In what’s gonna be one of the most divisive decisions in American jurisprudence, the US Supreme Court just overturned the doctrine that has guided their efforts to rectify the disparity in African-American participation in higher education — Affirmative Action. The Civil Rights Movement, led by MLK and others, had fought for the barriers to Black progress to be taken down. Especially segregation in schools, which barred Black students from White schools, where the facilities and staff were far superior to the Black ones.
By the late sixties, the struggle had broadened, and the Government took the lead in taking measures for increasing the participation of minorities in governmental institutions and others that received governmental funding. The criteria for singling out these minorities were that they had to’ve been discriminated against historically. JFK, in 1961, had first used the term “affirmative action” to describe measures that discriminated POSITIVELY in favour of such groups.
Some elite universities then took the matter a step further, to designate in their admission policies a particular number of places for minorities. And this is when the proverbial sh*t hit the fan. White students felt that their right to equal treatment – guaranteed by the constitution – to secure higher education was being denied, and one of them – by the name of Bakke – took the matter to the Courts. It worked its way up to the Supremes, which came out with its decision in 1978 – forty-five years ago – in Regents of the University of California vs Bakke.
The divided court ruled that it was OK for affirmative action to be taken, but no quotas – such as the Univ of California’s reserving 18 out of 100 places for minorities in their Medical School – should be in place. It was a distinction looking for a difference, since the institutions could still reject students like Bakke, who had better grades etc than those of minorities, because of the TARGET of increasing diversity by approving minority enrollment!! And the die was cast since then to roll back Bakke.
The ones who felt the policy was most unfair were minorities – Asians and South Asians!! They were invariably the most qualified cohorts, yet were screened out from programs at places like Harvard. Their academic performance was off the charts – but they weren’t the QUALIFIED minorities, like Black or Native Indian. Many of them were probably represented by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) that brought the suit rolling back Bakke!!
They’ll now be seen as stalking horses for White privilege, since the application process gonna revert to the more subjective old processes that don’t have to consider race as a criterion for admission! But interestingly, the Black Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas voted for the majority!!
…with connections
It’s beyond belief that the Opposition would kvetch at President Ali’s extensive engagement with world leaders – yet they never stop praising Burnham for HIS diplomatic forays!! While some may throw their hands up and exclaim, “That’s politics”, your Eyewitness doesn’t agree. Politics is INSIDE our country: outside, we should all be one Guyana!! And he’s not talking about the President’s “One Guyana”. That’s domestic!!
When the Government has good relations with America, the EU, UK, China, India, Brazil, the Middle East, Most of Africa etc – it’s GUYANA that has those good relations!! And it’s why we got the nod for the UN Security Council seat! In the polarising world between the US and China, isn’t it helpful that we’re friends across their divide? With the Venezs sure to be snorting fire and brimstone after we get that favourable ruling on their border controversy, aren’t we going to need those friends??
What makes the President’s foreign outreach more potent is that he isn’t going with a begging bowl – like Burnham!!
…our profile
Your Eyewitness had just finished penning the above when he got the flash that US Secretary of State Blinken will be dropping in on Pres Ali next week. Was it a coincidence that Pressie had just announced he’d be visiting China??
