Affirmative Loss

This Monday came as a preface — a glimpse into the undoing of decades’ worth of progress and effort, into the undoing of entire communities and the further marginalization of the historically hurt. A teaser for a new, darker future in American higher education.

Race-conscious admissions, the pillar upon which our flourishing, diverse campus was built, had what might be its swan song.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the affirmative action cases against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The plaintiff in both cases, Students for Fair Admission, led by conservative legal strategist (and not-a-lawyer) Edward J. Blum, is suing Harvard and UNC for their race-conscious admissions policies in attempts to overturn nearly 40 years of precedent institutionalizing affirmative action in the United States.

If SFFA wins – and given the court’s increasingly reliable and irresponsible conservative majority, it probably will – Harvard’s efforts to create a racially-diverse student body will quickly unravel.

The College’s mission of educating citizens and citizen leaders of our society demands a genuine and dedicated commitment to fostering a diverse campus. A campus without diversity cannot accurately reflect current American or global communities; a school that fails to reflect its surrounding society cannot simultaneously expect to lead it. Without eclectic perspectives that stem from a diversity of experiences, academic discussions will fall victim to the tyranny of theory, flattening subjects such as African and African American Studies into imagined problems at the service of abstract intellectual explorations. The study of ethnic studies is not an arbitrary academic exercise, and nor should students of color and their lived experiences be dehumanized and commodified for the sake of educational enrichment.

The effects of a less diverse campus will linger well after graduation. A Harvard education is nothing if not a door opener. Our freshly minted degrees are a priceless asset in the eyes of many employers and graduate schools, with many prioritizing candidates from Harvard and similar institutions during recruitment. In other words, being on Harvard’s campus affords disadvantaged students not only a wealth of educational resources but also a path to (professionally and financially) brighter futures as well. Making Harvard less diverse will have socioeconomic ramifications writ large, reinforcing and exacerbating preexisting racial inequities.

At its core, the elimination of affirmative action suggests that we as a nation have moved past the need for race consciousness — that we have, within two years of the death of George Floyd, in a state with heavily segregated public schools, vanquished racial inequity in education and thus affirmative action is no longer necessary. That the individuals we entrust with the lifetime power to uphold our laws and constitutional order could show such profound ignorance of our country’s history and present, that they could parrot rhetoric so separate from our social realities, is beyond disturbing.

We shouldn’t have to point out the aggressively self-evident living legacy of racism in this nation, any more than we should have to explain the myriad of ways in which it will only be worsened by ending affirmative action.

Affirmative action, although imperfect, can challenge our tendency toward racial prejudice. Yet tragically, as a result of said social tendencies toward racial prejudice, it may sow strong feelings of doubt in those that benefit from the practice. Even if affirmative action remains, Black, Latine, and Indigenous people may still doubt their place at institutions such as Harvard, whether they earned their place or were simply accepted to make a larger argument with no regard to their individual experiences and futures. But without affirmative action, they may not even have the opportunity to ask that question.

Diversity, frequently lauded as one of the core benefits of affirmative action, is not just important from a pedagogical perspective. It creates safe spaces for students of color, providing them with the necessary affirmation and celebration of their existence and right to belong at elite and historically exclusionary institutions such as Harvard. For Generational African-Americans, who have been estimated at only 10 percent of the Black population at Harvard, the need for supportive communities is especially dire given the nation’s long history of oppression and disenfranchisement. The ending of affirmative action, as such, poses a great threat to these essential, underserved communities and may sharply decrease the already low representation of them on campus.

These communities mustn’t be ravaged without a fight. For that, we commend the students who have sacrificed their time to organize rallies and traveled to Washington D.C. to fight for our campus and peers. On Harvard’s campus and beyond, we appreciate the efforts of those initiating echo rallies and encourage our faculty members to be accommodating of students at this time.

Finally, to all our peers from underrepresented backgrounds, and to all of those for which these highly abstract legal debates feel painfully tangible: You undoubtedly belong here. Not just as an admissions story, not just as a nice statistic for our college, but as multifaceted individuals deserving of growth and community. It’s tempting, at times like these, to compare oneself to students who have come from immense wealth and privilege — those who have taken easier paths like the Z-list and legacy admissions — and feel defeated.

But our campus is made so much better by your presence here. Of that, if nothing else, we have unyielding certainty.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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