WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although race-conscious affirmative action in higher education faces a “clear and present danger,” a case testing the use of race hasn’t prompted the same sense of urgency as the last time the issue came before the U.S. Supreme Court.
So lamented Dr. Gary Orfield, co-director of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA, in a brief speech he gave here Thursday at the 38th National Conference and Annual Meeting of the American Association for Affirmative Action, or AAAA.
“We’re talking about a fundamental risk for a tool that we have no effective alternative for in a society that has really a deepening of inequalities in college completion levels,” Orfield said during a luncheon panel that focused on education.
“People like your organization need to explain to the [Supreme Court] justices who don’t have any personal experience with this but will have the position of looking at one college at one year and outlawing a whole system of equity for American higher education,” Orfield said, referring to the case known as Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.
Through the case, brought by a White student denied a spot at the University of Texas’ flagship campus, the Supreme Court is expected to decide whether its prior decisions permit the university to use race as a factor in undergraduate admissions decisions.
Orfield said the Civil Rights Project at UCLA was working on its own brief in the case and exhorted other concerned parties to do likewise.
“This isn’t a theoretical issue,” Orfield said. “It’s really a clear and present danger.”
