On CNN, Abby Phillip warns that conservatives will expand the affirmative action decision “into so many other aspects of American life”
Published
Citation From the June 29, 2023, edition of CNN's Inside Politics with Dana Bash
DANA BASH (ANCHOR): As you react to this, one of the important aspects is that it says that yes you can't check a box anymore, but if a student is writing an essay, the essay can include a reference to his, or her, or their race.
ABBY PHILLIP (SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT): One would hope so. One would hope that students would be able to talk about who they are and where they came from and what their experiences are. So I think there was no way they could not make that carve-out frankly. But what, to me, all of this represents is this is a proxy discussion for a broader conversation that's happening in this country about whether the consequences of systemic barriers for people of color, specifically for black people, in this country, still mattered today. For some conservatives, they have been saying not just in 2023, but really for many decades, that there should be no consideration of systemic barriers in college admissions. But today where we stand now, I think that the discussion has broadened well beyond education. This is the first foray, right? This is the longest fight, that has been one of the longest fights that has been being fought. But we're going to start seeing this conversation expanding in other aspects of life. I don't think that it, just before you jump in, we do need to recognize that what we're talking about here when it comes to education is not just what is an individual student bringing to the table, but whether the education system in this country was structured by law until relatively recently to disadvantage black people, specifically black people in this country. And the court says maybe that was the case, but it doesn't matter now. I think conservatives are going to now take that and expand it into so many other aspects of American life.