Coming soon: Affirmative Action decision

[gounion]

...also the decision on Biden's college loan cuts.

The right is sooooo excited that the Court will kill off Affirmative Action once and for all. That way they can keep all the poor blacks out of the good schools, and pretend it's the black kid's fault for just not being as good as white and Asian kids.

[ap215]

There it is

Supreme Court rules against affirmative action programs, upending the way universities handle admissions

The Supreme Court will wrap up what is expected to be its final week of rulings this year with decisions on some of its highest-profile cases of the term.

The court ruled on a pair of challenges to affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, with potential implications across higher education and beyond.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/suprem ... -rcna91671

[gounion]

The GOP will be celebrating tonight! They can clear the big schools out of blacks. But hey, they can all go to Community College. After all, it’s the same, right?

And they still keep legacy admissions, don’t they? Don’t look for the right to complain about the unfairness of that. After all, a leg up for rich white kids is what America’s all about, isn’t it?

[gounion]

Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate, swiftly praised the Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard.

“The world admires America because we value freedom and opportunity. The Supreme Court reaffirmed those values today," Haley, who was the first Indian American to serve in a presidential cabinet, said in a statement.

"Picking winners and losers based on race is fundamentally wrong," she added. "This decision will help every student—no matter their background—have a better opportunity to achieve the American Dream.”

Unless the winners are rich and white, of course. Picking winners THAT way is perfectly acceptable!

The GOP’s war on diversity.

[gounion]

And when the rates of African Americans in elite schools plummet, Green Grass, Glenn and Joe will be here to tell us there was no way that could have been foreseen, it’s just that blacks are inferior and a natural thing, nothing to be done about it.

[ProfX]

Should surprise nobody; Justice Jackson didn't participate in the Havard decision since she recused herself, but she joined Sotomayor and Kagan to join the dissenting side on the UNC decision. A 6-3 vote that everybody was expecting.

Once again, precedent gets tossed, with them hosing Grutter vs. Bollinger (2003), and Fisher vs. UT-Austin (2016).

[Bludogdem]

Precedent that permits racial discrimination needs to be overturned.

[ProfX]

How the Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Decision Affects the AAPI Community
https://time.com/6288939/supreme-court- ... community/

The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has had a complicated relationship with affirmative action, resulting in very divided reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard and University of North Carolina (UNC) cases. For many of us in the AAPI community, we are mourning the Supreme Court’s decision to throw away 40 years of legal precedent that confirms the constitutionality and legality of race-conscious admissions in higher education, as the immediate impact will undoubtedly be less diverse student bodies. We will see our marginalized AAPI students, especially from some Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian communities, struggle even more educationally than they do already.

And yet there are other AAPIs celebrating the Court’s decision, as some of the most critical opponents of affirmative action have also come from the AAPI community. In the Harvard case, for instance, the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA), sued on behalf of several Asian American students, claiming Harvard deliberately discriminated against Asian American applicants because of their race and violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Alleging that race-conscious admissions practices discriminate against AAPIs has been a strategy by opponents of affirmative action to mobilize a subset of our community. Even in 2020, when California attempted to reinstitute affirmative action through a state ballot initiative called Proposition 16, groups like Asian American Coalition for Education and Silicon Valley Chinese Association Foundation were very vocal opponents against the law.

The reality is that the majority of Asian Americans support affirmative action, according to a 2023 study by the Pew Research Center and the 2022 Asian American Voter Survey. This is why in the Harvard case, our organization (Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California), and other AAPI and civil rights organizations, filed an amicus brief on behalf of Asian American Harvard students who, like most AAPI and other Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) students, feel the benefit from racially diverse campuses that affirmative action provide. Moreover, claiming that AAPI students’ coveted seats at universities are being taken away by other Black and Brown students limits the progress AAPI and other BIPOC communities have made to address systemic racism within education. This mentality creates a harmful wedge by pitting AAPIs against other communities of color—when we should be working together.

It’s true that certain subsets of the AAPI community are disproportionately well represented in higher education. According to a 2021 Pew Research Study, 54% of Asian Americans 25 and up have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to the 33% national average of all American students. But to say categorically that AAPIs will benefit from taking away affirmative action is a fallacy. It is important to remember that our community is not a monolith, and we have the highest disparities within any racial group when it comes to college attainment rates, as well as income levels. The Pew Study disaggregated ethnic data to show at the top end, Indians sat at 75% for college attainment rates while Bhutanese and Laotian were at 15% and 18%, respectively. Pacific Islanders face even greater educational challenges. In California, Marshallese and Tongans graduate at 11% and 14%, respectively, compared to 59% of Asian Americans, 47% of Whites, 28% of Blacks, and 15% of Latinx. When you penetrate the model minority myth that paints all AAPIs as academic well-achievers and you actually break down the data, you find that there are huge educational needs and barriers within some of our ethnic communities, particularly those from the Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander communities, that are improved through affirmative action.

[snip][end]

[ZoWie]

Not surprised for a second. We all knew what would happen regarding SCOTUS when we let the Republican Party right wing pack the court with Federalist Society picks, and it happened, and it's going to get worse. We've locked in 15-20 years of regressive decisions.

The only question that interests me in the least is, what does the majority plan to do about this power grab, and when does it plan to do it?

It's definitely a swing from egalitarianism to the other side in basic American politics, namely rule by the "Rich, able, and well-born." We still have that as the fundamental debate in the country's politics since before there was a US, and it's not going away any time soon. Pick your side and let's rumble.

[bradman]

https://news.yahoo.com/entertainment/re ... 23547.html

The vote was 6 to 3, with the Supreme Court’s liberal members voting against the decision, and Jackson’s lengthy dissent quickly caught traction on social media.

“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,” the dissent reads in part. “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.”

The dissent continues: “No one benefits from ignorance. Although formal racelinked legal barriers are gone, race still matters to the lived experiences of all Americans in innumerable ways, and today’s ruling makes things worse, not better. The best that can be said of the majority’s perspective is that it proceeds (ostrich-like) from the hope that preventing consideration of race will end racism. But if that is its motivation, the majority proceeds in vain. If the colleges of this country are required to ignore a thing that matters, it will not just go away. It will take longer for racism to leave us. And, ultimately, ignoring race just makes it matter more.”

Jackson, who was appointed to the Court by President Joe Biden in 2022, called for leveling the playing field against systemic racism with programs like those in place at Harvard and UNC.

It's not the playing field that needs to be leveled. It's the barriers to the field that need to be removed. Affirmative Action removed some of those barriers.

and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was wrong about the 25 yrs. she thought it would take. You don't solve a centuries old problem in a few decades.

[ZoWie]

No one's ever solved a problem yet by unilaterally declaring that its time is over.

Things don't change that fast when the basics are considered.

SCOTUS is a failure. It's a completely political animal, always has been, always will be, and its only effect (not entirely unwanted) is to damp out the effects of changes in political consensus as the bloody wheel of history rolls on. Had the founding model not been defective, with the country fundamentally split on race as class and class as the primary sociopolitical engine, maybe it would have worked. There was even a chance to fix it after the Civil War. Given that failure, any dreary same old same old that we leave for future generations becomes understandable.

[gounion]

I think if I were the next person of color that was highly qualified to go to Harvard, I’d sue the shit out of them over the legacies they allow, the kids of rich and connected families that donate millions, but their kids that get in are dumb as rocks. Make the college put out all their records, and force them to not give the first seats to rich white kids.

[ZoWie]

Harvard, and legacy admission, would go all the way to SCOTUS, and you know what this court would have to say about that.

[gounion]

Harvard, and legacy admission, would go all the way to SCOTUS, and you know what this court would have to say about that.

Great point. ALL of them, save Comey-Barrett, attended either Harvard or Yale. Wonder how many kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews going to those same colleges.

Those universities, along with the other Ivies, are the fast track to the political and financial elite of our nation. That’s how you get in the right circles that leads you to the upper echelons of our society. They probably comprise 80% of our upper class.

And that’s a class they want to keep blacks and Hispanics OUT of. Lots of high-dollar booze being consumed today.

[ZoWie]

It's not just legacy admission in the Ivy League. Once you're admitted, there is also a requirement to get into one of the many ultra-selective clubs which only take rich well connected white boys. They sing songs about eating the poor. It's closer to the English class system than you want to think.

[gounion]

It's not just legacy admission in the Ivy League. Once you're admitted, there is also a requirement to get into one of the many ultra-selective clubs which only take rich well connected white boys. They sing songs about eating the poor. It's closer to the English class system than you want to think.

Agreed, but because of Affirmative Action, some of those admitted CAN get to the top, like Justices Sotomoyor and Jackson.

Hell, that's how Clarence Thomas got to where he's gotten.

Without it, they've closed the last door on them. And they'll all just say that the black people just aren't good enough. It's genetic.

[Libertas]

Not surprised for a second. We all knew what would happen regarding SCOTUS when we let the Republican Party right wing pack the court with Federalist Society picks, and it happened, and it's going to get worse. We've locked in 15-20 years of regressive decisions.

The only question that interests me in the least is, what does the majority plan to do about this power grab, and when does it plan to do it?

It's definitely a swing from egalitarianism to the other side in basic American politics, namely rule by the "Rich, able, and well-born." We still have that as the fundamental debate in the country's politics since before there was a US, and it's not going away any time soon. Pick your side and let's rumble.

Not surprised that 6 liars would ignore the Constitution, precedent and the law.

[Glennfs]

Today SCOTUS reaffirmed that discrimination is illegal in the USA.
and
Democrats are outraged

[ZoWie]

^That^ is the majority opinion, and you fell for it. Chalk up another one for the Federalist Society.

I live in the real world. Some states have already banned affirmative action, and college admissions for people of color have indeed dropped in those.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need it. When you find such a world, let me know, because I'll grab a seat on the first space flight out of this one.

[Libertas]

Sometimes when I heed a laugh I log on here and read what a con says

I was today NOT disappointed







What she said

[hottentot venus]

Today SCOTUS reaffirmed that discrimination is illegal in the USA.
and
Democrats are outraged

Discrimination against who, mediocre white guys?

[gounion]

Today SCOTUS reaffirmed that discrimination is illegal in the USA.
and
Democrats are outraged

Ah yes, white guys are SOOOOOO damned discriminated against.

When blacks point out being discriminated against, you say "life isn't fair, deal with it,"

But when YOU feel discriminated against - even when you aren't - you cry "UNFAIR!!!!" in your best Donald Trump voice.

If we don't pick white males for every damned position or job in the world, you scream you're being discriminated against. Buttercup.

[ProfX]

Curiously, today's decision exempts military academies.

Military Academies Exempted from Supreme Court Ruling Ending Affirmative Action
https://www.military.com/daily-news/202 ... 20Thursday.

[snip]

The Supreme Court's decision allows the academies to continue race-conscious admissions policies that have historically been justified by the need for a diverse officer corps. As of 2022 the Department of Defense’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion assessed that while 19% of the military’s enlisted personnel were Black, only 8% of its officers were Black.

"The military knows that if you don't get a diverse set of student leaders into commissioning sources, you don't get diverse officer leadership," said Daniel Walker, an Air Force Academy alum and former F-22 pilot. Currently a JD candidate at Harvard Law School, and a member of the Black Veterans Project, Walker said he believed that less diversity in leadership led to a weaker overall force.

[snip][end]

I buy that -- however, it seems weird not to acknowledge the same need at other educational institutions.

[hottentot venus]

Ah yes, white guys are SOOOOOO damned discriminated against.

When blacks point out being discriminated against, you say "life isn't fair, deal with it,"

But when YOU feel discriminated against - even when you aren't - you cry "UNFAIR!!!!" in your best Donald Trump voice.

If we don't pick white males for every damned position or job in the world, you scream you're being discriminated against. Buttercup.

THIS all fuccn day....

[gounion]

Great statement from the classiest First Lady, like, ever...