In the real world , Black students don ’ t have the same educational and financial opportunities as white students . I ’ m living proof of that .
SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action in College Admissions Is Horribly Wrong . I Should Know !
In the real world , Black students don ’ t have the same educational and financial opportunities as white students . I ’ m living proof of that .
By Wayne Washington Guest Columnist
The U . S . Supreme Court is , again , living in the Land of Make-Believe . On June 29 , 2023 , six of the Court ’ s nine justices issued a ruling that bars colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions . However , this decision locks in advantages enjoyed by people with wealth and a family legacy of college attendance .
The wealthy can , and do , have better neighborhood schools and can afford preparation for so-called “ race-blind ” admissions factors like standardized tests . Others with a family legacy of attending a particular college or university can still push that button for young Sally or Joey . That ’ s not a button as widely available to Black people , who , as recently as the 1950s , were barred from attending colleges and universities that their family ’ s tax money helped support .
Today ’ s ruling is one issued and welcomed by those who look at this country and see what ’ s not there - a society where there are no systemic racial barriers to advancement - and who ignore what remains a stubborn reality : white and wealthy people have gigantic advantages they are eager to protect .
It is entirely possible that , if the mindset behind this ruling was in place in the 1980s , you wouldn ’ t be reading the words I ’ m writing here . That ’ s because I wouldn ’ t be as equipped to write them .
Like too many other Black Americans , I grew up poor , one of four children being raised by a single mother . My siblings and I were all good in school , but going to college was not seen as a realistic option . Sure , I had an uncle and an aunt who went to HBCUs , but they had the financial backing of my grandparents . Sadly , we had no such backing .
My oldest brother - after a brief and financially fraught stint at art school -joined the U . S . Air Force . The brother after him enlisted in the U . S . Navy . Then came me . I wanted to attend the University of South Carolina , which had been my dream since learning that the university had a first-rate newspaper journalism program , one touted by my high school journalism teacher .
I was an ‘ A ’ student and the editor of my high school newspaper , yet I found out about the need to take the SAT mere weeks before it would be administered . Unfortunately , I couldn ’ t take the test anywhere near the then-rural Mt . Pleasant , S . C ., community where I lived . It would be administered at a school on James Island . This presented a challenge since my family did not have a car .