“With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that has been shown by statistics. There are reasons for that. There are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects” — US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
The definition of affirmative action states that it is the practice of improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past because of their race, sex, religion, etc. It is a policy in which an individual’s colour, sex, race, religion or national origin are taken into account by the government, business or an educational institution in order to augment the opportunities provided to underrepresented parts of society. It is often considered a means to counter historical discrimination against a particular group in society. In a six-to-two-decision this past week, the justices of the US Supreme Court upheld the state of Michigan’s ban on affirmative action, banning racial preferences in university admissions as constitutional, overturning a lower court decision.
What is important here to understand is that the US Supreme Court is not declaring it unconstitutional for educational institutions to apply affirmative action. It is simply giving individual states their own rights to choose and decide whether to apply this principle or not. Having said that, what affirmative action has been providing to US society for years is a multitude of benefits. It has provided a plethora of educational and professional opportunities to members of minority groups who would perhaps never have achieved what they have done without this enormous help from society and the legal system. Many see this as an unfair practice in which an individual is given an opportunity or an upper hand based entirely on his or her colour, race, sex, etc, rather than on his or her individual achievements. However, it would not be entirely unfair to say that merely subscribing to this point of view could be considered naïve. Countless numbers of people from minority groups need that confidence placed in them, to be believed in, to be given a chance and to be given the opportunities that may make them rise well above what may have been the case had there been no affirmative action in place.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s rather fiery, emotional statements after this decision were delivered were, no doubt, based on her own experiences growing up in a modest, underprivileged background, having eventually graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and receiving her law degree from Yale University. By her own admission, “Affirmative action opened doors in my life.” Those who understand the benefits of affirmative action would without hesitation understand Sotomayor’s point of view when she states, “Race matters. Race matters in part because of the long history of racial minorities being denied access to the political process. Race matters to a young man’s view of society when he spends his teenage years watching others tense up as he passes, no matter what neighbourhood he grew up in. Race matters to a young woman’s sense of self when she states her hometown, and then is pressed, ‘No, where are you really from?’ The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination. The constitution does not protect racial minorities from political defeat. But neither does it give the majority free rein to erect selective barriers against racial minorities.”
Very powerful words from someone who has experienced affirmative action and has had doors opened to her thanks to it. This is the story of one woman who, thanks to her own intelligence and achievements, and the benefits of affirmative action that were provided to her, rose to being a justice of the US Supreme Court. How many countless others have had similar experiences to Justice Sotomayor, thanks to their own achievements and the positives of affirmative action, is anyone’s guess. However, what is a certainty is that the less and less affirmative action is applied, the more underprivileged individuals and groups will risk remaining underprivileged. Those are not the principles that the US was founded on.
The writer is an English and French professor and columnist residing in the US and France. She can be reached at [email protected]