To watch her full remarks, click here. I rise today to call out the corruption and the hypocrisy of this Supreme Court. The affirmative action ruling is a total sham. You know, Justice Clarence Thomas is good at accepting gifts. One gift he received was the gift of going to Yale Law School, thanks to affirmative action. And he said, I quote, ‘God only knows where I would be today’ if it were not for affirmative action.
And yet in this last ruling he opined that affirmative action was bad for African Americans because if they got into these institutions, they would flail – they would be unable to thrive. Elite institutions remain the gateways into government, into big industry, into C-suites. Eight of the nine sitting Justices on this Court either attended Yale or Harvard Law School.
In fact, three of the Justices on this bench are beneficiaries of affirmative action and have stated it. Allowing themselves to get into college because of affirmative action? They got on to the bench because of affirmative action. Both Democrat and Republican presidents considered race when selecting them as nominees for the Supreme Court – appropriately so.
It’s about representation. It is about diversity. It is about making sure that all voices are seen and heard. Affirmative action is more than just about admissions. It is also about economic progress. But this ruling has cut generations of students from this critical benefit.
The Court is facing a legitimacy crisis. The Supreme Court is out of step with reality. In states that have actually banned affirmative action, schools in those states have seen a 20% reduction in Black applicants and in Black students. Talk to an admissions counselor. Heck, talk to a biologist. And they will tell you that homogenous environments do not thrive. They do not survive.
In an orchestra, you need all kinds of musicians playing all kinds of instruments in order to make music. In movies, you need all kinds of characters to tell a story. And on college campuses, you need a diverse campus of all kinds of students to stimulate growth, research, economic development, innovation, and survival. This ruling goes beyond admissions. It’s about the hiring of faculty. It’s about how companies recruit, hire, and retain, and it’s about procurement. This ruling is divisive. It’s hypocritical and is out of step with the American people, just like this Supreme Court.
You know what this ruling does?
This ruling says to Black students, this ruling says to Black children, like yours and like mine, that this Supreme Court doesn’t see you, and that this Supreme Court doesn’t care about you. But to our students, to our children, to our students and our children who are Black, I am here to tell you on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus that we see you, we hear you, we are fighting for you – unlike this Supreme Court. And we are not gonna stop fighting, nor will we stop telling the truth about the history of this country, about this Supreme Court, about this ruling, and about what is ahead.
Colorblind is an aspirational state of mind, but it is not yet reality. So let’s live in reality and talk about what our students are facing and the hypocrisy that is coming out of this Supreme Court. Thank you, and I yield back.
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