J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the use of race in college admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, dealing a potentially lethal blow to affirmative action programs in colleges throughout the country.
The decision, which civil rights groups say effectively bans affirmative action, a policy widely viewed as an “irreplaceable tool” to improve higher education, will have enormous consequences all but certain to reverse progress in the United States. Look no further than the dissenting opinions of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who blasted the majority’s decision for showcasing a “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness” that would ultimately deliver a “tragedy for us all.”
We’ve combed through the most searing lines below:
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“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” —Jackson
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“The Court subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society.” —Sotomayor
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“Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal. What was true in the 1860s, and again in 1954, is true today: Equality requires acknowledgment of inequality.” —Sotomayor
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“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.” —Jackson
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“This contention blinks both history and reality in ways too numerous to count. But the response is simple: Our country has never been colorblind. Given the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America, to say that anyone is now victimized if a college considers whether that legacy of discrimination has unequally advantaged its applicants fails to acknowledge the well-documented ‘intergenerational transmission of inequality’ that still plagues our citizenry.” —Jackson
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“In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.” —Sotomayor
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“The Court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).” —Jackson
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“The only way out of this morass—for all of us—is to stare at racial disparity unblinkingly, and then do what evidence and experts tell us is required to level the playing field and march forward together, collectively striving to achieve true equality for all Americans.” —Jackson
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“Entrenched racial inequality remains a reality today. That is true for society writ large and, more specifically, for Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC), two institutions with a long history of racial exclusion.” —Sotomayor
