(C) Verite News New Orleans
This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



We must value diversity in higher education [1]

['Rahn Kennedy Bailey', 'More Rahn Kennedy Bailey']

Date: 2023-07-19

According to a recent Pew survey, most white and Asian adults in America disapprove of using race as a factor in the higher education admissions process. They consider affirmative action as an inequity likely to push less qualified candidates into the academic arena and beyond.

This is the 2023 American attitude.

This attitude may not be rooted in gross disregard for Black representation and value in scholarship. The attitude may instead reflect America’s under-appreciation of racial socialization and what it has done to large segments of the population. Reversing affirmative action, as the U.S. Supreme Court did in a ruling last month, seems to imply that there is no longer race-based bias among the gatekeepers of academia and, therefore, no longer a need to address it.

This may have shaped why Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued in her dissent to the court’s majority ruling that reversing affirmative action does not prevent the harm of racism. It may in fact help cultivate racism through unchecked bias. Jackson puts the focus on the feasibility of colorblind gatekeeping of college admissions. Reversing affirmative action will destabilize diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education.

The momentum already achieved by minority representation in higher education must be sustained. DEI leaders and advocates must find a way to ensure minority students get opportunities in higher education. This challenge will demand intentional strategy by young leaders and advocates.

Perhaps these young advocates can look at the work done by past DEI leaders who fought for the access gained by affirmative action. We must galvanize current leaders to overcome the reversal of affirmative action.

Join Verite’s Mailing List | Get the news that matters to you

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Close window X Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Verite’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications: Look for the “Republish This Story” button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).

You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.

You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.

Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.

If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola @VeriteNewsNola For print publications: You have to credit Verite. We prefer “Author Name, Verite News” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Verite News” and include our website, veritenews.org

You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.

You cannot republish our photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Tim Morris

Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.

You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.

You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.

Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.

If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola on Facebook @VeriteNewsNola on Twitter. If you have any other questions, contact managing editor Tim Morris. We must value diversity in higher education <h1>We must value diversity in higher education</h1> <p class="byline">by Rahn Kennedy Bailey, Verite <br />July 19, 2023</p> <p>According to a recent Pew survey, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/us/politics/affirmative-action-polls.html">most white and Asian adults in America disapprove of using race as a factor in the higher education admissions process. </a>They consider affirmative action as an inequity likely to push less qualified candidates into the academic arena and beyond. </p> <p>This is the 2023 American attitude. </p> <p>This attitude may not be rooted in gross disregard for Black representation and value in scholarship. The attitude may instead reflect America’s under-appreciation of racial socialization and what it has done to large segments of the population. Reversing affirmative action, as the U.S. Supreme Court did in a ruling last month, seems to imply that there is no longer race-based bias among the gatekeepers of academia and, therefore, no longer a need to address it. </p> <p>This may have shaped why Supreme Court <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/4073556-read-jackson-dissent-supreme-court-affirmative-action/">Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson </a>argued in her dissent to the court’s majority ruling that reversing affirmative action does not prevent the harm of racism. It may in fact help cultivate racism through unchecked bias. Jackson puts the focus on the feasibility of colorblind gatekeeping of college admissions. Reversing affirmative action will destabilize diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. </p> <p>The momentum already achieved by minority representation in higher education must be sustained. DEI leaders and advocates must find a way to ensure minority students get opportunities in higher education. This challenge will demand intentional strategy by young leaders and advocates.</p> <p>Perhaps these young advocates can look at the work done by past DEI leaders who fought for the access gained by affirmative action. We must galvanize current leaders to overcome the reversal of affirmative action.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-verite wp-block-embed-verite"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://veritenews.org/join-our-mailing-list/ </div> </figure> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-verite wp-block-embed-verite"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://veritenews.org/our-commitment-to-listening/ </div> </figure> <p><a href="https://veritenews.org/join-our-mailing-list/"><em>Join Verite’s Mailing List</em></a> | <a href="https://veritenews.org/our-commitment-to-listening/"><em>Get the news that matters to you</em></a></p> This <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org/2023/07/19/diversity-higher-education/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org">Verite</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/veritenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cropped-Verite-icon.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://veritenews.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=7794&ga3=319934958" style="width:1px;height:1px;"> Copy to Clipboard

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2023/07/19/diversity-higher-education/

Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.