Obamas, Nikole Hannah-Jones Blast Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision: ‘My Heart Breaks for Any Young Person’
Former president and first lady Barrack and Michelle Obama, “The 1619 Project” Pulitzer winner Nikole Hannah-Jones, “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Joyce Carol Oates and many more have weighed in on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning affirmative action programs Thursday, deeming them as unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University in its ruling, thereby striking down comparable programs nationwide. The ruling claimed that the programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, an amendment previously cited to lessen discrimination against Black Americans that affirms that no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Former first lady Obama tweeted a lengthy statement about her experience with affirmative action at Princeton University, saying that her “heart breaks for any young person who’s wondering what their future holds.”
I wanted to share some of my thoughts on today's Supreme Court decision on affirmative action: pic.twitter.com/Wa6TGafzHV
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) June 29, 2023
“It wasn’t just the kids of color who benefitted, either. Every student who heard a perspective they might not have encountered, who had an assumption challenged, who had their minds and their hearts opened gained a lot as well,” she wrote. “It wasn’t perfect, but there’s no doubt that it helped offer new ladders of opportunity for those who, throughout history, have too often been denied a chance to show how fast they can climb.”
Former president Obama quote tweeted his wife’s statement and shared thoughts of his own.
“Affirmative action was never a complete answer in the drive towards a more just society,” he wrote. “But for generations of students who had been systematically excluded from most of America’s key institutions — it gave us the chance to show we more than deserved a seat at the table.”
Hannah-Jones called it “the most American ruling ever.”
Oates pointed out the hypocrisy of legacy admissions in her response to the decision.
“It is rarely acknowledged that there is ubiquitous ‘affirmative action’ at colleges and universities when legacy students apply,” she wrote. “Not to mention relatives of generous donors, athletes and children of faculty and administrative staff. ‘Blind admissions’ is a chimera.”
TheRoot.com’s Michael Harriot also railed against legacy admissions, tweeting, “Before you begin your think piece, the Supreme Court did not strike down affirmative action. Admission preferences for legacies, donors, employee families and special recommendations are still allowed. The Court struck down affirmative action For everyone except white people.”
Read more reactions below:
In banning affirmative action, the Supreme Court has *not* banned using race in college admissions. "Race neutral" is a legal fantasy, the latest to conserve racism. As Uma Jayakumar and I write @TheAtlantic, “race neutral” is the new “separate but equal.”https://t.co/EecYSiZ9zd
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 29, 2023
I am particularly upset with Amy Coney Barrett.
— Min Jin Lee (@minjinlee11) June 29, 2023
I may or may not write about the supreme court decision re: affirmative action but I do hope journalists reach out to white women before anyone else as they are the primary beneficiaries of such policies.
— roxane gay (@rgay) June 29, 2023
If SCOTUS was serious about their ludicrous “colorblindness” claims, they would have abolished legacy admissions, aka affirmative action for the privileged.
70% of Harvard’s legacy applicants are white. SCOTUS didn’t touch that – which would have impacted them and their patrons.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 29, 2023
Today's decisions from the Supreme Court on Affirmative Action represent a significant setback for Civil Rights in the U.S. and are a cornerstone of the conservative movement's coordinated effort to roll back access to opportunity for systemically marginalized Americans. pic.twitter.com/6ioY0GnAVA
— Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) June 29, 2023
Y'all are gonna bring that same energy to end legacy admissions at universities, too… Right?
— Alexis Ohanian
(@alexisohanian) June 29, 2023
An elite, white majority determining after just 50 years of weak, half-hearted
affirmative action efforts, that they are the ones to decide that enough has been done to address centuries of explicit racial exclusion against Black people is the most American ruling ever.— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) June 29, 2023
This is the face of a man who climbed the ladder of affirmative action to his present perch of power only to help destroy the very ladder on which he ascended. This is not only the mark of deep ingratitude & disavowal of history, but a withering betrayal of justice & democracy. pic.twitter.com/qtoLiOlQuy
— Michael Eric Dyson (@MichaelEDyson) June 29, 2023