The end of affirmative action for college admissions

Transcript

NIALA: Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today!

It’s Friday, June 30.

I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Here’s what we’re covering today: bringing lesbian bars back from the brink of extinction.

But first, the end of affirmative action for college admissions. That’s today’s One Big Thing.

NIALA: The Supreme Court yesterday struck down the use of affirmative action, meaning colleges and universities may no longer explicitly consider an applicant's race when deciding admissions.

JOE BIDEN: Discrimination still exists in America. Today's decision does not change that. It's a simple fact if a student has, has overcome, had to overcome adversity on their path to education, college should recognize and value that.

NIALA: That's President Biden yesterday at the White House, the justices ruled six to three against the admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Axios Sam Baker is here with how this decision will reshape college admissions across the country.

Sam, the Supreme Court overturned more than 40 years of precedent in higher education admissions after historically backing affirmative action. Can you help us understand how they got to this decision?

SAM BAKER: So, the writing has been on the wall here for a while. Yes the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action, but you started to see, particularly among the conservatives, sort of a sense, sometimes explicitly asking, how much longer do we need this? That is a through line in the way that the conservative justices, and John Roberts in particular, approach a lot of policies designed to correct racial wrongs.

NIALA: What was their justification for why they feel like affirmative action is no longer necessary at American universities?

SAM: So the legal justification, they said it was a violation of the constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. You know, if you just look at it very narrowly, it is a racial preference. Uh, and that's what the conservatives latched onto. And of course, you saw the liberal justices putting back some of that context about, you know, why these programs exist and, and what they're trying to achieve.

NIALA: The newest Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had to recuse herself because she sits on a board at Harvard. This is a good time for me to disclose to everyone that I actually sit on a university board of trustees for my alma mater, Calvin University.

Sam, what else did liberal justices say to counteract the conservative argument that this is discrimination against other racial groups if you're showing preference for some racial groups?

SAM: Justice Jackson was recused from the, the Harvard case, but was able to participate in the North Carolina case. She wrote a dissent there. Clarence Thomas, who has never liked affirmative action, the two of them in their opinions really went at it, went back and forth. Clarence Thomas making it personal, responding to, Justice Jackson said, “as she sees things, we are all inexorably trapped in a fundamentally racist society”. She shot back again. This is all in writing, uh, saying that Justice Thomas had launched “a prolonged attack that responds to a dissent I did not write in order to assail an admissions program that is not the one UNC has crafted”. You know, it's not WrestleMania, but it is the, that's the Supreme Court equivalent of WrestleMania.

NIALA: Nine states, including California and Michigan, had already banned affirmative action. What do we know or what can those states teach us about what the effects of ending affirmative action might look like across the country?

SAM: In those states, Black and Hispanic enrollment fell pretty significantly. UCLA, Black students fell from 7% of the student body, not a big number to begin with, down to, below 4% after affirmative action, uh, was outlawed there. And, you saw a drop of just about the same size at the University of Michigan as well. And that is probably what we will see is certainly at more elite, more selective institutions and probably at colleges across the board.

NIALA: Do we know how college applications and admission processes will have to change because of this decision?

SAM: Not yet. So we've heard some suggestions in the early going, students can still write about their experiences in their essays. Some schools will probably need to change the way that they recruit. There's some talk that schools may need to rethink their approach to standardized testing, just because that can sort of create an additional level of disadvantage for certain students. So, you know, I don't think that higher education generally was ready to go with a solution, and I, I think it'll be hard to find one. But you know,they should already have a head start on.

NIALA: Sam Baker is actually just a senior editor. Thanks Sam.

SAM: Thanks Niala.

NIALA: The Biden administration also announced yesterday that it’s taking swift action in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling. The Department of Education will host a national summit on equal opportunity next month – and provide resources and strategies to colleges and universities ahead of next year’s admissions process.

In a moment – the lesbian bars that are enduring around the country.

NIALA: Welcome back to Axios Today. I'm Niala Boodhoo. As Pride Month comes to a close, we thought we'd end this week's pod with a special deep dive on lesbian bars — establishments that specifically cater to lesbian and femme queer communities — with the help of a few of our Axios local reporters. These bars have been declining in numbers since the 1980s when there were around 200 across the country. But the trend has been shifting in the past few years. Lesbian bars nearly doubled from 15 in 2019 to just under 30 today. That's according to research from Oberlin College. Of course, this is happening against a backdrop of an unprecedented number of legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, which many queer community members say make these spaces even more crucial as safe havens. To catch you up quick, these are just a few of the reasons it's been hard to keep lesbian bars open. Income disparities between men and women, gentrification and rising rents, and the growth of online dating.

Even a place like San Francisco historically known for being a hub of the LGBTQ+ plus community has struggled to keep these bars afloat.

Megan Rose Dickey from Axios San Francisco says, the increasing cost of living in this city is a big factor for the disappearance of these spaces,

MEGAN ROSE DICKEY: Of course that's been kind of happening like alongside the rise in the tech industry and a lot of wealthy tech people sort of coming into the city and driving up prices. So I think that's unfortunately had an impact on the queer community here.

NIALA: Meanwhile, in Phoenix, Arizona's Boycott Bar is the last remaining lesbian bar in the state. The bar's owner told Axios local reporter Jessica Boehm, she's kept The Boycott open for 19 years, despite threats on her business. And Boehm told me…

JESSICA BOEHM: …it's kind of this double-edged sword. It's a place where people can feel safe and accepted, and yet they're still places where they are subject to attacks.

NIALA: The recent wave of anti LGBTQ+ legislation even prompted the Human Rights Commission earlier this month to declare a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people living in the US. Axios local reporter Arika Herron from Indianapolis says, concerns have been growing in her state.

ARIKA HERRON: We have definitely seen that spike and been part of that wave of kind of anti- LGBTQ+, uh, sentiment and rhetoric and even, you know, laws, our state legislature, passed some laws targeting the transgender community in Indiana this year. So it's been kind of a tough time for that community in our state.

NIALA: That's some of what Arika heard when she visited The Back Door, Indiana's only lesbian bar.

ARIKA: The folks I talked to said that's why spaces like The Back Door are even more important now, so people have a place where they can come be their authentic selves.

NIALA: Many lesbian bars actually used to exclude transgender people, but now that's changing too. Bobbi Moore, the owner of Slammers in Columbus, Ohio, says her bar is thriving because of its inclusivity. She spoke to Axios Columbus's Alyssa Widman-Neese.

BOBBI MOORE: We're able to bring people here who are afraid to maybe venture out in other places, wherever they land in the queer alphabet soup?

NIALA: One of the newest lesbian bars in the country just opened in New York City, Axios today, producer Lydia McMullen-Laird visited The Bush, which calls itself “a dyke bar for queers,” and spoke with barback Francis Huntley. Huntley said they feel more comfortable at The Bush than in straight bars where they work, or in New York City's many gay bars.

HUNTLEY: I don't really think about myself and how I'm presenting and how I'm interacting with people, I'm not thinking about my like, gender presentation as much here, for example, or like my voice or things like that. I feel a lot more relaxed in that sense.

NIALA: Last weekend during New York City's pride festivities, The Bush had people down the block waiting to get in. The bottom line: demand is still strong for welcoming spaces like these in places around the country.

That’s all for this week. Axios Today is produced by Fonda Mwangi, Lydia McMullen-Laird and Robin Linn, along with senior sound engineer Alex Sugiura. Ben O’Brien also mixes the show. Alexandra Botti is our supervising producer. Aja Whitaker-Moore is Axios’ Executive Editor. And Sara Kehaulani Goo is Axios’ editor in chief.

I’m Niala Boodhoo. Stay safe, enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday.