Bullying tactics reveal that the privileged class feels threatened by affirmative action: Leslie Kouba

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Watch out! The Privileged are worried, and worried folks sometimes act rather badly.

Last month, the Supreme Court declared affirmative action in university admissions processes to be unconstitutional according to the 14th amendment’s Equal Protection under the Law clause.

Now political leaders are sending incredibly narcissistic letters to university presidents, bullying them to comply with the ruling, demanding obedience, not only to the court’s decision but also to their own interpretation of the ruling – which is beyond the findings of the court.

You see, privilege flows in the bloodstream of Students for Fair Admissions, the nonprofit created by its president, Edward Blum, to take down affirmative action. It’s an effort he’s been dedicated to since 1983.

Blum’s guiding ideal, his belief that race should “neither help nor hurt” a person’s life, sounds so nice and agreeable, doesn’t it? And wouldn’t it be nice if this were in effect across all American conventions? But that is not the way our country works – at least not yet.

By winning their case against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, Blum and the 20,000 or so members of SFFA have changed a college admissions protocol before our country is ready for it. You see, until race affects nothing, removing it from college admissions only creates greater disadvantage for the already disadvantaged and increases advantage for the already advantaged.

Privilege wins.

In his letter dated July 6, 2023, Senator J.D. Vance smacked a number of university presidents across the mouth for their public statements regarding the Supreme Court’s decision. Quoting only fragments of several academic leaders’ posted statements as evidence of what he called “openly defiant and potentially unlawful reaction” to the court’s decision, Vance trampled their first amendment right to free speech.

Either that, or he is really uncomfortable with people’s emotions like disappointment, discouragement and sadness – all words the academic leaders used and Vance quoted in his letter.

Vance then claimed, “My colleagues have assured me that they share my concern that colleges and universities, and particularly the elite institutions to whom this letter is addressed, do not respect the Court’s judgment and will covertly defy a landmark civil rights decision with which they disagree.”

Landmark? More like landmark destroying.

Then Vance uses the heavy hand of bullying to threaten well-esteemed universities:

“The United States Senate is prepared to use its full investigative powers to uncover circumvention, covert or otherwise, of the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

After warning them to keep all admission records, he tells them “a number of federal criminal statutes regulate the destruction of records connected to federal investigations, some of which apply prior to the formal commencement of any inquiry.”

He closes his letter with a draconian demand that the university presidents answer his six questions, thus proving policy changes conforming to the court’s decision, within 15 days of his letter. 15 DAYS! Oh, for Pete’s sake.

You’d think as a senator, Vance would know it takes considerable time for any organization to examine and understand new federal requirements and then make the required changes in policies long held and practiced.

News outlets are reporting that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Blum had sent similar letters, but no one is offering a public posting of either. From the reports, quoted portions sound very similar to Vance’s letter – antagonistic, threatening and demanding.

I guess they’ve all appointed themselves SCOTUS sheriffs.

The problem in seeing all college-hopeful students as identical apples to be compared solely by achievement and test scores is that it ignores the reality that privilege equips some more than others.

If anyone believes all college applicants have equal opportunities to excel and achieve, they are deluded. Saying race doesn’t matter doesn’t make it so. Until all American systems see only the whites of people’s eyes and not their melanin or physical features, protecting and providing opportunities for the less advantaged must continue.

Removing the bumper guard of affirmative action will only hurt the progress our country has made in building equality for all. Admissions based on legacy or “purchased” favors will increase. Student body diversity will diminish. Those without privilege will lose.

The young adults affected by the death of affirmative action in college application processes would do well to rise up while the privileged would do well to consider how the U.S. is only one generation away from a majority-minority. In just 20 years or so, non-Hispanic whites will make up less than half of the nation’s population, which is projected to grow mostly through immigration.

Hey — I wonder if affirmative action will come back into favor when, statistically and culturally, white people may need it – in just a couple decades.

The prevailing opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts made clear that the court would not prohibit the consideration of students’ personal essays on the impact of race.

He declared, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicants (punctuation mistake not mine) discussion of how race affected his or her life.”

But zealots are warning universities to abide by their interpretation, meaning personal essays about lived experience should not reveal a student’s race, and if it does, that should not influence admission decisions.

Vance, Yost and Blum remind me of little boys, trying to wear daddy-sized shoes to kick an imagined monster under their bed.

When someone wears too big of shoes, they stumble and fall. In this case, they’ll be tripping over their own privilege in an effort to reassure themselves that all will be well.

Leslie Kouba, a lifetime resident of Northeast Ohio and mother of four completely grown humans, enjoys writing, laughing and living in Cleveland with her wife, three cats and a fat-tailed gecko named Zennis. You can reach her at LeslieKoubaPD@gmail.com.