On Affirmative Action: We’ll BE OK

Ever since the US Supreme Court issued its ruling on Affirmative Action, I’ve been stewing – not as much because of the ruling, but because I am sick and tired of the majority culture’s belief that without it, we, people of African descent, can do nothing.

            Before Affirmative Action existed, Black people were getting to college in some way – including Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivy League schools. Our numbers were not great at those schools, but we were there, in spite of Jim Crow and all the other roadblocks the majority culture put up to keep us out of college -period.

Not only did we get into the elite schools, in spite of their restrictive numbers, but we built our own institutions – what we today call HBCUs – Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We were as determined to get an education as the majority culture was determined that we not get an education. And, it is important to note, that there were white people and white organizations that helped us including the American Missionary Association which, through what is now known as the United Church of Christ, helped establish six HBCUs – Fisk, Talladega, Lemoyne-Owens, Dillard, Huston-Tillotson, and Toogaloo.

            The first Black student to get admitted to Harvard was Richard Theodore Greener, who graduated in 1870. Since him, other African Americans were admitted to Harvard College, including W.E.B. DuBois, Monroe Trotter, Alain Locke, and Martin Delany, who was admitted to the Harvard Medical School. Harvard would only admit 12 Black students per year, but that was enough for the movement leaders. Affirmative Action notwithstanding, the percentage of African American students is currently about 6.5 percent, compared to 43 percent of white students who are admitted on the basis of their family legacy of attending Harvard.

            The 6.5 percent of Black students is what has the majority culture all up in arms, yelling “unfair!” and “racist?” That is categorically ridiculous, especially as “affirmative action” for legacy admissions was left untouched.

            The decision has some up in arms because they want – and feel – that some intervention is needed to assure Black and Brown students a fair chance of being admitted at the so-called elite schools that may not happen due to this ruling – and that may be the case – but the fact is, African Americans were finding ways to get into colleges and universities long before Affirmative Action came to be, and the lack of acknowledgment of that fact is what has me up in arms.

            Colleges and universities were connected to the slave trade (https://newrepublic.com/article/121382/forgotten-racist-past-american-universities), and many professors in white colleges opposed any Black person being admitted because they believed Black people were intellectually inferior to whites – therefore, should not be admitted. (https://newrepublic.com/article/121382/forgotten-racist-past-american-universities)

            In spite of those types of actions on the part of white colleges, universities, and professional schools, Black people persisted. We learned at home and at church that education was vital in order for us to be able to compete in this country and in the world, and so we, with help from our communities and families, made a way. And while it may be the case that many qualified Black students did not choose to apply to the so-called elite white schools for many reasons, including cost, the fact is, Black students got into colleges and universities at about the same rate as white students, according to a study done by the Brookings Institute. (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/racial-and-ethnic-preference/)

            This SCOTUS ruling is really about keeping race from being considered for admission to the so-called elite colleges and universities. Of the approximately 4000 colleges and universities in this country, only a small percentage – less than 10 percent – use a highly selective admissions process, of which race, in the case of Harvard and UNC, is one of the factors. Those who say this is a bad day for African Americans say that if the percentage of Black students is curtailed at these elite schools now that Affirmative Action, as it has been understood ceases, say so partly because it is at these schools where there exists the networks of students who can and very often do become the next leaders of the country.

            That, to many, is the most salient reason to celebrate the SCOTUS ruling. Many in the majority culture still do not believe that Black people should be included in the pool of people who will make laws and policies that will define this nation and its ultimate form of government, or become leaders – especially the president. Barack Obama’s presidency was not supposed to happen, and in reality, it offended many.

            But I think the majority culture – and others who likewise adhere to majority culture values and beliefs – forget that Black people have been trained by this oppressive system to scale the barriers that have always been put before us in order to keep us in “our” place. We learned to read though that was illegal. We became doctors and nurses and mathematicians. We became physicists and chemists scientists, attorneys, and judges – not because of the majority culture but in spite of it. We are resilient, tenacious, and faith-filled people who have had to jump hurdles and keep on pushing forward in spite of being denied our rights as American citizens. We have been lynched, lied to, lied about, dehumanized, criminalized, brutalized, looked over, and walked over – and yet, we have continued to push through it all and we are still standing.

            The SCOTUS case might keep some Black and Brown people out of the elite schools, but that will not stop us from pushing against the blatant racism that this country has incubated and grown. America has not learned yet that racism doesn’t work. It cannot keep oppressed people down forever because the spirit that exists in all human beings including Black people will not rest as long as the discrimination continues.

            African Americans have been in an abusive relationship with the majority culture since we were brought here from Africa to build this economy. We have endured the inequality and systemic racism that the majority culture says does not exist and we will continue to do so. You, America, taught us how to struggle, but, as Celie, one of the main characters in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple said when she was leaving her abusive husband/stepfather/rapist, “Until you do right by me, everything you do will fail.”

            To those who are celebrating the SCOTUS decisions that are taking away the rights of so many, and specifically the rights of Black people, I repeat Celie’s words, “Until you do right by us, everything you do will crumble and ultimately fail.

            A candid observation…