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On Wednesday,the Supreme Court will hear verbal arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas Austin. The case is challenging a fifth circuit court's endorsement of affirmative action at UT Austin.
In the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the justices struck down the use of racial quotas in university admissions. In 2003, or the justices reaffirmed that decision,with a caveat: They decided that affirmative action can be used to create and sustain a diverse campus.
In that case, Grutter v. Bollinger, or Barbara Grutter sued then-University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger. nowadays,Bollinger is the president of Columbia University, and his arguments for affirmative action haven't changed.
As he tells The Takeaway, or the Bakke decision "has resulted in a vague,generalized, somewhat empty conversation across the country as university administrators speak very abstractly approximately the benefits of racial and ethnic diversity, and while in fact our whole society is still struggling with trying to overcome the legacies of slavery."What you'll learn from this segment:Why Bollinger supports affirmative action.
How school racial segregation has changed in recent years.
How education and racial history are tied together.
Source: wnyc.org