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COMMENTARY: Tell the Supreme Court: We Still Need Affirmative Action

Nationally, there’s a big gap between the percentage of white and Black students who earn a bachelor’s degree. And that perpetuates all kinds of harm and inequities in income, health, family wealth, and more. We still have a long way to go in building a fair society in which all our children can thrive.

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Black voters have the power to decide the election in Georgia, which will probably decide the future of our country in some ways we can predict and others we can’t. This is especially true for Black men, who still don’t vote in the high percentages Black women do. Black men in Georgia have to come out to the polls this year.  
Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of the author.

By Ben Jealous

One of the great joys of my life is teaching.

I’m fortunate to teach classes on social justice at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most respected schools in the country. Penn has a longstanding commitment to affirmative action, and I have seen first-hand how diversity in the classroom benefits all my students.

There’s just no question that diversity is a core piece of a vibrant academic community and a critical part of the learning experience – for all of us. Bringing together students with different lived experiences forces students to think critically about their assumptions, which is an essential goal of a university education.

That’s why I, like so many of us, am deeply concerned about two affirmative action cases argued at the Supreme Court just a few days ago. Opponents of affirmative action have been trying to destroy it for years. And now it looks like they just might get their chance.

Two universities, Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC), are defending their admissions programs against opponents who want them declared unconstitutional. (The university where I teach, Penn, and the organization I lead, People for the American Way, have both joined briefs supporting the universities’ positions.) Considering race as one of many factors in admissions has been upheld by the Supreme Court for decades. The Court has said repeatedly that diversity in higher education is a “compelling interest.”

But today’s Supreme Court is different. It’s dominated by far-right justices who have made it clear they don’t share this view. Chief Justice John Roberts’s famous quote, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” sums it up: conservatives believe affirmative action is at best unnecessary and at worst just another type of discrimination. Some conservatives would like to retire affirmative action because they claim it’s accomplished everything it set out to do. But it hasn’t. Not even close.

In Texas and Michigan, applications and enrollments of Black and Latino students plunged after state politicians banned the consideration of race in admission to their public universities.

That’s a huge red flag.

Nationally, there’s a big gap between the percentage of white and Black students who earn a bachelor’s degree. And that perpetuates all kinds of harm and inequities in income, health, family wealth, and more. We still have a long way to go in building a fair society in which all our children can thrive.

And here’s an important point that often gets lost. All students—no matter their race or color or creed—benefit from affirmative action.

Having diverse classmates promotes a stimulating exchange of ideas and viewpoints. It prepares all students for living and working in our increasingly diverse society. The Supreme Court as a whole used to understand that. Today, I worry that only a minority of the justices do.

One of those justices is Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the Court and a person of profound insight and wisdom. Her questions in oral arguments got to the heart of the matter. Imagine two qualified students applying to UNC, Justice Jackson suggested: a white North Carolinian student whose family members had attended the school for generations, and a Black North Carolinian whose family had historically been shut out.

The white applicant might make the case that attending UNC is deeply meaningful to her because it is a family tradition. The Black applicant might make the case that it is deeply meaningful because her family was so long denied.

Jackson’s question made it clear what would happen if the Court adopts the Far Right’s position: the white student’s appeal to family history would be allowed to help their chance of acceptance, while the Black student’s would not. It would further institutionalize discrimination and the harm it has caused generations of Black Americans.

I am so grateful for Justice Jackson’s voice on the Court. I also know that the six right-wing justices expressed skepticism of affirmative action at oral arguments.

Many reporters are already writing its obituary.

I hope for the sake of our education system and our next generation, that they will be wrong. The “compelling interest” that led the Court to uphold affirmative action in the past still exists – in fact, it may be stronger than ever.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” will be published by Harper Collins in January 2023.

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)
Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

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