Citing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Supreme Court issued their ruling, effectively shooting down affirmative action in higher education, denying colleges the right to take race and ethnicity into account in the admissions process. Affirmative action has helped colleges and universities become more diverse and equitable and has drastically helped Latino and Black students through the admission process. Subsequently, the fight for diversity equity and inclusion at top universities took a fatal blow. With this ruling, it’s projected that these top schools will become less diverse by increasing white and Asian populations, and decreasing Latino and Black populations.
For many students around the nation, the news of this ruling will leave a scar on their academic careers, including us, your Tower editors.
We, Matthias Jaylen and Lucas Seguinot, will serve as the first Latino Tower editors-in-chief in our publication’s history, and we both pride ourselves in promoting and achieving Latino excellence as well as working hard to make Masters and the world a more diverse and equitable place since we both joined The Masters School in the eighth grade.
This decision has left us shaken, and concerned for our own future and pursuit of higher education. This will affect us and we are scared.
The prospect of going through the college admissions process without any collegiate support for minorities feels like the progress in making the educational system more equitable have been erased. We will be the first class, since President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the bill for Affirmative Action September of 1965, to be forced to explore this rigid new college process landscape. The already strenuous admissions process will be worse for those like us who have been historically marginalized in education and economic opportunities, who have to navigate the changes.
Affirmative Action is necessary to ensure equity. It validates the fact that people of color deserve the opportunity to be in the top schools and programs. It affirms that people of color, people who look like us, and that have been historically marginalized, can achieve higher education. Knowledge is power, and people of color deserve the power that higher education provides.
Masters is a community that holds diversity as a key pillar. As students who reap the benefits of having a diverse community, we need to notice how it enhances our lives both as students and people. We are so lucky to have this diversity at our school and recognize how beautiful and rare it is to have at top schools in the country.
We must identify that this step back in our country’s history will not define our future. Rather, we must stand for what our school represents, a beacon of diversity. Many of us in the community will be negatively impacted by this ruling. People in your classes, your teammates, the people you eat lunch with and your dorm mates will be affected and disadvantaged by this ruling.
As we strive for being Powers for Good in the world, like The Masters School teaches us to be, we must show empathy to those experiencing the repercussions, and we must stand up for what is right and fight injustice. Tower hopes that everyone negatively impacted by the ruling finds support through the college admissions process and that everyone affected can reach and achieve their goals and their dreams in higher education.
