Tuesday, November 1: Affirmative Action on the Chopping Block
The Supremes have gathered once more, to restore imbalance to the scales
The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in two cases challenging race-conscious admissions policies at the University of North Carolina and Harvard.
PRO AA: Lawyers argue that affirmative action policies are necessary to address racial disparities in education going back centuries. They also say that race is only one factor among several that colleges take into account in deciding which students to admit. In my experience reviewing college applications, it was unacceptable to consider race as the primary factor when admitting a student.
ANTI AA: These lawyers argue that affirmative action policies amount to illegal and unconstitutional racial discrimination (lol), particularly against white and Asian applicants who might lose out in a zero-sum admissions process if their Black and Latino peers were to get preference. Because most of the time in educational spaces I’m looking around wondering where are all the white people…I joke
The verdict of the supreme decision likely won’t be unveiled until the summer, but it’s particularly important to understand that kids in school have suffered extraordinarily over the past few years. With pandemic lockdowns, school closures, and years worth of lost learning, to say nothing of the million+ Americans that died from Covid, it’s always interesting to see how far down the priority list education falls in this country.
Side Items
RIP Takeoff: 28 year old rapper Takeoff (born Kirshnik Khari Ball) was shot dead in Houston early this morning. Part of the hugely successful Atlanta trifecta known as the Migos, Takeoff was attending a private party at a bowling alley where the shooting took place outside. It sucks for so many reasons, he was young, he had already achieved incredible success, his future seemed even brighter. RIP Kirshnik, I’ll never forget thinking that your name sounds like a knight drawing a sword from its sheath. Thank you for providing the only good segment of “Carpool Karaoke” ever to exist
Israel Election: Israelis are headed back to the polls for their fifth parliamentary election in four years today. The big question on everyone’s mind is how their former leader Benjamin Netanyahu will fare after the vote. Voters are choosing between a far right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu or the current governing alliance of mostly right-wing and centrist parties, led by prime minister Yair Lapid. Regardless of the outcome, Palestinians will of course be on the losing side, with their continued oppression used as little more than window dressing for whatever new apartheid regime takes over