In 2003, Barbara Grutter, a white woman from Michigan, filed a lawsuit after being rejected by the University of Michigan Law School, a school known for actively seeking a racially diverse student body. The resulting landmark case, Grutter v. Bollinger, caught national attention and sparked debates about affirmative action. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the law school’s admissions policies were not unconstitutional. However, in the companion case, Gratz v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court declared Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative action process unconstitutional. This process gave an automatic 20 extra points to Black, Latino, and Native American applicants on a 150-point admission scale.
Fast-forward two decades, and we are once again confronted with lawsuits against universities by Edward Blum, a bored septuagenarian and his nonprofit, Students for Fair Admissions. These lawsuits, against the University of North Carolina and Harvard University, are challenging affirmative action policies. One of the most vocal plaintiffs in these cases is Jon Wang, a Chinese American teenager who believes he was rejected by Harvard and five other top universities due to affirmative action, despite his stellar grades and high SAT score. However, one of the six schools he applied to, the University of California, Berkeley, cannot employ race-based affirmative action in its admissions policies.
As we approach a ruling by a conservative Supreme Court, the future of affirmative action remains uncertain. Justice Clarence Thomas, a Black man who has personally benefited from affirmative action while opposing it, is expected to vote against it later this month.
As someone who attended the University of Michigan in 1999, I experienced firsthand the impact of affirmative action. At the time, only 6% of the student body was Black, which meant roughly 3,000 Black students out of 50,000 — less than my entire high school population. We established close-knit communities due to cultural dictates, and we heavily relied on each other and the university’s Black support staff to navigate the challenges of attending a competitive state university.
While opponents of affirmative action argue that it places lower-performing minority students in high-performing environments, I can attest that admissions policies at Michigan incentivized excellence, and the affirmative action policies existed for highly-qualified students. Had it not been for affirmative action, many Black students, including myself, may not have been accepted.
It’s essential to recognize the positive impact of diversity on everyone. The abolition of affirmative action could have a detrimental effect on corporate diversity programs and limit opportunities for underrepresented minorities. It’s vital to recognize the value of affirmative action as we strive to create a more equitable society.
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