Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down racial and ethnic preferences in college admissions. Yet colleges can continue to give preference to “legacies?” Since non-white students were barred from most colleges for more than 200 years, legacy students are by definition most likely white.
Well folks here is another Reason why we all need to stop the bleeding.
I ask:
1. What are the Republicans in Congress doing to help the American people?
2. What are the Republicans in Congress doing to help the country?
3. What is the Republican Leadership doing to reverse the divisions in our country?
4. What has Putin promised Trump to try and destroy our democracy?
5. What is going on with our Supreme Court who are supposedly the best of the best?
* Are there any honest people left in this world?
Think about our children. What kind of future do they have? We need some real honest leadership in this country to get us back on track and to stay competitive with the rest of the world!
Thomas said affirmative action, which he himself benefited from in his 1971 admission to Yale Law school , "flies in the face of our colorblind Constitution" .
Same one that defined him as "3/5 of a person" in Article 1, Section 2?
Justice Jackson also adeptly noted that the very reason of the Equal Protection Clause was to correct the racial bias in the country. Thomas was perhaps not listening or did not care to do more than use the words of a Federalist brief.
He was Reagan's head of the EEOC. Sworn to enforce the law. Instead let the statutes of limitations run on age cases. If not criminal, incompetent. For that, he was awarded a judgeship. George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. He served 19 months before Bush nominated him, solely because he is Black.
Joe Biden's major #1 goof in his time in politics was in letting Thomas through his committee so he could be a Supreme Court justice. I like Joe, but he still has a whole lot to make up for.
Well yeah Daniel: And how many women vote against giving women the right to decide re: their own bodies. It IS devastating to see how many individuals brainwashed by some means or other into voting against their own best interests. Depressing and scary. The human psyche a dark deep mysterious abyss.
When a loud mouth like Trump comes along and promises a constituency who incorrectly view themselves as the down trodden (ignorant White, hateful, frightened and under-educated), fertile ground for growing a dictator has been tilled. This is exactly how other autocratic dictators throughout history have come to power. "I'm your only solution", "Only I can change things in your favor", "Those '' 'others' are encroaching on your rights" (in reality, privileges).
Yup. Even if our Constitution is supposed to be colorblind, our culture sure has hell never has been. Justice "Uncle" Thomas is token of which white conservative political and economic dreams are made.
We must remember years ago when one Racist Leader said they are going into politics. Their goal is to control the country. Remember when Attorney Vance told us about the frogs being boiled? Well, here is a perfect example. How many Neo-Nazis groups are in your state? They are in every state in the USA now. Let us all jump out of this pot. Write the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and let them know that we need to do something about this group who hates. Trump's Grandfather was in the Hitler Administration. The Truth. So, what we have in the Republican Party are Neo Nazis, White Nationalists, White Supremacists, and White hate groups of all type of names. Anyone feeling hot?
Ask yourself what has any republican ever done that has made your life or the lives of your family better? Something? Anything. Surely there must be something. Just one thing. Please?
Democrats and the GOP are two broken arms of the sick body of an ethno fascist state that openly represses Black Americans. Hate crimes against Black Americans have increased during the Biden Administration. Public lynchings of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway and Ajika Owens in Ocala, Florida occurred because the Biden administration and Merrick Garland will not support hate crime legislation for Black Americans. In fact, neither the Departments of Justice nor the legal system will protect Black Americans, reinstituting an environment of fear and violent repression.
Thank you for the Questions. My Answers and Suggestions:
1. and 2. The Republicans in Congress are doing nothing to help the country and the people, but a lot to harm the country and the people with shouts of overspending when Democrats are in office and funding cuts to important agencies created to protect the country and the people such as EPA, FDA, and others.
3. It appears the Republicans in Congress are doing nothing to reverse the divisions but have committed a long list of negative actions that keeps the divide widening such as allowing freedom of speech to lie on national communication channels--TV, radio, and Internet, but you must not lie to Congress or the Judicial system.
4. Even if Putin has promised Trump anything to destroy our democracy, certain Republicans in Congress have been working on that long before Trump took office.
5. For years certain members of the Supreme Court have been dismantling things that symbolize this nation such as removal of prayer in schools, sports arenas, and courthouses, removal of the Pledge of Allegiance as a national acknowledgement in schools, removal of the Ten Commandments from parks and government building.
*If we unable to acknowledge things that have symbolized America and provided a moral compass to guide, lead, and teach people concerning what is right and to understand the importance of being honest, then we will have very few honest people in this world.
In addition, if Congressional leaders are not aspiring to the goals established in the United State of America's Preamble to the Constitution (In Order to form a more perfect Union...), then we will not have leaders to get us back on track and the posterity of the country will continue to be in jeopardy.
"5. What is going on with our Supreme Court who are supposedly the best of the best?"
It's been awhile. Thomas has been waiting for years for the support to do this damage re affirmative action- a very personal jihad. The Trump judges are of low quality; they're there to appease the right. They are there because they were shoved in by the GOP.
Not luck, but basic human compassion and a joint effort to make all Canadians lives better via truly equal opportunity and Social Justice. I congratulate Canadians. Maybe someday your southern neighbor will grow up and meet you supporting its own citizens who are millionaires and billionaires.
Having read Roberts' majority opinion, it seems increasingly obvious, that the current bench is comprised of a single-minded activist cohort, one not wed to the honorable interpretation of law, or as Roberts said during his Senate confirmation: 'calling balls & strikes', but rather, about re-shaping the American landscape & undoing years of painfully gained progress. While the Republic has eixisted for two-plus centuries, democracy has not. Term limits must surely be a way to ensure activist justices are limited in their ability to damage?
Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction. The Constitution Three-fifths compromise 1787, judges people of color, slaves, worth only three-fifths a human being for census purposes! The purpose of affirmative action, simply seeks to correct the historical impact this heinous judgement has had. The Asian American experience is not without challenges, but it isn't the experience of the African American.
A Ellis-Dunn. The 3/5ths ruling was clearly absurd. There was a time when Chinese in the U.S. could not own property, , Jews in SC could not testify in court, and women could not vote. We have moved on.
Is there a need to have a better conception of diversity than our white vs. black racial categories. Absolutely! The problem that has become very evident is that jurists who have said they should not legislate are legislating!
how would you then address 400+ years of systemic racism and inequality? have you ever really meditated upon what it would be like to be considered livestock? breeding stock? less than human? this mindset has infected most of the white culture in this country since slaves were first kidnapped here. as a society and culture we have systemically savaged people of color politically, economically, socially, medically, educationally. are you in favor of continuing this system? if you are, then this scotus decision makes sense. perhaps a reading list: ignorance can be abated.
So You Want to talk about Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
The Half has never been told, by Edward Baptist
and in corollary:
White Trash - The 400 year Untold History of Class in America.
Happy reading.
but wait, don't forget Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Hi Paul, I have read White Trash and G,G, and S. Both excellent books. While the Northern States won the civil war with respect to property, the Confederate States may have won the culture war beginning with the Jim Crow Laws. Nonetheless, we have made significant steps to mitigate 400+ years of systemic racism and inequality. Our effort to make a more perfect union (if we can keep it) remains a work in progress. We do not need race based affirmative action to continue our progress. Universities can affirm other parameters when selecting its students.
Here is an interesting article from this morning's Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-comes-after-affirmative-action?cid=gen_sign_in The author, Rafael Walker, a black man who found himself at a highly competitive University, now teaching at CUNY, makes an argument for alternative ways of promoting fairness in this new landscape: assess applicants on "resourcefulness." How much did they achieve with the resources they had during their prior schooling.
I would also add that just because the ruling has struck down race-based admissions doesn't mean it can strike down "diversity" and "equality of opportunity" as civic goods. In the years since affirmative action first came on the scene, the goals of diversity (which apparently the plaintiffs did not argue against) as well as social justice (which I presume is their problem -- a blinkered idea of fairness) -- have become baked into the DNA of higher ed. I do not believe it is possible to undo that with this case. There will be away around it. P.S. I work in higher ed.
Disagree. This decision created a dangerous slippery slope primarily benefiting the ‘values’ of those unfortunately bent toward bigotry and racism. To hear today that the whole case may have been built on a sham is indicative of many of the disingenuous attacks on our judicial system and Americas values. It’s a good time to be a lawyer because taxpayers are paying through the nose for this.
The Taney Court..er...Roberts Court has settled the affirmative action issue once and for all. Much to the chagrin of post 1965 arrivals to the US ignorant of American history and sociocultural issues, such as the plaintiff, a first generation Chinese American who adopted the entitlement attitude of the "model minority", this ruling will have deleterious consequences for all Asians seeking acceptance into (white) American tertiary educational systems. The plaintiff shares the same attitude of post 1965 arrivals to the US who frequently punch down upon and scapegoat Black Americans because none will accept the hard truth that whites comprise the bulk of legacy admissions and financial donors to elite level American tertiary education. It's very disheartening to see how post 1965 arrivals to the US swallowed hook line and sinker the work hard and you'll succeed myth only to find that the very people to whom they seek social acceptance actively uses all to dismantle the ladder to upward mobility for every American ethnic group. Ultimately, this Supreme Court ruling will hurt Asians on the whole because white decision makers will ultimately decide not to allow any and all non white racial groups into top tier tertiary education.
Agreed. Part of this conversation obscures the fact that one does not need to attend an ivy or ivy-adjacent school to get an excellent education. This is even truer today then it was years ago, thanks largely to the glut of academics produced through the 80s and 90s. You can attend a community college like mine and be instructed by PhDs from UMIchigan, NYU, and elsewhere. And the fact is the majority of institutions accept the majority of their candidates, so the debate over affirmative action is relevant to a microcosm. But it seems to have an outsized impact on people's minds partly because we mythologize the value of the ivy league.. THe real question is how much difference does the ivy degree make in terms of dollars in the long run? That might be the sticking point.
Here's the sticking point: Ivy League and elite universities brand their alumni as upper caste members in the racial socioeconomic caste system of the US. Look at the education credentials of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, captains of industry, and upper echelons of the military and every person graduated either from an Ivy League or an elite level institution. Employers and professional networking associations place premiums on Ivy League graduates hence why the most selective schools have single digit acceptance rates. So cut the disingenuous rhetoric about the value of an Ivy League education that pays huge dividends financially and personally.
It does pay dividends, I'm not denying that. But they are not the only dividends to be reaped in life or in higher ed. A student who graduates from an HBCU, for instance, has a deep network of mentors and advisors that they probably could not get anywhere else. Look, I'm not arguing with you about the need for systemic reform --- but going to Harvard ain't gonna do that.
HBCU grads do indeed have a deep professional networking system of mentors because my family and community elders are proud graduates. Keep in mind, however, that American society as a whole still views elite HBCUs as inferior to diploma mill state universities and nowhere in the ballpark to Ivy League schools.
Well, besides my "stock" answer that white women were always the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action anyway, what else is new? No shade to the white folks reading this comment... we have the highest court in the land with NO ethics to guide them, 2 of these folks on the bench (that we know of), that are in the pockets of Uber wealthy benefactors, I mean like *Yawn*... just more of the same. NEXT!
Terri ; You have a "Stock' answer that white women were always the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action" ? As a white woman who was a ward of the state, I had good grades and was able to get into the State University with a Pell grant. It was two weeks into my first semester and I was still waiting for my books...Not the greatest start. Remarks like yours make me suspicious that you are part of some kind of troll farm to sow discord and division. There are probably lots of tRumpers who feel aggrieved by the idea that just because you have white skin you have not experienced adversity or poverty, even worlds of pain. Way to drum up good will from those of us who struggled, or are now struggling who happen to be Poor while being white! We don't choose our parents! Please remember that respect is a two way interaction. let's try to be part of the solution. Hate the obscenely wealthy!
Way to make it about you. I was waiting for "you" (albeit not you specifically). Don't get your feelings hurt... just like "privilege" doesn't guarantee you won't have to struggle, this is the same thing. And I don't hate ANYBODY, not even the wealthy. Statistics will bear this fact out. Do some research. And BTW--- I'm neither a tRumper, a liberal, a Democrat, a conservative, Republican, etc. I'm a black woman who has had to work for anything and everything I have also. I went to nursing school on a clinical scholarship and graduated debt free. Both my husband and I worked and provided a relatively comfortable middle class lifestyle for our kids who incidentally didn't even qualify for free or reduced lunch, before or after school programs. One of my daughters graduated college completely debt free. No troll ish going on over here. All our lives we've had to fight. (In Sophia from "The Color Purple" voice). Suffice it to say, white skin will not be a reason you experience racism, especially systemic racism. Doesn't mean you won't be taken advantage of by the Uber wealthy. Side note--- if you've never had to have a law passed to allow you a basic, human inalienable right or natural freedom, you're PRIVILEGED. Exhibit A- The C.R.O.W.N Act... look out up.
This may not be a popular thing to say, and I assure you I'm not attempting to troll >anyone< here, but might I remind everyone:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (Martin Luther King)
On the other hand, publicly stated SCOTUS reasoning also >seems< more consistent with MLK's dream.
You see, I'm a bit confounded. Indeed, I'm of two minds in all this, even if SCOTUS exercised clever public reasoning, where the MLK ideal was put forth as a fig leaf for the >real< objective - and I have no doubt it was somewhere in the mix - of preserving and bolstering plutocratic hegemony.
On the other hand, it seems to remove the common racist trope for personal failure saying such failure was due to skin color. I know that bloody history instructs >me< that if we go down that path, I'll eventually not be white enough - for example! (That's why some of the folks buying into white bigotry perplex me beyond measure - both here and abroad.)
So my conclusion on the SCOTUS ruling is neutral. Do not interpret that to mean I'm in any way comfortable with it. Like I've advocated for Jack Smith's effort in bringing justice to bear down on ol' Tweety, we must be patient, even if we disagree with the SCOTUS political orientation. It may - conservative or otherwise - turn out to be a good ruling. Only time will tell. The SCOTUS has >always< been full of surprises!
How easily American whites hijack and corrupt Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" for self purposes to consciously deflect from their complicit participation in open anti Black racism. More than 80% of American whites despised Dr King when he walked the Earth, and the same percentage despise him and his legacy 55 years after his assassination. Contemporary American whites and post 1965 arrivals to the US only accept a watered down the caricature of Dr. King and his message because it suits their modern sociopolitical narrative of white acceptance.
Want to know what racism is? It’s when you finally recognize inequality. You pass the 14th Amendment in the mid 1809’s. Then you sit on your ass for another 100 years and pass the Civil Rights Act. Then you sit on your ass for another 50 years and then claim it magically fixed itself. Neither the Amendment or the Civil Rights act even scratched the surface to achieve equity. We should be ashamed as a Nation for not tending to our nations ‘garden’. And, contrary to recent comments by Republican presidential hopefuls, other democratic countries are not praising us for gutting Affirmative Action, but dictatorships are (and that’s who Republicans align their values with).
Hi Robert, we have made progress toward equal oppoutunity. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named Hobart Taylor Jr. special counsel to the President’s Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity where he is credited with coining the phrase, “affirmative action.” I knew him when I was 12-18 yo. We were living on Boston Blvd in Detroit. Taylor was my Dad, Al's best friend. My Dad was white. One evening in the 1950s they went for dinner at an upscale Detroit restaurant. The restaurant would not serve them because Taylor was black. Taylor was DA for Wayne County Michigan at the time. He sued the restaurant for $10,000, won, and donated the judgment on the courthouse steps which story was published in the newspapers. When LBJ was elected VP, he tapped Taylor to serve in the federal goverment. I was honored to escort his widow, Lynette Dobbins Taylor, to President Clinton's 1997 Inauguration and parties thereafter. We had great fun dancing.
Only American whites keep deluding themselves into believing that the US has made "progress" towards equality simply because JFK and LBJ appointed token Black Americans to give the appearance of equity.
Kerry has it right. And there is the son-in-law, whose father bought him into Harvard. Birth right and the right set of jeans (oops, I mean genes) should not be a qualification. And once they get there, the institution will do all that it can to keep them enrolled, not matter how poorly they perform because they want to keep the money flowing. Compare that to those who attend without the benefit of their jeans, took out loans and had work-study jobs to pay for it. My jeans did not help me.
The only difference between Biden and Trump are words. They both sold us out. Expand the Supreme Court then get back to me. I'm not concerned about confusion in politics in the future. I guess in Biden’s mind confusion is worse than fascism. Frankly I think he’s a billionaire Republican in democratic clothes.
The hypocrisy of the conservatives on the Supreme Court ending affirmative action while maintaining "legacy applicants" is yet another example of the systemic racism that keeps the rich majority getting richer and the poor minority getting poorer. "Legacy" applicants are enjoying the privilege of their parents having been wealthy enough to enroll in Harvard. As such, the "same old same old" (what Conservatism is, basically) perpetuates. This SCOTUS is by no means a neutral, clear-headed body dispassionately interpreting our Constitution: they are a bigoted and biased body of right - wing elites who abuse their positions to maintain a backward view of America that runs counter to the actual spirit of our Constitution.
That's the policy and outcome of the republiCONservative agenda, since Bonzo von Reagan was installed in D.C., ascending the throne back in 1980 to began his assault on "free" [taxpayer funded] public education in all of its forms. His other great accomplisnment; PATCO. Break all Unions!
Their motto: "E PluriBUST UNION."
The SCOTUS is BOGUS in its current form! Expand or disband the court.
American whites do not want to attend schools with Black Americans whom they regard as their social and intellectual inferiors. Asians and Hispanics, racial groups seeking acceptance as honorary whites within in American racial caste system, share the same sentiment. Like most American whites in the 1970s, then Senator Joe Biden openly opposed federal desegregation mandates, such as bussing, because he did not want his sons anywhere near Black Americans. During his tenure in the Senate, Biden expressed contempt for the Equal Equal Opportunity Commission and its enforcement of federal affirmative action programs. Since Biden shares the common cultural ideology among the majority of American whites that Black Americans have no place in American society, it's no coincidence SCOTUS rolled back affirmative action in tertiary education.
Thankfully Black Americans created Historically Black Colleges and Universities which will enjoy increased enrollment as a direct result of this Supreme Court decision.
To be fair, as racist and bigoted as President Biden used to be, he has been doing MOSTLY the right thing . . . EXCEPT annhiliating this Insurrectionist court by adding 5,000+ new justices.
I say the ONLY way to fix the anti-American gerrymandering is to increase the supreme court's size to the capacity in the chamber. It can legally house 362 people? 355 justices!!!
The SCOTUS has ruled against affirmative action!
Well folks here is another Reason why we all need to stop the bleeding.
I ask:
1. What are the Republicans in Congress doing to help the American people?
2. What are the Republicans in Congress doing to help the country?
3. What is the Republican Leadership doing to reverse the divisions in our country?
4. What has Putin promised Trump to try and destroy our democracy?
5. What is going on with our Supreme Court who are supposedly the best of the best?
* Are there any honest people left in this world?
Think about our children. What kind of future do they have? We need some real honest leadership in this country to get us back on track and to stay competitive with the rest of the world!
What are the Republicans in Congress doing to help anyone except themselves, the rich, and big business?
You have fully explained what the GQP stands for. Congratulations!
Thomas said affirmative action, which he himself benefited from in his 1971 admission to Yale Law school , "flies in the face of our colorblind Constitution" .
Same one that defined him as "3/5 of a person" in Article 1, Section 2?
Justice Jackson also adeptly noted that the very reason of the Equal Protection Clause was to correct the racial bias in the country. Thomas was perhaps not listening or did not care to do more than use the words of a Federalist brief.
He was Reagan's head of the EEOC. Sworn to enforce the law. Instead let the statutes of limitations run on age cases. If not criminal, incompetent. For that, he was awarded a judgeship. George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. He served 19 months before Bush nominated him, solely because he is Black.
Joe Biden's major #1 goof in his time in politics was in letting Thomas through his committee so he could be a Supreme Court justice. I like Joe, but he still has a whole lot to make up for.
It's comically DEVESTATING how many black Americans have sided with WHITE SUPREMECISTS who would 130,000% PUBLICALLY WHIP THEM if they were able!
It just goes to show how successful anti-America Trumplicans were at expunging our own racist past from our schools.
Well yeah Daniel: And how many women vote against giving women the right to decide re: their own bodies. It IS devastating to see how many individuals brainwashed by some means or other into voting against their own best interests. Depressing and scary. The human psyche a dark deep mysterious abyss.
When a loud mouth like Trump comes along and promises a constituency who incorrectly view themselves as the down trodden (ignorant White, hateful, frightened and under-educated), fertile ground for growing a dictator has been tilled. This is exactly how other autocratic dictators throughout history have come to power. "I'm your only solution", "Only I can change things in your favor", "Those '' 'others' are encroaching on your rights" (in reality, privileges).
Yup. Even if our Constitution is supposed to be colorblind, our culture sure has hell never has been. Justice "Uncle" Thomas is token of which white conservative political and economic dreams are made.
Then as now, in the Constitution every woman is 0/5s of a man.
We must remember years ago when one Racist Leader said they are going into politics. Their goal is to control the country. Remember when Attorney Vance told us about the frogs being boiled? Well, here is a perfect example. How many Neo-Nazis groups are in your state? They are in every state in the USA now. Let us all jump out of this pot. Write the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and let them know that we need to do something about this group who hates. Trump's Grandfather was in the Hitler Administration. The Truth. So, what we have in the Republican Party are Neo Nazis, White Nationalists, White Supremacists, and White hate groups of all type of names. Anyone feeling hot?
Ask yourself what has any republican ever done that has made your life or the lives of your family better? Something? Anything. Surely there must be something. Just one thing. Please?
Democrats and the GOP are two broken arms of the sick body of an ethno fascist state that openly represses Black Americans. Hate crimes against Black Americans have increased during the Biden Administration. Public lynchings of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway and Ajika Owens in Ocala, Florida occurred because the Biden administration and Merrick Garland will not support hate crime legislation for Black Americans. In fact, neither the Departments of Justice nor the legal system will protect Black Americans, reinstituting an environment of fear and violent repression.
If you guessed nothing to all the answers. YOU ARE CORRECT!
Won't SOMEONE think about the CHILDREN!?!?!?!? (Sorry, I couldn't resist - and of course, I agree with you). ;)
Thank you for the Questions. My Answers and Suggestions:
1. and 2. The Republicans in Congress are doing nothing to help the country and the people, but a lot to harm the country and the people with shouts of overspending when Democrats are in office and funding cuts to important agencies created to protect the country and the people such as EPA, FDA, and others.
3. It appears the Republicans in Congress are doing nothing to reverse the divisions but have committed a long list of negative actions that keeps the divide widening such as allowing freedom of speech to lie on national communication channels--TV, radio, and Internet, but you must not lie to Congress or the Judicial system.
4. Even if Putin has promised Trump anything to destroy our democracy, certain Republicans in Congress have been working on that long before Trump took office.
5. For years certain members of the Supreme Court have been dismantling things that symbolize this nation such as removal of prayer in schools, sports arenas, and courthouses, removal of the Pledge of Allegiance as a national acknowledgement in schools, removal of the Ten Commandments from parks and government building.
*If we unable to acknowledge things that have symbolized America and provided a moral compass to guide, lead, and teach people concerning what is right and to understand the importance of being honest, then we will have very few honest people in this world.
In addition, if Congressional leaders are not aspiring to the goals established in the United State of America's Preamble to the Constitution (In Order to form a more perfect Union...), then we will not have leaders to get us back on track and the posterity of the country will continue to be in jeopardy.
"5. What is going on with our Supreme Court who are supposedly the best of the best?"
It's been awhile. Thomas has been waiting for years for the support to do this damage re affirmative action- a very personal jihad. The Trump judges are of low quality; they're there to appease the right. They are there because they were shoved in by the GOP.
Yeah, somebody's daddy can buy his fat ass an admission into Wharton. And then he can appoint Justices to keep it that way.
Legacy preference should disqualify a school like Wharton from status as a charity.
What is this 'text me' thing, Robert?
I assumed is was a scam. Is it from Robert Reich?
Bite me.
Re your disadvantaged,US , low income families, child care policies... I am a fortunate Canadian citizen, living “next door” to you.
In Canada, we enjoy $10.00 a day, nursery school programs,in most provinces.
Lucky Canadians!!!!!
Not luck, but basic human compassion and a joint effort to make all Canadians lives better via truly equal opportunity and Social Justice. I congratulate Canadians. Maybe someday your southern neighbor will grow up and meet you supporting its own citizens who are millionaires and billionaires.
Not lucky. Smart.
Having read Roberts' majority opinion, it seems increasingly obvious, that the current bench is comprised of a single-minded activist cohort, one not wed to the honorable interpretation of law, or as Roberts said during his Senate confirmation: 'calling balls & strikes', but rather, about re-shaping the American landscape & undoing years of painfully gained progress. While the Republic has eixisted for two-plus centuries, democracy has not. Term limits must surely be a way to ensure activist justices are limited in their ability to damage?
I respectfully disagree. The SCOTUS decision is logical. Race based parameters are racist by definition.
Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction. The Constitution Three-fifths compromise 1787, judges people of color, slaves, worth only three-fifths a human being for census purposes! The purpose of affirmative action, simply seeks to correct the historical impact this heinous judgement has had. The Asian American experience is not without challenges, but it isn't the experience of the African American.
A Ellis-Dunn. The 3/5ths ruling was clearly absurd. There was a time when Chinese in the U.S. could not own property, , Jews in SC could not testify in court, and women could not vote. We have moved on.
Is there a need to have a better conception of diversity than our white vs. black racial categories. Absolutely! The problem that has become very evident is that jurists who have said they should not legislate are legislating!
how would you then address 400+ years of systemic racism and inequality? have you ever really meditated upon what it would be like to be considered livestock? breeding stock? less than human? this mindset has infected most of the white culture in this country since slaves were first kidnapped here. as a society and culture we have systemically savaged people of color politically, economically, socially, medically, educationally. are you in favor of continuing this system? if you are, then this scotus decision makes sense. perhaps a reading list: ignorance can be abated.
So You Want to talk about Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
The Half has never been told, by Edward Baptist
and in corollary:
White Trash - The 400 year Untold History of Class in America.
Happy reading.
but wait, don't forget Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Hi Paul, I have read White Trash and G,G, and S. Both excellent books. While the Northern States won the civil war with respect to property, the Confederate States may have won the culture war beginning with the Jim Crow Laws. Nonetheless, we have made significant steps to mitigate 400+ years of systemic racism and inequality. Our effort to make a more perfect union (if we can keep it) remains a work in progress. We do not need race based affirmative action to continue our progress. Universities can affirm other parameters when selecting its students.
Chief Justice Roberts benefits from white male privilege. The majority of people who agree with his decision also benefit from white privilege.
Hi Blueberry. I know more about how many blueberries are in a muffin what the majority of white people believe about anything.
Perfectly stated
A Ellis-Dunn, do you believe the SCOTUS' interpretation of our Constitution with respect to its Affirmative Action ruling is dishonorable?
Here is an interesting article from this morning's Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-comes-after-affirmative-action?cid=gen_sign_in The author, Rafael Walker, a black man who found himself at a highly competitive University, now teaching at CUNY, makes an argument for alternative ways of promoting fairness in this new landscape: assess applicants on "resourcefulness." How much did they achieve with the resources they had during their prior schooling.
I would also add that just because the ruling has struck down race-based admissions doesn't mean it can strike down "diversity" and "equality of opportunity" as civic goods. In the years since affirmative action first came on the scene, the goals of diversity (which apparently the plaintiffs did not argue against) as well as social justice (which I presume is their problem -- a blinkered idea of fairness) -- have become baked into the DNA of higher ed. I do not believe it is possible to undo that with this case. There will be away around it. P.S. I work in higher ed.
Susan makes compelling points. Affirmative action is not dead,. It lives with colorless parameters.
Reducing income inequality would help in many areas.
Congress can reduce inequality of net disposable income by taxing all income at regular rates. California does this.
Disagree. This decision created a dangerous slippery slope primarily benefiting the ‘values’ of those unfortunately bent toward bigotry and racism. To hear today that the whole case may have been built on a sham is indicative of many of the disingenuous attacks on our judicial system and Americas values. It’s a good time to be a lawyer because taxpayers are paying through the nose for this.
The Taney Court..er...Roberts Court has settled the affirmative action issue once and for all. Much to the chagrin of post 1965 arrivals to the US ignorant of American history and sociocultural issues, such as the plaintiff, a first generation Chinese American who adopted the entitlement attitude of the "model minority", this ruling will have deleterious consequences for all Asians seeking acceptance into (white) American tertiary educational systems. The plaintiff shares the same attitude of post 1965 arrivals to the US who frequently punch down upon and scapegoat Black Americans because none will accept the hard truth that whites comprise the bulk of legacy admissions and financial donors to elite level American tertiary education. It's very disheartening to see how post 1965 arrivals to the US swallowed hook line and sinker the work hard and you'll succeed myth only to find that the very people to whom they seek social acceptance actively uses all to dismantle the ladder to upward mobility for every American ethnic group. Ultimately, this Supreme Court ruling will hurt Asians on the whole because white decision makers will ultimately decide not to allow any and all non white racial groups into top tier tertiary education.
Meanwhile Black Americans attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities that value their time and talent.
Agreed. Part of this conversation obscures the fact that one does not need to attend an ivy or ivy-adjacent school to get an excellent education. This is even truer today then it was years ago, thanks largely to the glut of academics produced through the 80s and 90s. You can attend a community college like mine and be instructed by PhDs from UMIchigan, NYU, and elsewhere. And the fact is the majority of institutions accept the majority of their candidates, so the debate over affirmative action is relevant to a microcosm. But it seems to have an outsized impact on people's minds partly because we mythologize the value of the ivy league.. THe real question is how much difference does the ivy degree make in terms of dollars in the long run? That might be the sticking point.
Here's the sticking point: Ivy League and elite universities brand their alumni as upper caste members in the racial socioeconomic caste system of the US. Look at the education credentials of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, captains of industry, and upper echelons of the military and every person graduated either from an Ivy League or an elite level institution. Employers and professional networking associations place premiums on Ivy League graduates hence why the most selective schools have single digit acceptance rates. So cut the disingenuous rhetoric about the value of an Ivy League education that pays huge dividends financially and personally.
It does pay dividends, I'm not denying that. But they are not the only dividends to be reaped in life or in higher ed. A student who graduates from an HBCU, for instance, has a deep network of mentors and advisors that they probably could not get anywhere else. Look, I'm not arguing with you about the need for systemic reform --- but going to Harvard ain't gonna do that.
HBCU grads do indeed have a deep professional networking system of mentors because my family and community elders are proud graduates. Keep in mind, however, that American society as a whole still views elite HBCUs as inferior to diploma mill state universities and nowhere in the ballpark to Ivy League schools.
Well, besides my "stock" answer that white women were always the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action anyway, what else is new? No shade to the white folks reading this comment... we have the highest court in the land with NO ethics to guide them, 2 of these folks on the bench (that we know of), that are in the pockets of Uber wealthy benefactors, I mean like *Yawn*... just more of the same. NEXT!
Terri ; You have a "Stock' answer that white women were always the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action" ? As a white woman who was a ward of the state, I had good grades and was able to get into the State University with a Pell grant. It was two weeks into my first semester and I was still waiting for my books...Not the greatest start. Remarks like yours make me suspicious that you are part of some kind of troll farm to sow discord and division. There are probably lots of tRumpers who feel aggrieved by the idea that just because you have white skin you have not experienced adversity or poverty, even worlds of pain. Way to drum up good will from those of us who struggled, or are now struggling who happen to be Poor while being white! We don't choose our parents! Please remember that respect is a two way interaction. let's try to be part of the solution. Hate the obscenely wealthy!
Way to make it about you. I was waiting for "you" (albeit not you specifically). Don't get your feelings hurt... just like "privilege" doesn't guarantee you won't have to struggle, this is the same thing. And I don't hate ANYBODY, not even the wealthy. Statistics will bear this fact out. Do some research. And BTW--- I'm neither a tRumper, a liberal, a Democrat, a conservative, Republican, etc. I'm a black woman who has had to work for anything and everything I have also. I went to nursing school on a clinical scholarship and graduated debt free. Both my husband and I worked and provided a relatively comfortable middle class lifestyle for our kids who incidentally didn't even qualify for free or reduced lunch, before or after school programs. One of my daughters graduated college completely debt free. No troll ish going on over here. All our lives we've had to fight. (In Sophia from "The Color Purple" voice). Suffice it to say, white skin will not be a reason you experience racism, especially systemic racism. Doesn't mean you won't be taken advantage of by the Uber wealthy. Side note--- if you've never had to have a law passed to allow you a basic, human inalienable right or natural freedom, you're PRIVILEGED. Exhibit A- The C.R.O.W.N Act... look out up.
Beautifully stated.
You’re not wrong
This may not be a popular thing to say, and I assure you I'm not attempting to troll >anyone< here, but might I remind everyone:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (Martin Luther King)
Consider this article from a scant 11 years ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlks-content-of-character-quote-inspires-debate/
Now, I know that affirmative action measures were taken to in some way mitigate centuries of abuse short of providing "Forty acres and a mule:" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_acres_and_a_mule
On the other hand, publicly stated SCOTUS reasoning also >seems< more consistent with MLK's dream.
You see, I'm a bit confounded. Indeed, I'm of two minds in all this, even if SCOTUS exercised clever public reasoning, where the MLK ideal was put forth as a fig leaf for the >real< objective - and I have no doubt it was somewhere in the mix - of preserving and bolstering plutocratic hegemony.
On the other hand, it seems to remove the common racist trope for personal failure saying such failure was due to skin color. I know that bloody history instructs >me< that if we go down that path, I'll eventually not be white enough - for example! (That's why some of the folks buying into white bigotry perplex me beyond measure - both here and abroad.)
So my conclusion on the SCOTUS ruling is neutral. Do not interpret that to mean I'm in any way comfortable with it. Like I've advocated for Jack Smith's effort in bringing justice to bear down on ol' Tweety, we must be patient, even if we disagree with the SCOTUS political orientation. It may - conservative or otherwise - turn out to be a good ruling. Only time will tell. The SCOTUS has >always< been full of surprises!
How easily American whites hijack and corrupt Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" for self purposes to consciously deflect from their complicit participation in open anti Black racism. More than 80% of American whites despised Dr King when he walked the Earth, and the same percentage despise him and his legacy 55 years after his assassination. Contemporary American whites and post 1965 arrivals to the US only accept a watered down the caricature of Dr. King and his message because it suits their modern sociopolitical narrative of white acceptance.
Thank you for your response.
Hi Blueberry Muffin. How do you know the view of "whites" towards Dr. King? Did you read a survey? Was the survey biased? Just asking.
My parents and other community leaders who participated in the modern Civil Rights movements shared their experiences with me.
Want to know what racism is? It’s when you finally recognize inequality. You pass the 14th Amendment in the mid 1809’s. Then you sit on your ass for another 100 years and pass the Civil Rights Act. Then you sit on your ass for another 50 years and then claim it magically fixed itself. Neither the Amendment or the Civil Rights act even scratched the surface to achieve equity. We should be ashamed as a Nation for not tending to our nations ‘garden’. And, contrary to recent comments by Republican presidential hopefuls, other democratic countries are not praising us for gutting Affirmative Action, but dictatorships are (and that’s who Republicans align their values with).
Hi Robert, we have made progress toward equal oppoutunity. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named Hobart Taylor Jr. special counsel to the President’s Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity where he is credited with coining the phrase, “affirmative action.” I knew him when I was 12-18 yo. We were living on Boston Blvd in Detroit. Taylor was my Dad, Al's best friend. My Dad was white. One evening in the 1950s they went for dinner at an upscale Detroit restaurant. The restaurant would not serve them because Taylor was black. Taylor was DA for Wayne County Michigan at the time. He sued the restaurant for $10,000, won, and donated the judgment on the courthouse steps which story was published in the newspapers. When LBJ was elected VP, he tapped Taylor to serve in the federal goverment. I was honored to escort his widow, Lynette Dobbins Taylor, to President Clinton's 1997 Inauguration and parties thereafter. We had great fun dancing.
Only American whites keep deluding themselves into believing that the US has made "progress" towards equality simply because JFK and LBJ appointed token Black Americans to give the appearance of equity.
Hobart Taylor Jr. made a difference. He was not a token.
Anyone whom LBJ appointed to federal positions was indeed a token that deflected from the well known fact that LBJ despised Black Americans.
Touché
Money can buy access to everything and mostly tax deductible for your donations to schools and public television etc.
Hell the Supreme Court is buyable commodity and donations are tax deductible.
J
Kerry has it right. And there is the son-in-law, whose father bought him into Harvard. Birth right and the right set of jeans (oops, I mean genes) should not be a qualification. And once they get there, the institution will do all that it can to keep them enrolled, not matter how poorly they perform because they want to keep the money flowing. Compare that to those who attend without the benefit of their jeans, took out loans and had work-study jobs to pay for it. My jeans did not help me.
.
I Am Used To Being Smarter
Than Everyone Else.
But I Never HAD To Be.
Now That We Have To Be:
HOLYFUCKINGSHIT.
I've Owned Pets Smarter Than Most Of These "People" .
Including Some Of The Smartest
Idiots We Could Have Ever Met.
.
The only difference between Biden and Trump are words. They both sold us out. Expand the Supreme Court then get back to me. I'm not concerned about confusion in politics in the future. I guess in Biden’s mind confusion is worse than fascism. Frankly I think he’s a billionaire Republican in democratic clothes.
The hypocrisy of the conservatives on the Supreme Court ending affirmative action while maintaining "legacy applicants" is yet another example of the systemic racism that keeps the rich majority getting richer and the poor minority getting poorer. "Legacy" applicants are enjoying the privilege of their parents having been wealthy enough to enroll in Harvard. As such, the "same old same old" (what Conservatism is, basically) perpetuates. This SCOTUS is by no means a neutral, clear-headed body dispassionately interpreting our Constitution: they are a bigoted and biased body of right - wing elites who abuse their positions to maintain a backward view of America that runs counter to the actual spirit of our Constitution.
DUMP AND DEFEAT CON REPUBLICONS EVERYWHERE AND JAIL CRIMINAL RTRUMP AND CRONIES
Keep 'em DUMB.
That's the policy and outcome of the republiCONservative agenda, since Bonzo von Reagan was installed in D.C., ascending the throne back in 1980 to began his assault on "free" [taxpayer funded] public education in all of its forms. His other great accomplisnment; PATCO. Break all Unions!
Their motto: "E PluriBUST UNION."
The SCOTUS is BOGUS in its current form! Expand or disband the court.
Democracy will NOT survive otherwise!
Robert's legacy is merde.
United We Stand....Divided....DeSantistan.
American whites do not want to attend schools with Black Americans whom they regard as their social and intellectual inferiors. Asians and Hispanics, racial groups seeking acceptance as honorary whites within in American racial caste system, share the same sentiment. Like most American whites in the 1970s, then Senator Joe Biden openly opposed federal desegregation mandates, such as bussing, because he did not want his sons anywhere near Black Americans. During his tenure in the Senate, Biden expressed contempt for the Equal Equal Opportunity Commission and its enforcement of federal affirmative action programs. Since Biden shares the common cultural ideology among the majority of American whites that Black Americans have no place in American society, it's no coincidence SCOTUS rolled back affirmative action in tertiary education.
Thankfully Black Americans created Historically Black Colleges and Universities which will enjoy increased enrollment as a direct result of this Supreme Court decision.
To be fair, as racist and bigoted as President Biden used to be, he has been doing MOSTLY the right thing . . . EXCEPT annhiliating this Insurrectionist court by adding 5,000+ new justices.
I say the ONLY way to fix the anti-American gerrymandering is to increase the supreme court's size to the capacity in the chamber. It can legally house 362 people? 355 justices!!!
Biden is still a wrinkled up racist for refusing to pass hate crime legislation for Black Americans.