How will US universities look after affirmative action?

Demonstrators for and against the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down race-conscious student admissions programs
Demonstrators for and against the US Supreme Court decision to strike down race-conscious student admission programmes at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina confront each other, in Washington, DC, June 29, 2023 [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]

It has been a 40-year fight in the United States over affirmative action, or taking race into consideration for university admissions. Now, students and schools are adjusting to a new reality after the US Supreme Court reversed the precedent. The ruling is the culmination of a concerted legal campaign by conservative activist Edward Blum and his organisation Students for Fair Admissions. Some US universities have stopped using affirmative action in the past, and the results show fewer minority students enrolled at their institutions. So how will this nationwide decision change demographics – and how will that change students’ futures?

In this episode: 

  • Sumun Pendakur (@SumunLPendakur), Diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by David Enders, with Chloe K. Li and our host Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera AlDosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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Source: Al Jazeera