Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in Colleges But Keeps It for Military Academies

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman today we spend the hour looking at new U.S Supreme Court decisions that will have far-reaching implications in lives of millions of people we begin with the Court's Landmark ruling Thursday that gutted affirmative action when it ruled Harvard and the University of North Carolina's programs considering race and college admissions are unconstitutional the six to three decision overturns long-standing precedent the court stopped short of barring legacy admissions and will allow military academies to continue using affirmative action writing for the majority Chief Justice John Roberts assailed race conscious admissions as Elusive imponderable and opaque ruling they violate the equal protection Clause of the 14th Amendment Justice katanji Brown Jackson the first black woman appointed to the court rode in her descent the decision quote is truly a tragedy for us all she added with let them eat cake obliviousness today the majority pulls the rip cord and announces color blindness for all by legal Fiat meanwhile Justice Clarence Thomas who's now the longest serving Justice on the conservative majority court and his African-American sided with the majority and read his concurrence from the bench saying quote even in the segregated South where I grew up individuals were not the sum of their skin while I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States that all men are created equal are equal citizens and must be treated equally before the law that was Justice Clarence Thomas Thursday during the oral Arguments for this case Justice Thomas questioned North Carolina Carolina state solicitor general Ryan Park who represented the University of North Carolina I didn't go to racially diverse schools but there were educational benefits and I'd like you to tell me expressly when a parent sends a kid to college that they don't necessarily send them there to have fun or feel good or anything like that they send them there to learn physics or chemistry or whatever they're studying so tell me what the educational benefits are which comes as PBS Frontline examined Justice Thomas's stance on affirmative action from his time in law school to Thursday's ruling Frontline reported on how Thomas arrived at Yale law school as one of 12 black students and interviewed his classmate John Bolton former National Security advisor you believe that people assumed he was there as a as a beneficiary of affirmative action and it graded on him he has this feeling of home around these white students who he senses question his presence at Yale how is it that you not just you Clarence Thomas but you all you black students are here is it because of Merit or is it because of affirmative action today we begin Today's Show with a round table discussion on the Supreme Court's restriction of consideration of race and college admissions effectively overturning Decades of Court precedent wisdom coal NAACP National director of Youth and college division is with us Janelle Wong is director of Asian American studies professor of American studies and government and politics at the University of Maryland her piece for Los Angeles Times affirmative action isn't hurting Asian Americans here's why that myth survives and Marina HOSA Pulitzer prize-winning journalist founder of futuro Media host of Latino USA co-host of the podcast in the thick we welcome you all to democracy Now wisdom coal let's begin with you the Supreme Court has gutted affirmative action in colleges and universities around the country oh well not in military academies but can you overall respond you know this was a devastating decision you know a road Court bowed down to an extremist minority influence that's going to impact the next generation of thought leaders and Americans you know in this moment in time we need to see our colleges universities and even corporations commit to diversity no matter what and if you can talk further about the significance of this decision and what has puzzled many that while chief justice who read the decision out for the majority um said that this doesn't apply it cannot apply any more to colleges this actually by the way goes into effect in 2028 uh 25 years after an affirmative action decision in 2003 that was authored by the Republican Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor um that this applies to colleges and universities but not to military academies where he saw value in officer diversity the idea of fine for the barracks but not the boardroom yeah you know the same value that we have in making sure that we are having diversity in our military we have to have that same value for higher education because oftentimes higher education is the access to the halls of power right we want to make sure that our colleges and universities truly reflect America when it comes to diversity of thought you know we need to make sure that we have some of the most diverse minds thinking about the best solutions to some of the most difficult problems that we were facing in America today and if we are removing that access for diverse students to have that space in place in higher education then we are not meeting the mark and we're going to miss the moment and we're not going to be able to solve the problems that are coming our way you rode in social media our future depends on racial equity and diversity in higher education the scotus affirmative action decision has put us on a path to re-segregate our educational system can you explain you know this decision is going to have impacts for generations to come and when we think about the way in which young people have the options and choices to go to different colleges and universities we shouldn't think that the gutting of affirmative action is now an influence or push for young people just to go to hbcus yes we need to highly invest in our hbcus and our msis and ensure that young people have access to those places and spaces but young people need to have options and choices to go to whatever universities they want to see I think it's important for us to understand that we cannot be on a path to re-segregate higher education as we know it today because that is effectively rolling black to rights that are being fought for each and every single day I want to turn to Janelle Wong who's director of Asian American studies professor of American studies and government and politics at the University of Maryland you wrote a piece with the great writer Vietnam Nguyen titled affirmative action isn't hurting Asian Americans here's why that myth survives now this is extremely significant for people to understand where this case came from if you can talk about the students for fair admissions this done supposedly to stop discrimination against Asian Americans well this is an extremely disappointing ruling especially because as you say a false narrative about an Asian-American penalty was used to Target one essential tool affirmative action that helps open up doors to diversity and opportunities for education and that is the group suing Harvard is intentionally went to Asian Americans to provide cover for its white supremacist agenda and there's evidence that the person who brought this case Edward Bloom actually went to an open dinner and said I need to find an Asian American plaintiff and many Asian Americans certainly not all but way too many fell for the Trap civil rights lawyer Mark Rosenbaum gets it right race blind is blind to systemic racism and the truth is that the lower courts found no evidence of racial discrimination against Asian Americans not one single Asian-American student testified to racial discrimination not one single Asian American came forward because they were rejected due to affirmative action it is important to keep in mind that despite the headlines the consideration of race in admissions is not banned in totality affirmative action is gutted severely weakened but colleges can as students to discuss in their essays how race shapes their lives this is permissible so it's also important I think that the ruling also applies only to the higher education context not to other programs such as minority contracting programs I want to go to Christine Lee democracy Now reached her last night she just graduated from Harvard in May she was the head of the Harvard Korean Association which is one of 25 Harvard student alumni organizations that filed an amicus brief in support of college admissions policies that Foster diversity my name's Christine Lee I'm a recent graduate from Harvard College and former co-president of the Harvard crane Association or hka I assumed leadership of HPA while the Amicus brief preparations were underway with the legal defense fund through the NAACP I already felt rather strongly I think about the importance of building diverse educational environments and understanding how affirmative action played a critical role in that but I think seeing the collective efforts from other student organizations and advocating for this cause was the greatest privilege I can only speak to my own experiences as one student and Asian American woman at Harvard but I can say with full confidence that those who subscribe to the widely publicized view of what it means to quote unquote deserve a position at an Ivy League institution what it means to Champion quote unquote merit-based admissions they haven't met the incredible students especially students of color I was lucky enough to call my peers at Harvard I I mean I didn't know the test scores or GPA of every student I sat next to in class or every student I ate meals within in the dining hall but what I did know was that their unique Stories the stories that they had to share they enhanced my own life and journey in a very singular way and I truly believe that universities have something of an obligation to create Rich diverse unique learning environments in this way and I also believe that's an obligation not only to their students and their University but to the greater public as well I think this is on my mind a lot more just as a recent graduate but I can imagine the implications that the recent Supreme Court decision will have reaching into the professional world as well legal experts will definitely know far more on this subject than me but I can't help but feel like there's a likely danger of us seeing fewer people of color going into Academia as professors fewer people of color going into medicine law environmental policy and I worry that those vital perspectives are in danger of fading away if not right away then definitely over time you were just listening to and watching Christine Lee just graduated from Harvard University former head of the Harvard Korean Association and Professor Wong what's so interesting about this is that really her comments concur with the majority of Asian Americans in the country uh Pew poll just found that the majority of Asian Americans favor affirmative action so talk more deeply about who the organization is that brought this lawsuit that ended up in the Supreme Court the organization is called students for fair Admissions and that organization is led by Ed Bloom who is a conservative white male who has gone on the attack for race conscious programs Beyond affirmative action affirmative action is one of a suite of policies that seek to consider race to ensure Racial equality so Ed Bloom successfully brought a case against uh the Shelby Beholder case which gutted the Voting Rights Act the he has also tried to undermine immigrant voting rights and so he had brought this case um against brought a case against affirmative action through to the University of Texas and his key plaintiff there was Abigail Fisher a white woman when that was not successful he purposely sought out an Asian American plaintiff again because it provides not only cover for his white supremacist agenda but also because Asian Americans uh there is a narrative about Asian Americans facing a penalty in college admissions that narrative is very powerful even though it was adjudicated thoroughly in the lower courts and the courts with hundreds and hundreds of pages of evidence statistical modeling and testimony from Asian American students who supported affirmative action that the lower court found there was no intentional discrimination uh against Asian American students I want to bring Maria inaosa into this discussion um uh Chief Justice John Roberts said for too long universities have concluded wrongly that the Touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges vested skills built or Lessons Learned but the color of their skin our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice you have Justice Sonia Sotomayor the Court's first Latina writing in dissent the decision rolls back Decades of precedent and momentous progress and of course you have Justice Jackson saying though she had to recuse herself from the Harvard case because of her involvement with Harvard weighed in and the North Carolina case talked about deciding that she wrote let me see if I can find her quote she said deeming race irrelevant event in law does not make it so in life Maria your response uh thanks Amy this is um it is a historic day in our country and yet it is not shocking um in many ways as I'm listening to to the reporting that's coming up I mean and this this is for me kind of writ large which is actually how this Supreme Court will be devalued in the rest of the country because of decisions like this that's a that's a broad structural issue right where you have a country that says the Supreme Court does not represent us nor does it represent the majority opinion in the United States and so that to me is is of concern because as you know I wasn't born in this country and there's this kind of images for immigrants that we hold the Supreme Court in this kind of esteem well we're seeing through that as you point out the fact that they're saying it's okay for the barracks we'll take your bodies and use them for War by the way if you're an immigrant or even undocumented the possibilities of getting into the military um ease your Road in this country so the pathway to military is completely open and the pathway to Legacy which is essentially if we're going to be honest in our country white supremacy now I'm a professor I've been in Academia for a decade now and I will tell you that what the data shows is that a Latinos and Latinas have the highest rate of going from high school to college at this point uh so there's there's hard data there and I have met College presidents Amy who have told me but we have a financial plan for the you know this small independent liberal arts college in the Midwest and I was like what's your financial plan we're making sure that we're getting every single Latino that we can to come here it's a market decision it's a business decision that colleges and universities are going to be faced with because look at the demographics of our country it is unsustainable if you're only uh accepting White legacy students that's not sustainable so I'm trying to bring a different analysis I understand everything that shocked the horror the disgust the rage the disappointment but I'm also I want to make sure that our kids understand that this is not this cannot stop them cannot stop them all of us on this on this call have and you as a white woman Amy we have gone through not just microaggressions frontal aggressions it makes us stronger it makes us understand exactly what we represent in this country what kind of country we want to have so this I'm gonna quote Dolores Huerta right this is a moment to organize this is a moment to build solidarity and this is a moment to tell our young people you got this we are behind you and by the way you have power in this conversation do not cede your power do not give up because we need you and it's very important for me to continue to reiterate this message do not take this as a defeat we've been defeated so many times in this country and we're not going to give up there's another option we cannot give up and just say Okay affirmative action what what do we give up on what we gonna double down because the future of this country as We Know and I think that this is essential to this decision is increasingly not white that is at the the the the core of what we're talking about but that's just data that is the future of this country Mariana Jose you've also um been very vocal about the lack of diversity in newsrooms after the Supreme Court affirmative action decision decision the award-winning uh journalist reveal investigative journalist out of bagado said on Twitter universities will soon look like newsrooms if you can respond to that and also I keep um going back to this issue of John Roberts saying we're going to carve out military academies because there is value in officer diversity and this whole issue of uh they can go to the barracks but when it comes to the boardroom and other places and Civil Society in this country they're going to stand firm these conservative justices and say no to affirmative action it's right in front of us Amy you know there isn't we don't have to pull the wool off of anybody's eyes they are saying it clearly and to me doubling down on the question of Legacy which is legacy is fine but and a legacies it is so clear what is happening and this is why again the horror not just disappointment the horror of this supreme court right and I think about Sonia Sotomayor and kitanji Brown having to to sit with these so-called colleagues and yes everybody by the way should watch that Frontline documentary on Clarence Thomas because um I understood that people you know I was the first Latina hired at NPR right I was one of very few Latinas at Barnard College where I'm now a professor um I have been that one that first one and so that kind of what are you doing here always it's just been a a part of my life and again for the young people so what you do is you you internalize that and you say and this is part of my struggle right to be the best possible again I don't people don't want to hear this so you know you've got to be the best possible but that is the name of the game in the United States of America where white supremacy is trying to hold on as much as possible again for Latinos and Latinas very important and this is a very important moment for their understanding of where they put their alliances right this is not and and we have to talk about this we're Latinos and Latinas can easily identify as white because it's it's privilege this is a moment to understand solidarity and what this means for the future of our country working together for True representation wisdom call um if you can talk about the kind of organizing that's going around and now I mean with these affirmative action decisions you always see NAACP out in front of the Supreme Court um you have for example a University of California that art World affirmative action years ago people of color particularly the latinx population and the black population their representation being gutted in the UC college system how are people organizing right now you know I myself am a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz and we consistently saw less and less black folks enroll in the universities but even those who were enrolled in those universities um were not graduating right you know the retention level and the work necessary to ensure that young people of the young black people were retained at these institutions of power was not there and so we had to Institute student Outreach programs where we made sure that we were actually working to outreach to young people who are interested in coming to the university but also making sure their supports on campus to ensure that they stay at that University and are supported and not facing the micro macroaggressions that happen at these predominantly white institutions so Across the Nation now we are really pushing and telling universities and colleges to commit to diversity no matter what that looks like instituting Outreach and retention programs that looks at looking at debt-free college options that looks at making sure that the student population is aware of what they are doing to contribute to white supremacist culture and creating society and creating a campus culture that is truly about diversity Equity inclusion you know In This Moment In Time young people are looking for Solutions they're looking for answers young people are scared young people are thinking about their future thinking about their nephews or thinking about their sisters their brothers the generations that are to come who are going to be entering those College bases in the next couple years in this moment in time we have to set up the structures that are going to allow those young people not just to survive on campus but to thrive on campus and we have to all do our part and so that means making sure that we are working in him with these universities making sure there's guidance and making sure that young people are at the front of this movement and that we are uplifting the voices of the most marginalized and wisdom what about the issue of class or income as a factor in admission and this goes directly with the decision today of the Supreme Court on student debt you know we have to understand that the decision around affirmative action and decision around Biden student loan forgiveness program are not mutually exclusive you know if the Supreme Court strikes down by uh student loan plan today you know like I said effectively we are on a pathway to re-segregate uh education as we know today but also declare that the American dream is dead you know higher education is the pathway to economical mobility in this country and so it's absolutely important that we understand all the factors that contribute to a young person entering into higher education today we have to make sure that there is Pathways to ensure that they are successful and not barriers are going to deter them from being a part of these institutions you know again we want to make sure that we are promoting diversity of thought we are promoting diversity of ideology we're diploma and diversity of experience all those things are necessary to contribute to a thriving Society in America today we have gone through so much over the past couple years we can't forget all the things that we learned in 2020 facing the horrors of the murder of George Floyd of Brianna Taylor of Ahmad aburi you know America is in a period of time where we are in a social Awakening it's important that we continue that work and not roll back those rights that we have received and making sure that we are promoting young people in those places and spaces to ensure that they have access to the halls of power wisdom call I want to thank you for being with us NAACP National director of Youth and college division Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Maria in a hosta founder of futuro Media and we want to thank Professor Janelle Wong director of Asian American studies at University of Maryland

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: ODskHiGCNlQ

Length: 26min 15sec (1575 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023