For nearly six decades, affirmative action policies in the United States have taken greater consideration of a person’s race, gender, disability, age, gender identity and sexual orientation as they apply for jobs and college admission.
As of June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court voted that affirmative action in college admissions is unconstitutional, and institutions will have to resort to other methods to create diversity.
Students of the Class of 2024 are the first high school students to have their college applications affected by this decision. Since this generation will eventually grow to represent, vote and advocate for decisions on events like this affirmative action ruling, it is important to consider and reevaluate the systems under which they transition into adulthood.
Diversity in the student body and workforce is significant, as it allows qualified individuals from various backgrounds to work together and learn from each other. Without consideration of how an individual’s identity may affect their upbringing and education, these environments will become an echo chamber. Over time, these spheres will consist of those from the same fortunate opportunities and perspectives, limiting the voice of underrepresented groups in real-life conversations.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett argued that affirmative action has achieved its purpose. However, the discrimination and gap in equal opportunity that affirmative action was built to close has not been significantly solved. As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argues, “Our country has never been colorblind.” Persisting systemic barriers continue to prevent these institutions from truly being blind to how factors of a person’s identity would affect their application. When life in our society is not blind to these disparities, it is ignorant to argue that we should remove protections for our scholars and workers.
If affirmative action is being restricted for its unconstitutional preference toward minorities, why are legacy preferences also not being limited? Unlike affirmative action, legacy admissions were created to keep the demographics of admissions in the same families of students and donors, excluding other groups of applicants.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who is in opposition of affirmative action, argued that universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin.” Those alongside him in opposition share similar views, that affirmative action policies do not value the student, but are used to hit a quota and create diversity. I can understand where this argument comes from, as reducing students to mere numbers to reach a quota should not be the goal.
Some feel discriminated against by race-conscious admissions, and students under Students for Fair Admissions believe the policies only uplift admissions for some minorities at the cost of others. These students graduated with near perfect SAT and ACT scores, at the top of their class, with dreams of getting into top universities. In the end, Asian-American students were not seen as a minority and given the same standards as white students, while Black and Hispanic students were held to lower standards. Those lower standards cause some concern that they have only been accepted for their race and not seen for the hard work it took to reach those universities.
Despite these flaws, I do not think they are sufficient reasons to end the entire system.
Rather, allowing affirmative action to remain gives us a chance to face up to and truly tackle these obstacles, giving younger generations the opportunities to improve society. If the intention of affirmative action is still to promote diversity, that should be a larger part of how students are considered under these policies. For example, it should be less about how score requirements should be lowered to make sure a certain number of minority students are accepted, and more about how including a variety of people promotes diversity.
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Jolene Palijo is a Waipahu High School student, Class of 2024.
