Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action

Big news!

In a historic decision, the Supreme Court severely limited, if not effectively ended, the use of affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday. By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the admissions programs used by the University of North Carolina and Harvard College violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which bars racial discrimination by government entities.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-programs-in-college-admissions/

Ever since I moved to the US almost forty years ago, affirmative action has been a thing. At UCLA, I was a tutor for the Academic Advancement Program, which was just another name for affirmative action. The freshman class for engineering was diverse, but over time, it became mostly white and Asian males.

During that time, I also applied to Harvard University. I never considered Harvard, but I received a letter from the Asian Alumni Association encouraging me to apply. I was not accepted. In hindsight, with the recent lawsuit, and the fact I ended up with three university degrees, I will always wonder if I was rejected admission because I was Asian.

Affirmative action is bad. The intention behind it may be commendable, but it is just identity politics and racial discrimination. From the photo above, there are a lot of Asians. However, that fact is not beneficial to me at the individual level. What if UCLA decided there were too many Asians, and I was next in line for acceptance? It is not like the Asians that were accepted are going to support me going forward. How is this not using racism to “fight” racism? During orientation at UCLA, I was told the graduation rate for electrical engineering students was about one-third. That means the admission process is totally broken. Why did I need to tutor basic math to students that were accepted into a internationally ranked engineering program? Did we just fuck over a bunch of qualified Asian and white applicants for a social experiment that mainly produces college dropouts?

That is why I am happy with this SCOTUS decision. If you want to increase the number of black and brown students in STEM, clearly define success standards and admissions criteria. Then help those students in need to acquire the skills and knowledge required to compete. In other words, provide every opportunity so there is an equal playing field. This pursuit of outcome equity by racial preference is stupid and evil.