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SERC was disgusted to read Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s remarks during oral arguments in the Fisher v. University of Texas affirmative action case: “There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less advanced school, a … slower-track school where they do well.”

African Americans cannot possibly “benefit” from a system that would limit their opportunity based on absurd assumptions about their academic and intellectual capacity. These assumptions certainly do not support race-neutral admissions; suggesting a “less advanced” or “slower-track school” is itself a race-based judgment on where students ought to go to school. It certainly supports the notion that we do not have a race-neutral Supreme Court.

This institutional racism further suggests that students of color do not experience a race-neutral K-12 and higher education system. Despite the inequities experienced by many students of color across the nation, they thrive wherever opportunities are found. The U.S. Supreme Court should not perpetuate institutional racism by steering students of color away from the competitive schools for which they qualify. Racist ideology has no place either in our system of justice or in an educational system intended for all.