion-poll-2022-09-04/">accusations of election fraud</a>, the court will determine who controls federal election law within each state. </p>
<p>The constitutional text on this question is admittedly unclear.</p>
<p>Supporters of the independent state legislature theory argue that because the Constitution <a href="https://constitutionallawreporter.com/article-01-section-04/#:%7E:text=Article%201%2C%20Section%204&text=The%20Times%2C%20Places%20and%20Manner,the%20Places%20of%20chusing%20Senators.">states that</a> congressional election rules “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof,” this power applies solely to state legislatures.</p>
<p>This interpretation means that election rules are not constrained by state constitutions, which often have additional protections of <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/redistricting/free-equal-election-clauses-in-state-constitutions.aspx">“free and equal” elections</a>, enforced by state courts. Instead, only the U.S. Constitution could constrain state legislatures – and only federal courts, including the Supreme Court, could review these decisions. </p>
<p>Critics of the independent state legislature theory argue that even though the U.S. Constitution tasks state legislatures with overseeing election law, ordinary checks and balances that constrain those legislatures still apply. This would mean that other state officials and state courts maintain their usual role in limiting the power of the legislature, which was not meant to be fully independent.</p>
<p>Concerns about independent state legislatures are partly driven by two fears. One is that if legislatures are truly independent, they may <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1107648753/supreme-court-north-carolina-redistricting-independent-state-legislature-theory">impose discriminatory laws that benefit their party</a> – often Republicans at the state level.</p>
<p>The other fear is that Republican legislatures may attempt to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/moore-harper-scotus-independent-state-legislature-election-power/670992">alter the final slate of electors</a> in the 2024 presidential election if former President Donald Trump runs and loses the popular vote in states with GOP legislatures. </p>
<p>This case is partially about trust – whether Americans trust state legislatures or state courts to oversee legitimate elections. And <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/22/key-findings-about-americans-declining-trust-in-government-and-each-other/">trust among the American public</a> is in <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/393401/trust-decline-rebuild.aspx">short supply</a>.</p>
<h2>The year at the court</h2>
<p>The outcomes of this term’s cases will deeply influence American lives and values, especially for college applicants, LGBTQ citizens and people with strong religious beliefs. </p>
<p>The state legislature case is the most difficult to understand, and also perhaps the most influential, because it reflects the broader decline of trust in elections and the growing suspicions of fraud along many dimensions. I believe that this case – however resolved – will lower perceptions of the legitimacy of many future election outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Affirmative action, discrimination against LGBTQ people and election laws are some of the hot-button issues that the Supreme Court will tackle this fall.Morgan Marietta, Professor of Political Science, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1777022022-03-30T12:40:07Z2022-03-30T12:40:07ZBlack college presidents had a tough balancing act during the civil rights era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450793/original/file-20220308-13-wpmmsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5442%2C3351&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some Black college presidents stood at the forefront of the civil rights movement. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-7th-president-of-morgan-state-university-martin-news-photo/513374749?adppopup=true">Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Historians have documented <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/civilities-and-civil-rights-9780195029192?cc=us&lang=en&">again</a> and <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807856161/ella-baker-and-the-black-freedom-movement/">again</a> how college students contributed to the civil rights movement. Less attention has been paid to the role college presidents played in the fight for equality. Here, Eddie R. Cole, author of the book “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206745/the-campus-color-line">The Campus Color Line</a>,” discusses various ways these leaders contributed.</em></p>
<h2>1. What pressures did college leaders face in the civil rights era?</h2>
<p>College presidents between 1948 to 1968 had to deal with different segments of society that were at complete odds with one another.</p>
<p>On the one hand, they oversaw schools where students were increasingly protesting segregation. But they also had to deal with segregationist politicians who controlled state funding for their institutions. Some of those politicians were not shy about their opposition to the civil rights movement. For instance, on March 3, 1960, North Carolina Gov. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206745/the-campus-color-line">Luther H. Hodges urged</a> public college leaders to direct students not to participate in civil rights demonstrations.</p>
<p>For the most part, Black college presidents ignored such requests. </p>
<p>But not always. For instance, as president of Kentucky State College – which is now Kentucky State University - <a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813118567/a-black-educator-in-the-segregated-south/">Rufus B. Atwood</a> expelled 12 students for participating in a sit-in at a local lunch counter in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1960.</p>
<h2>2. What was their position on boycotts and sit-ins?</h2>
<p>Most Black college presidents supported student sit-ins. </p>
<p>For example, Cornelius V. Troup, the president of Fort Valley State College - which is now Fort Valley State University - in Georgia, invited Martin D. Jenkins, president of Morgan State College - which is now Morgan State University - from Baltimore on Oct. 10, 1960 to be the keynote speaker at the university’s founders’ day celebration. During his speech, Jenkins expressed support of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. </p>
<p>“We are witnessing in this country, and indeed throughout the world, an almost revolutionary movement against racial segregation and discrimination,” Jenkins said in his speech. “This movement has many facets. Certainly one of the most interesting of these, and one which may turn out to be of considerable long-term significance, is the so-called ‘sit-in’ or ‘sit-down’ developed by college students, chiefly Negro college students … This is a good movement, and it has surprisingly beneficial results.”</p>
<p>Other university presidents did more than just speak against segregation. Willa B. Player, the president of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, boycotted the <a href="http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/764">Meyer’s Tea Room</a>, a restaurant in 1960 that had prohibited Black people from sitting in the dining area.</p>
<h2>3. Did college presidents ever compromise?</h2>
<p>At the time, Southern states like Maryland were so opposed to integration that – rather than desegregate their all-white universities – they funded <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/08/biden-has-unique-opportunity-undo-years-education-inequality/">out-of-state scholarship programs</a> for Black residents to go to college somewhere else.</p>
<p>However, these scholarship programs were typically underfunded.</p>
<p>Despite the racist intent behind Southern states paying for programs for Black students to be educated in other states, some presidents of Black colleges and universities saw an opportunity to expand educational options for their students.</p>
<p>That’s why presidents of Black colleges, such as Jenkins, the Morgan State president, met with their respective state officials to increase funding to support these out-of-state scholarship programs. These programs helped students continue their education, especially at the graduate level, at desegregated schools.</p>
<p>Ultimately, not all Black college presidents were on the front lines of the civil rights movement. But many of those who weren’t still contributed to expanding educational opportunities for Black students from behind the scenes.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150K">Join the list today</a>.]`32</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie R. Cole has received research funding from fellowships with the Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education, and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.</span></em></p>College presidents worked both at the forefront and behind the scenes in fighting for African Americans’ civil rights in the 1960s.Eddie R. Cole, Associate Professor of Higher Education and History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1751772022-02-01T14:20:08Z2022-02-01T14:20:08ZHow black upward mobility fast-tracked racial desegregation in Johannesburg<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442920/original/file-20220127-27-1se5tqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scholars disagree about whether the formerly whites-only neighbourhoods of Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest and most economically important city, have become substantially desegregated since the end of apartheid in 1994. Some argue that racial residential segregation has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03768350500163006?journalCode=cdsa20">declined only slightly</a>, while others argue that it is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098008091497">substantial</a>. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-inequality-9781786998941/">recent research</a> shows that the extent of racial desegregation is much more substantial than is commonly accepted. This research is based on population census data for the years <a href="https://apps.statssa.gov.za/census01/Census96/HTML/default.htm">1996</a>, <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=3892">2001</a> and <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P03014/P030142011.pdf">2011</a> and is a result of my long-term scholarly interest in the changing nature and extent of racial inequality in Johannesburg.</p>
<p>The extent of racial residential desegregation of the formerly whites-only neighbourhoods of Johannesburg would indicate the progress that democratic South Africa has made towards achieving a racially equal society. The other main indicators are changes in earnings inequality and in the racial composition of occupations.</p>
<p>I argue that an important cause of this dramatic change is the upward occupational mobility of black <a href="https://diversityjournal.com/10806-diversity-terms-in-south-africa/">(African, Coloured and Indian: the racial definitions applied under apartheid)</a> residents into higher paid jobs. </p>
<h2>History of residential segregation</h2>
<p>The city of Johannesburg, like all other South African cities, had a long history of laws and policies to enforce racial residential segregation. These culminated in the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/group-areas-act-1950">1950 Group Areas Act</a>. </p>
<p>These laws and practices, which included <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/forced-removals-south-africa">forced removals</a>, excluded black residents from living in houses and apartments in the whites-only suburbs and inner-city neighbourhoods.</p>
<p>With the major exception of <a href="http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/case-examples/overview-africa/alexandra-township.html">Alexandra</a> in the northern suburbs, most black people were restricted to living in houses in the racially-prescribed southern suburbs of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/soweto-johannesburg">Soweto</a>, <a href="https://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/rejul77.8.pdf">Eldorado Park</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/indian-community-lenasia">Lenasia</a>. Many black residents, mostly African, continued to live in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Group-Areas-Act-South-Africa-1950">“white group areas”</a>. But only as domestic workers in backyard rooms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-johannesburgs-suburban-elites-maintain-apartheid-inequities-169295">How Johannesburg's suburban elites maintain apartheid inequities</a>
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<p>The racial desegregation of Johannesburg began during the late 1970s in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.1995.tb00531.x">inner-city neighbourhoods</a>, well before the Group Areas Act was abolished <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/25313/103012/F-896018642/ZAF25313.pdf">in 1991</a>. The initial wave of desegregation was caused by the extreme housing shortage in black neighbourhoods, and the lack of demand among white residents for inner-city apartments. </p>
<p>From 1991, following the unbanning of liberation movements and start of talks to <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/negotiations-and-transition">end apartheid</a>, all legal restrictions that prevented black people from living in formerly whites-only neighbourhoods were abolished. </p>
<p>In subsequent decades, the suburbs also became increasingly desegregated. Substantial levels of desegregation first occurred in the southern suburbs, and in the suburban strip to the east and west of the inner-city. The more expensive northern suburbs were the last to become substantially desegregated. </p>
<h2>Long term trends</h2>
<p>To achieve an accurate estimate of the extent of racial desegregation between 1996 and 2011, my method measured only those residents who lived in the main houses and apartments in the formerly whites-only neighbourhoods, and their surrounding post-apartheid middle-class suburban developments. It excluded all residents who lived in domestic servant rooms, granny flats, backyard rooms, caravans, shack settlements, peri-urban farms and employers’ hostels.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-inequality-9781786998941/">results</a> showed that the percentage of residents in formerly whites-only neighbourhoods who were white declined from 61% in 1996 to 44% in 2011. The percentage of African residents increased from 30% in 1996 to 39% in 2011. The percentage of Coloured residents increased from 4% to 6% and that of Indians increased from 4% to 10%. In other words, by 2011, black residents already comprised just over half (56%) of the population that lived in houses and apartments in the formerly white areas of Johannesburg (Figure 1). </p>
<p>By extrapolating the growth rate of residents from 2011 (last census) onwards, I estimate that African residents in the formerly whites-only neighbourhoods would have outnumbered white residents from about 2014. </p>
<p><strong>Figure 1</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441487/original/file-20220119-21-zvkof0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1. The changing percentage racial composition of the formerly whites-only residential neighbourhoods of Johannesburg, 1996 to 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The inner-city neighbourhoods desegregated rapidly. By 1996, 87% of all residents were black and by 2011 they had increased to 91%. In the southern suburbs, the percentage of black residents increased from 30% in 1996 to 50% in 2001 and then to 72% in 2011. The percentage of black residents in the northern suburbs increased only slowly – from 27% in 1996 to 30% in 2001. It then increased more rapidly to 44% by 2011.</p>
<p>These long-term trends in racial desegregation can be explained by the different population growth rates of black and white residents in Johannesburg. They can also be explained by the <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/the-new-black-middle-class-in-south-africa/">upward mobility of black residents</a> into high-income middle-class jobs and by the general <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020189808707885">lack of resistance to desegregation</a> by the apartheid government and white residents. </p>
<p>Over the last 40 years, the size of the white population has remained largely unchanged, while that of the black population has <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-inequality-9781786998941/">more than doubled</a>. The supply of houses has grown through densification and geographical expansion. More houses have therefore become available to black residents in the erstwhile whites-only neighbourhoods and their adjacent, similarly-priced post-apartheid housing developments.</p>
<h2>Black middle class</h2>
<p>After the abolition of the Group Areas Act <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/president-fw-de-klerk-announces-group-areas-act-will-be-repealed">in 1991</a>, the only substantial restriction on where black people could live was the formidable cost of housing.</p>
<p>But, the large size of the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-inequality-9781786998941/">black managerial, professional and technical middle class</a> has nonetheless meant that there were enough black residents willing and able to move to the formerly whites-only suburbs in sufficiently large numbers to result in the desegregation of these neighbourhoods.</p>
<p>This is best shown in the most expensive northern suburbs. There the occupational class composition of black residents almost exactly matches that of the white residents. In 2011, 60% of all employed white residents living in the main house were middle class. For Indian residents it was also 60%, for African residents it was 51% and 49% for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Coloured">Coloured</a> residents.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-lift-the-ideological-haze-in-debates-about-africas-middle-class-76365">It's time to lift the ideological haze in debates about Africa's middle class</a>
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<p>The growth of the black high-income middle class was, therefore, an important cause of residential desegregation. At the height of apartheid, in about 1970, only 11% of the middle class workers were black. By the end of apartheid this percentage had grown to 25%. This was largely due to the growth of racially-segregated
schools, universities, local government and hospitals, which <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Race-Class-and-the-Changing-Division-of-Labour-Under-Apartheid/Crankshaw/p/book/9780415146135">employed many black professionals and managers</a>.</p>
<p>Post-apartheid, the abolition of racially segregated education and the <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/the-new-black-middle-class-in-south-africa/">introduction of affirmative action laws and policies</a> led to the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/urban-inequality-9781786998941/">rapid growth</a> of the black middle class. </p>
<h2>Implications of study</h2>
<p>This study shows that by 2011 the racial desegregation of the formerly whites-only neighbourhoods of Johannesburg was substantial. White residents comprised a minority – only 44% of all residents. </p>
<p>This evidence contradicts the widely held belief that there has been very little racial desegregation in Johannesburg since the end of apartheid. </p>
<p>These findings are important because they show that despite the widespread black poverty caused by <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/Presentation%20QLFS%20Q2_2021.pdf">unemployment</a>, there has nonetheless been some progress towards the goal of a racially equal society due to the growth of the black high-income middle class.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Owen Crankshaw receives funding from the National Research Foundation (Grant Numbers 85462 and 119126) and the University of Cape Town to conduct this research. </span></em></p>Despite widespread black poverty caused by unemployment, progress has been made towards the goal of a racially equal society.Owen Crankshaw, Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1714572022-01-10T13:39:02Z2022-01-10T13:39:02ZWatch for these conflicts over education in 2022<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439216/original/file-20220103-37443-15i668j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C21%2C3631%2C2402&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Louisiana residents object to mask mandates at a state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting in August 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakLouisiana/63969424eeb445a0bd0a8c217e038a34/photo">AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At school board meetings across the country in 2021, parents engaged in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/14/us/loudoun-county-school-board-va.html">physical altercations</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/back-to-school-live-updates/2021/08/30/1032417970/school-board-members-hostile-meetings-mask-mandates-politicized">shouted at</a> school board members and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/podcasts/the-daily/school-boards-mask-mandates-crt-bucks-county.html">threatened them as well</a>.</p>
<p>These disagreements entered state politics, too, such as the 2021 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/us/politics/virginia-governor-republicans-schools.html?referringSource=articleShare">Virginia governor’s race</a>, which was largely shaped by conflicts over the <a href="https://www.baconsrebellion.com/wp/yes-virginia-there-is-critical-race-theory-in-our-schools/">how issues of race and racism are taught in the K-12 curriculum</a>, and <a href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/10/29/in-2020-the-legislature-passed-a-transgender-students-rights-law-it-largely-hasnt-been-enforced/">transgender student rights</a>. </p>
<p>Our September 2021 article in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048211042567">Educational Policy</a> explains that the short-term conflicts that generate media attention – such as about <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-face-fears-of-critical-race-theory-as-they-scale-up-social-emotional-learning/2021/12">critical race theory</a> across the nation – are part of long-standing ideological debates about education. These conflicts are about issues such as who deserves academic opportunity, what the parameters of public education are and whether schools and universities ought to promote a positive image of the U.S. or explore its shortcomings. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nezgztgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researchers</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OomuRokAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">study conflicts in education</a>, we see clashes like these continuing into 2022.</p>
<h2>1. Virtual education</h2>
<p>In 2022, expect conflicts over virtual school offerings to intensify, especially as the omicron variant surges and as some states push toward <a href="https://edsource.org/2021/california-school-vaccine-mandate-coming-soon-but-questions-remain/662985">vaccine mandates</a> for all students. At stake is whether parents should have control over how public funds are spent on educating their children, and the potential effects of diverting those funds away from traditional public schools. </p>
<p>In fall 2021, U.S. school leaders largely <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/most-schools-are-teaching-in-person-this-school-year-latest-fed-data-say/2021/12">shifted their services back to in-person instruction</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-year-off-to-a-rocky-start-4-ways-parents-can-help-kids-get-back-on-track-167609">after shutdowns and remote instruction</a> dominated the initial response to the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>However, demand for home-schooling and virtual schooling <a href="https://www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-463.pdf">has risen</a>, as some parents discover that these forms of education offer greater flexibility in scheduling, control over curriculum and safety from the coronavirus. In Washington state, for example, enrollments in publicly funded virtual schools operated by for-profit companies have increased dramatically, such as Washington Virtual Academies, which <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/washingtons-for-profit-online-schools-attract-nearly-6000-more-students-this-school-year/">expanded enrollments by an estimated 85%</a> between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. Similar <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/covid-19-fuels-big-enrollment-increases-in-virtual-schools/2020/09">trends happened</a> in school districts across the country.</p>
<p>Enrollment data for the 2021-2022 school year are still emerging, but some school choice <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/taubman/programs-research/pepg/events/school-choice">experts</a> have argued that parental demand for virtual education is here to stay. However, in another research project, one of us found that students who switch to online schools <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20909814">experience substantial learning losses</a> in reading and math during each of the three years after switching. That evidence has forced policymakers to consider <a href="https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/state-committee-recommends-big-shift-for-virtual-charter-school-rules">greater regulation</a> of online schools, even as more parents consider taking their children out of traditional public schools and putting them in virtual ones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Students sit at computers, separated by clear plastic barriers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439217/original/file-20220103-117041-1ln4m7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schools’ decisions to provide in-person or virtual education sparked concern and conflict in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreak-SchoolDropouts/4fa2bc85087940e9b78914cac886b780/photo">AP Photo/Charlie Riedel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Affirmative action</h2>
<p>Affirmative action and similar policies in college admissions have always generated controversy, and 2022 will likely be no different. This year, a case that began in 2014 will reach the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, <a href="https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/massachusetts/madce/1:2014cv14176/165519/386">Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard University</a>, alleges that Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against Asian applicants. </p>
<p>The case has worked its way through the court system with a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/us/affirmative-action-lawsuits.html">national roster of affluent plaintiffs</a>. This group has filed multiple unsuccessful lawsuits across the U.S., including an October 2021 loss in a similar case over admissions at the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/university-north-carolina-defeats-challenge-race-based-admissions-policies-2021-10-19/">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a>.</p>
<p>Similar lawsuits have also sprung up in <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Lowell-High-lottery-admission-likely-to-remain-16705599.php">San Francisco</a> and <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/26/metro/secrecy-around-exam-school-admission-data-prompts-lawsuit/">Boston</a> over school districts’ efforts to make access to academically selective public schools more representative of student populations. These suits reflect broader ideological tensions over who deserves a well-funded, elite education and the government’s responsibility to protect that access.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A student works at a desk while a teacher sits in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439219/original/file-20220103-25-k4qe4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers unions wielded significant power over how schools responded to the coronavirus pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/first-grade-student-alexis-tenorio-works-on-an-english-news-photo/1232327829">Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Teachers unions</h2>
<p>In 2022, look to teachers unions to continue to assert themselves in the face of ongoing efforts by <a href="https://californiaglobe.com/articles/ca-parents-seek-to-abolish-the-california-teachers-association/">parent</a> and <a href="https://teacherfreedom.org">advocacy groups</a> to limit their power.</p>
<p>Over the past year teachers unions effectively negotiated the implementation of health safeguards against the spread of COVID-19
in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teachers-union-approves-deal-chicago-schools-return-class-n1257247">Chicago</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/de-blasio-agrees-to-delay-school-reopening-to-avoid-teacher-strike/">New York City</a> and <a href="https://www.dailynews.com/2021/09/22/lausd-strikes-deal-with-teachers-union-to-provide-quarantine-instruction/">Los Angeles</a>. These unions secured protective measures such as virtual instruction, priority vaccine access for teachers, medical and personal leave related to COVID-19, explicit metrics to determine when schools would close, district-provided personal protective equipment for teachers and classroom air filtration systems. </p>
<p>While the pandemic dominates union activity at present, and <a href="https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-304">many unions have not negotiated significant concessions</a>, these wins signal unions’ strategic and legal capacity to negotiate around issues such as compensation and working conditions. Given <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59687947">current shortages of qualified teachers</a>, unions’ negotiation power may intensify. </p>
<h2>4. Gifted programs</h2>
<p>In 2022, gifted education may become a national debate. So far it has been prominent in New York City, but that may spread.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/nyregion/eric-adams-gifted-talented-nyc-schools.html">Mayor Eric Adams</a> said he intends to keep gifted programs in place. Gifted programs offer accelerated learning opportunities for students who score at the top of their class on standardized tests. Critics, such as the <a href="https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/1c478c_f14e1d13df45444c883bbf6590129bd7.pdf">School Diversity Advisory Group commissioned by former Mayor Bill de Blasio</a>, argue that gifted programs segregate students by race, since research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858415622175">students of color are underrepresented</a> in these programs. </p>
<p>In California, policymakers have <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-20/california-controversial-math-overhaul-focuses-on-equity">unveiled a plan</a> to address this issue by grouping students of different mathematical ability in the same classrooms until their junior year. Only then will students be able to select advanced math courses, such as calculus or statistics. </p>
<p>This move may revive the 1980s’ so-called “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/the-tracking-wars/">tracking wars</a>,” an intense debate over whether students should be offered different levels of curriculum based on their test scores. As other states and districts <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-new-york-education-new-york-city-race-and-ethnicity-0f3d92179ff20b45c4747d3c84a026a2">consider overhauling their own gifted programs</a>, these short-term conflicts will likely add energy to the existing national fight concerning what role the education system should play in addressing inequality in the United States. </p>
<p>In all of these conflicts, be prepared in 2022 for policy advocates to use both conventional and unconventional strategies to advance their efforts. Further, expect those advocates to include politically and economically powerful actors as well as those who rarely have a voice in policy conversations. </p>
<p>In our research, which spanned the years 2010 to 2020, we saw conventional conflict actions such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/19/695856032/w-va-teachers-go-on-strike-over-state-education-bill">teacher strikes</a>, <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/02/19/months-after-protests-jeffco-board-scraps-ap-us-history-curriculum-review/">community protests</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/louisiana-gov-bobby-jindal-sues-obama-over-common-core-state-standards/2014/08/27/34d98102-2dfb-11e4-bb9b-997ae96fad33_story.html">lawsuits</a>. However, we also saw the successful use of less common efforts to challenge local, state and federal education policy, such as <a href="https://greensboro.com/news/local_news/deutsche-bank-cancels-job-expansion-in-cary-due-to-hb2/article_fea19dc6-e2c6-575d-adb9-d4a435d2863f.html">canceled business investments</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/11/the-surprising-revolt-at-reed/544682/">classroom sit-ins</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jonathan-butler-how-grad-students-hunger-strike-toppled-university-president-n460161">a student hunger strike</a>, <a href="https://co.chalkbeat.org/2015/11/3/21093016/jeffco-school-board-members-who-pushed-controversial-changes-ousted-in-recall">school board recall votes</a>, <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article163339228.html">teacher panhandling</a>, <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180628/OPINION/180629917/stuyvesant-s-valedictorian-find-a-way-to-diversify-my-school">pointed valedictorian speeches</a> and even <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/08/455216375/missouri-football-players-strike-to-demand-ouster-of-university-president">college football players’ threat to walk out on scheduled revenue-generating games</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph J. Ferrare has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Phillippo has received funding from the Spencer Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.</span></em></p>Short-term disputes are really symptoms of deeper divisions in the US over who deserves academic opportunity, and how to present the nation’s history.Joseph J. Ferrare, Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Data Visualization, University of Washington, BothellKate Phillippo, Professor of Social Work and Education, Loyola University ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.