by Mike Killalea, NSD president
Photos courtesy of the US Library of Congress. US Supreme Court shown at right
Welcome to the new Jim Crow. The Supreme Court, once again turning the clock back to the bad old days, has effectively kicked to the curb consideration of race in college admissions. Just as with the overthrow of Roe v Wade, the court has overturned decades of precedent, leaving Americans unsure of what rights they will still enjoy.
“This is not a normal court,” President Biden dryly deadpanned.
"My heart breaks for any young person out there who’s wondering what their future holds — and what kinds of chances will be open to them,” said Michelle Obama.
Clarence Thomas pulls up the ladder
One of the biggest cheerleaders for dumping affirmative action is Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Ironically, Doubtful Thomas himself enjoyed race-based preference in his admission to Yale Law School. But he is evidently unembarrassed at the hypocrisy of pulling up the ladder after him.
Doubtful Thomas has even been quoted as celebrating affirmative action. “God only knows where I would be today [without use of affirmative action in higher eduation],” Thomas said in 1983. “These laws and their proper application are all that stand between the first 17 years of my life and the second 17 years.” He said measures such as affirmative action are “critical to minorities and women in this society.” (1)
Who benefits?
BTW, women — and white women in particular — have benefited “disproportionately” from affirmative action, (AA) studies show. White women benefitted to the tune of 6 million otherwise unattainable jobs. (2, 3, 4)
And that’s ok. Yet the myth remains that AA benefits only minorities, African Americans, in particular. (5)
It ain’t true, folks.
A history of shame
History explains why college admissions should consider race in admissions. The first slave ship brought their unfortunate cargo to these shores in 1619. Slavery continued unabated in many of these United States for the next 246 years. (6)
Put it in perspective: At its height in 1860, the market value of American slaves exceeded that of all other industries combined — banking, railroads, manufacturing, etc. (6)
Africans and African Americans were enslaved for 246 years. They have been “free” for 158 years. So slavery endured for 88 years more than freedom, right? So a baby born today will live to be 88 years old before African Americans enjoy “freedom” as long as their ancestors suffered as slaves.
88 years. She’d be a great grandma.
This was freedom?
I put “free” and “freedom” in quotes because the African American experience after emancipation is a long way from perfect. After an all-too-brief era in which the former slaves enjoyed the voting franchise and other fruits of liberty, the federal government threw them to the wolves. Former confederate leaders rebuilt the bad old days. Legitimately elected governments were overthrown by white supremacists in North Carolina and Louisiana. (7, 8)
Then, of course, we have the Ku Klux Klan. This country has allowed lynchings, voting discrimination, red lining in housing, employment discrimination, “sundown towns,” and all manner of horrors and massacres, mostly whitewashed from public schools. (9, 10, 11)
Southern race practices: Too much for Nazis
The German Nazis based its Jewish codes on the American South’s treatment of blacks. However, even the Nazis found aspects of American apartheid to be a bridge too far, such as the “one drop” rule, in which a person with a single drop of African blood was considered black. (13, 14)
White snowflakes
And the opponents of AA are so consumed by their white privilege that any effort to right the scales amounts to an intrusion on their “rights.” Why, the poor little snowflakes!
Never fear, at Harvard AA still remains for often-elite sons and daughters of its graduates — so-called “legacy” students. As a legacy person, George W Bush gained entrance to Yale and then at Harvard Business School. He had, to put it mildly, unexceptional grades and SAT scores. (15, 16)
Affirmative Action for whites
“Let’s be clear: affirmative action still exists for white people. It’s called legacy admissions,” Rep Barbara Lee, D-Calif, said on Twitter. (17)
The Supreme Court ruling turned the Constitution on his head, citing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which sought to protect former slaves, as a protection for whites and Asian Americans. You can’t make this stuff up.
Speaking of snowflakes, apparently Doubtful Thomas came to hate AA, because others at Yale supposedly deemed him of lower aptitude. In 1971, he was among the first AA recipients.
He is an ungrateful one.
Welcome to the USA! Please set your watch back 100 years.
Links
14 https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-whitman-hitler-american-race-laws-20170222-story.html
It's a sad history, and needs to be acknowledged. Yet the powers that be won't let it be taught in Texas schools. Shame on Gov. Abbott and on Clarence Thomas too!
I benefited from ERA in the 1970’s when I was hired by a manufacturing consulting company where I spent 20 of the best years of my life. I was glad to have been a part of it, and help other young women gain entry into manufacturing as well. I can’t believe Thomas’s hypocrisy in denying what made him who he is today. 😡