racism
Skin color can no longer play a role in US university admissions
US President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on the US Supreme Court ruling on promoting ethnic minorities in university admissions. photo
© Evan Vucci/AP/dpa
A regulation in the USA should promote diversity among students – and thus improve opportunities for minorities. Now the Supreme Court is again overturning the law that has been in force for decades.
The US Supreme Court has taken into account the Skin color or descent of applicants for admission to universities declared unconstitutional. For far too long, many universities have regarded skin color as a “touchstone” – and not the challenges and skills that an applicant has mastered or acquired, the Supreme Court in Washington said yesterday. Even if the authorization procedures in question were introduced with good intentions, they were unconstitutional.
The promotion of ethnic minorities under the term “affirmative action” has been a hot topic in the USA for decades. It should promote diversity among students.
US President Joe Biden described the decision as a “great disappointment”. “We should never allow this country to move away from the dream it was founded on: that there are opportunities for everyone, not just a select few,” Biden said at the White House. He echoed the words of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who disagreed with the majority view: the court’s decision is undoing decades of meaningful progress. “Discrimination still exists in America,” Biden said.
Admission policy discriminatory?
The verdict had been eagerly awaited. Opponents of the “affirmative action” had complained about the admission procedures at the elite Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. They argued that college admissions policies were discriminatory. The court, with its conservative majority, is now again overturning a decision in a decades-old precedent. In 1978, the Supreme Court decided that skin color should not be the decisive factor in the approval process – but it could definitely be taken into account. The court upheld the verdict in later decisions.
The “affirmative action” was not perfect, said ex-US President Barack Obama after the verdict. But she has enabled generations of students like his wife Michelle and him to prove that they belong.
In its reasoning, the court pointed out that universities could continue to take into account how skin color or descent shaped the lives of applicants – “whether due to discrimination, inspiration or in some other way”. In a reaction, the ACLU also referred to this passage and called on the universities to increase equal opportunities, for example by dispensing with standardized tests for admission and increasing financial support. Biden directed the Department of Education to examine what policies can help create a more inclusive and diverse student body.
The Supreme Court had moved significantly to the right under former Republican President Donald Trump. When the case was heard at the end of last year, there were already indications that the court could consider skin color to be unconstitutional in the approval process. Around a year ago, the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion that had been in force for almost half a century in a spectacular decision. Then there were nationwide protests. According to polls, people’s trust in the court, which often has the last word on the most contentious issues, is declining.