|
The
Michigan Socialist | News | Nation
U.S. Supreme Court
on affirmative action:
Not
a victory
By MARTIN
SCHREADER
Editor, the Michigan
Socialist
ON JUNE 23, the Supreme Court of the United
States ruled on the two cases against the University of
Michigan, related to the school's policy and application of
affirmative action.
In a 5-4 decision, the Court upheld the "race
conscious" process of the U-M Law School, but, in a 6-3
decision, struck down the undergraduate point system, and sent
the case back to the Court of Appeals for further
disposition.
Civil rights groups, including radical student
groups like BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), hailed the
split decision as a "100 percent victory." They saw the
reversal of the point system as a "minor point."
We respectfully disagree.
The split decision of the Supreme Court sent a
singular message: in theory, race can be a factor in
admissions; but don't attempt to put it into practice in any
meaningful way. Or, to put it in simpler terms: talk a lot;
do nothing.
Affirmative action was enacted as an attempt
to correct, in concrete terms, the inequality of capitalist
society.
The latest decision of the Supreme Court has
successfully rolled this back, saying that the most
educational institutions can do to implement affirmative
action is talk a good game.
For Socialists, affirmative action is part of
the struggle for democracy and social equality. That is, for
affirmative action to work, its administration by capitalism
must end, and working people must put it into practice
themselves.
The Supreme Court decision went in the
opposite direction; affirmative action is not something to put
into practice, they said, but best kept as an abstract
"goal."
Rolling back affirmative action to a mere
abstraction robs the struggle of its social content, and can
only be seen as a defeat in the struggle for freedom and
liberation.
Those groups hailing such a rollback as a
"victory" are either blinded by the capitalists' platitudes
about "equality" or are consciously deceiving their
supporters. | 
