Originally introduced on a wider scale in the 1960s, affirmative action refers to any set of policies in place to ensure equal opportunity and prevent discrimination based on a broad range of identities, including race, sex, gender, religion, national origin, and disability.
On June 29, the Supreme Court set new limits on affirmative action programs in cases involving whether public and private colleges and universities can continue to use race as one factor among many in student admissions
TheGrio’s Toure talked to Dr. Christina Greer, host of theGrio’s The Blackest Questions podcast, who gave her thoughts on the ruling.
The following is a transcript of their conversation.
Toure: Chrissy, there were some big rulings made last week by the Supreme Court, including one on affirmative action. The conservative-led justices struck down affirmative action programs at both Harvard and the University of North Carolina, so private institution and a public institution, saying both programs violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
How devastating is this, in your opinion, when it comes to the effort to ensure that colleges have diverse student bodies?
Dr. Christina Greer: Yeah, well, Toure, as an educator, you know, there’s nothing better than a diverse classroom. And I mean, diversity in all senses of the word racial diversity, ethnic diversity, geographic diversity.
You know, the fact that Clarence Thomas is one of the Supreme Court justices who helped strike this down is very telling about who he is and how he sees himself in the larger pantheon of affirmative action. You know, as we think about moving forward, I’m not surprised by this decision. So it’s one of those things where I’m going to take a pause.
You know, I can be angry, but then we organize, we fight. And this is how everything works in America. You have some gains and then you have losses and the gains again because you fight. So. As we think about moving forward, You know, it’s not fair, right?
We know that there are certain Asian-American groups who have cast their lots with white supremacists. We know that there are Black and Latinos who will actually suffer because of this decision. But we still have to sort of work the lower courts and bring this issue back to the Supreme Court.
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