I thought about this in the past, and it made sense to me that when there are inequalities in a system affecting human rights, the system should be able to make modifications to reduce the inequalities. For instance, if the percentage of a race is over- or underrepresented in the higher education system, then it’s fair to make modifications to change the over- or underrepresentation *until* the percentages more closely equal the percentages of those races in the general population. But the modifications must *not* cause the percentages to become excessively modified – skewed in the opposite direction. This has been known as affirmative action.
Today’s decision by the Supreme Court of the US apparently removes the ability of educational institutions to make any modifications, allowing the educational system to become skewed toward further inequality. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his opinion that he had benefitted from the colleges allowing more blacks to enter, but what’s totally astounding is that he still sided with the other 5 justices to block the ability of colleges to allow more students of an underrepresented race to enter. He said that this decision makes things more equal.
This 6 to 3 decision speaks loudly of the Supreme Court’s radical right-wing bias against what this country is supposed to be: a fairer, less unequal society when it comes to human rights. I could understand it if the decision only prevented the minority to become overrepresented and become a majority. But it goes far beyond that by disallowing any modifications at all to be made to end inequality. Preventing the ability to end inequality is, obviously, in the end contributing to inequality.
The decision’s full implications must be reviewed by legal experts and a path should be planned to legislate changes to the laws, in order to right the wrong that the Supreme Court’s decision has caused. The decision applies to education, but there may be further SCOTUS decisions that apply the same unreasonable line of thinking to other systems, such as employment.
Another ominous thing is what is this decision going to mean for HBCUs – historically black colleges and universities? Will it cause their black students to become even more minority? And then there are those institutions that might be found to be breaking the law because their sports teams have too many minority students! Only time will tell what this critically poor decision by the highest court may cause in the future when it comes to human rights.
