MSNBC guest and Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude said Thursday affirmative action being struck down will bring back “segregated” universities.
The Supreme Court ruled to block affirmative action in a Thursday decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing in the majority opinion the policy violates the 14th amendment. Glaude, an African American studies professor, said “elite institutions” will return to being a segregated space predominately filled with white and Asian people.
“We will return to elite institutions, more specifically being the space for a particular population, predominately white and Asian students. We will begin to see a kind of segregated higher education landscape, and the irony of course … and I’ve anticipated this decision, but to hear it, I’m still trying to manage my emotions. But this was just one remedy, affirmative action, the only remedy, to the legacy of discrimination in admissions in American higher education. Only one remedy, so here they’ve taken it away.
“So where we find ourselves, we’re gonna go back to those classes where you have one, two, three. We’re already having a small percentage of black and brown students in elite institutions. That percentage will get even smaller,” he continued.
The Court considered the case brought forth by students alleging Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill discriminated against white and Asian students through affirmative action policies. An 18-year-old Asian student named Jon Wang told Fox News affirmative action policies prevented him from being admitted into the nation’s top-tier schools, despite his exceptionally high SAT score. (RELATED: ‘They’re Being Punished For Hard Work’: Leo Terrell Sounds Off Affirmative Action)
Ivy League schools including Harvard and Columbia University have held segregated commencements for students based on race. In 2021, Columbia held six graduation ceremonies divided by race and economic status.
Some schools, including Washington University, established racially segregated dormitories for minority students. Students at Princeton University released a solidarity statement in 2017 demanding racially segregated dorms on campus.