A not-normal SCOTUS welcomes you to the U.S.
Now turn your clock back 50 years
Yesterday, the highest court in the land acted on far-right talking points and blew up affirmative action in college admissions. You can read the ruling here.
This ruling assumes that the society is all set now, that we don’t need any more guardrails, and that everyone has an equal opportunity to earn a college degree. Students can talk about what it’s like to, say, grow up Black, but that information cannot be captured statistically.
Or maybe there is an understanding that things aren’t fair, and oh-the-hell-well. Either way, this is an appalling ruling that could have a drastic effect on students of color who want to attend college — and, by inference, on white students who won’t have the opportunity to attend a university with any one other than people who look and smell like them.
Side note that really isn’t a side note? A higher degree generally means more wealth — and, subsequently, the chance to build more generational wealth.
I am a college professor, and I can tell you, as said Pres. Biden yesterday, that “affirmative action” does not cheapen the admission process in higher education. This ruling, as Associate Justice Jackson said yesterday, “a tragedy for all of us.” Because what happens now? Segregation, darlings. Court-approved segregation, the destruction of the ability to build generational wealth among Black and Brown people. It will take immense effort on the parts of admission staffs around the country. This is effort that is vital.
Some of those robes should come with hoods.
So... Tuesday night I'm at Walmart in Torrington. I'm at the self-serve register and notice an elderly black man at one of the registers. The self-serve "overseer" was watching him like a hawk. I go do my thing. Elderly man walks out ahead of me, and overseer dude asks to see his receipt and when handed to him, he scrutinized it. Mind you, elderly man had nothing of consequence in his purchase. One of the things was a bag of plastic straws. Meantime, my white self with purple and pink hair, makes my purchase, and waltzes out with a bunch of stuff in my hands and am ignored by overseer dude. To say I was pissed is an understatement. That was a blatant racist micro-aggression. AND, don't even get me started on what looks to be substandard care that a co-worker's husband (black man) is receiving at St. Francis Hospital. I'm very, very, very pissed off right now.