Reflections on Race in Higher Education from OSU Community

Dr. Namiko Kunimoto

Namiko Kunimoto                                                               Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies

As a first-generation scholar who has experienced poverty, racism, and sexism, I believe that affirmative action should be but one of many programs to support education equity. It is demoralizing that the Supreme Court made this decision despite the persistence of institutional racism continues in this country. It is also deeply contradictory that affirmative action is permitted at military academies, leaving many BIPOC students feeling as though they are only permitted to die for their country, but they are not permitted to have equal access to education.

Some people may have a misunderstanding about what defines Affirmative Action. According to the Cornell Law School, “Affirma tive action is defined as a set of procedures designed to; eliminate unlawful discrimination among applicants, remedy the results of such prior discrimination, and prevent such discrimination in the future. Applicants may be seeking admission to an educational program or looking for professional employment. In modern American jurisprudence, it typically imposes remedies against discrimination on the basis of (at the very least) race, creed, color, and national origin.” Thus, affirmative action is intended to help us move towards justice, towards greater diversity in our leadership, and thus towards innovation.

As Natasha Warikoo writes, “Decades of research in higher education show that classmates of the direct beneficiaries of affirmative also benefit. They have more positive racial attitudes toward racial minorities, they report greater cognitive capacities, they even seem to participate more civically when they leave college.” In other words, affirmative action lifts us all. Yet should that be the primary motivator? I believe we should support affirmative action as one small step to dismantle the many barriers to education that historically marginalized people have faced.

Dr. Paloma Martinez-Cruz

Paloma Martinez-Cruz                                               Program Director at the Center for Ethnic Studies

SCOTUS dissenters also point out that the Court majority carves out an exception for U.S. military service academies, who may continue to take race into account in making admissions decisions. In Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissenting opinion, she writes:

“The court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).”

While disappointed and angered by the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions, I continue to be proud to serve as Program Director of Latinx Studies in the Center for Ethnic Studies at OSU. Yes, we have a fight ahead of us if we want to continue to resist policies that exclude people of color, but this fight has been an enduring legacy of our struggle for inclusion and representation that is ever at odds with a dominant culture that only tolerates BIPOC folks in work that is dirty, dangerous, and underpaid. I am pleased to join Sotomayor and Jackson in voicing my unequivocal dissent.

For Prof. Martinez-Cruz’s full statement, click here.

Ben Gomez                                                                                                                                 Undergraduate, Political Science

Recent events involving the Supreme Court have drastically affected Latine students nationwide. It brings a serious question to the forefront of many minds: does race/ethnicity belong in college admissions?

In the Constitution, there is no mention of race or ethnicity. Of the first 12 presidents, 8 were slave owners. It was only around 60 years ago when minorities finally had some legal recourse to live peacefully. Unfortunately, our country was built upon racist foundations that still exist today. This is the case for much of what is factored into college admissions– a clean disciplinary record, high test scores, and even high-level course credit– all depend on the amount of access (or lack thereof) to resources in schools, which are not present in poorer areas with higher concentrations of minorities.

In a country where race is clearly a determining factor for normal living, then that is all the more reason for it to be considered in college admissions. Affirmative Action is a solution to a problem that has long existed in the US. Without any sort of concessions or help for these marginalized (especially Latine!) communities, the US will fall further into a materially inequitable society, betraying the meritocracy so often promised by our highest institutions.