Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the two cases challenging the legality of racial preferences. What was the substance of the arguments?
In today’s Martin Center article, Wenyuan Wu, executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, offers her thoughts on how the cases went. She writes that, “While the plaintiff held firm on the narrowly tailored position that racial preferences are wrong, proponents of race-based affirmative action brought to the Court overblown theatrics concerning diversity. Putting an end to race-conscious college admissions would, they explained, have devastating effects on campus diversity, which could not be compensated for by race-neutral alternatives.”
Naturally. Overblown theatrics is how the Left tries to keep people in submission, whether the issue is Covid, climate, or college admissions.
Wu points out that the defenders of discrimination were caught in a dilemma. They claimed that preserving “diversity” is of immense importance, but they also claimed that their preferences amount to just a tiny little factor. She also notes that most of the students selected for their supposed diversity in fact come from well-to-do families who are perfectly mainstream.
And if the schools are really concerned about diversity and its claimed educational benefits, why not focus on intellectual diversity rather than race? Wu writes, “The elephant in the room is viewpoint diversity, or the lack thereof. A 2022 survey on campus free speech found that 63 percent of college students worried about reputational damage if they spoke up about their actual beliefs, and 63 percent deemed shouting down controversial speakers acceptable. Another survey of 12,372 American college professors revealed an 8.5-to-1 ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans, a ratio that is almost eight times larger than that of the general population. If students don’t feel comfortable voicing disagreements and professors are overwhelmingly biased, how can a robust exchange of ideas, a vital ingredient of true diversity, flourish?”
It appears that only the three leftist justices want to allow colleges to continue to racial preferences. There are probably six votes to declare that the practice violates the Civil Rights Act. We will know for sure some time next year.