Opinion writers explore the future, and the past, of race and higher education in America.
Thursday was a landmark day in the history of American higher education: The Supreme Court struck down racial preferences in college admissions, reversing over 40 years of precedent. Over that period, affirmative action has had a powerful impact, significantly increasing racial diversity at institutions that were once almost exclusively white. To help sort out what the 6-to-3 ruling means for colleges and for future generations of applicants, Times Opinion featured a range of guest essayists and columnists. |
Jerome Karabel, an eminent sociologist and the author of "The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton," set the stage with a sweeping history of the decades-long fight that brought us to this day. "The intensity and duration of the attack" on affirmative action, he wrote, "is sad confirmation that many Americans remain unwilling to reckon with the barbarity of our racial history." |
Tyler Austin Harper, a professor at Bates College who describes himself as a beneficiary of and a believer in affirmative action, offered a devastating look at what he sees as its major downside: "The rise of affirmative action produced, inadvertently, a culture of racial gamification by encouraging so many students and their parents to think about the ways race could boost or complicate their chances of admission; the end of affirmative action, in turn, will just exacerbate things by causing students and parents to get even more creative." |
David French brought his expertise as a former constitutional litigator to bear in a close reading of the decision. The consequences, he wrote, "will reverberate throughout American law. There is no longer any such thing as 'good' racial discrimination. There can be redress for actual discriminatory acts, but the idea that race by itself can be utilized as a proxy for achieving social progress is now almost certainly wiped away." |
And David Brooks recorded an audio segment about the ruling and the prospects for diversity by other means. "On the whole," he told the producer Sophia Alvarez Boyd, "I'm probably sad that affirmative action is going away, but I'm hopeful that we can take advantage of this moment, whether we're angry about it or happy about it, to think in a much bigger way about who should get into what schools. I think it's time for us to step back and look at the whole system and really produce a system that will be fair to students from whatever background." |
In the coming days, Times Opinion will be publishing more on this topic, from a wide array of voices and perspectives. Please join the discussion in online comments. We look forward to hearing your perspective, too. |
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