Racial Diversity In Education Essay

When the Supreme Court refused to sanction UT’s use of race in its undergraduate admissions process and, instead, remanded it back to the Fifth Circuit for review under what seemed to be a stricter standard, many worried that this would be the end of affirmative action. This fear is more acute now, since the Court has agreed to review the case once more, a possible signal that they disagree with the Fifth Circuit’s decision to uphold UT’s utilization of race. One concern is that without race, it would be “tenuous to suggest that a university could assemble a racially diverse class without reference to a student’s race.” However, as Justice Powell powerfully wrote in Bakke, “it is not an interest in simple ethnic diversity, in which a specified …show more content…
Racial diversity, for its own sake, is not a compelling reason, and universities should not be permitted to utilize race-conscious programs to achieve it. The Fourteenth Amendment protects individuals, not groups, because every human being is different. It does not follow that one knows anything of substance about an individual by merely knowing what racial group they belong to. While it would be wrong to argue that race no longer plays a role in our society, people of all ethnicities have achieved greatness, and it is impossible to know what difficulties an individual has overcome by simply looking at the color of their skin. Difficulties arise from other factors such as: socio-economic status, family composition, and immigration history, which do not necessarily have any connection to race. So long as universities continue to argue for the necessity of, and utilize, racial classifications in the admissions process, the idea that race speaks a great deal about an individual will survive and thrive. The diversity championed by Justice Powell in Bakke cannot be achieved so long as universities are transfixed by race and the view that educational benefits can be achieved only if a critical mass of minority students is