I. Race-Sensitive Admissions Policies Further the Compelling Goals of Diminishing the Effects of Deepening Racial Segregation and of Preserving Opportunities in Higher Education for African Americans
Racial segregation and isolation continue to be a menace in this society, producing and perpetuating sharp disparities in the quality of life and opportunities for advancement of African Americans. Their manifestation in the continued scourge of residential segregation leaves institutions of higher education as one of the few venues for meaningful cross-racial interaction.
In the context of primary and secondary schools, this Court has already all but abandoned the judicial task of requiring school districts to remedy racial segregation, severely limiting the circumstances, means, and duration of desegregation remedies. See e.g., Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U.S. 70 (1995); Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467 (1992); Bd. of Educ. of Okla. City v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237 (1991); Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974). Even in so doing, however, it has acknowledged that “the potential for discrimination and racial hostility is still present in our country, and its manifestations may emerge in new and subtle forms after the effects of de jure segregation have been eliminated.” Freeman, 502 U.S. at 490.
Voluntary race-conscious admissions policies by colleges and universities remain one of the sole avenues for seeking to mitigate the stubborn vestiges of past wrongs, ameliorating the effects of ongoing discrimination, and increasing the participation of all members of our society. Indeed, this Court, in Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993), stated that our Constitution encourages us to weld together various racial and ethnic communities, and to avoid the racial balkanization that has plagued other nations. Id. at 648-49. See also Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900, 911 (1995). Race-sensitive admissions policies strive to do just that by fostering racial integration in our nation's schools and interaction between individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Indeed, studies show that meaningful cross-racial interaction in institutions of higher learning has significant social and educational benefits. The more racially diverse a student body, the more likely that students will socialize across racial lines and talk about racial matters. These interactions have a positive impact on student retention, overall college satisfaction, and intellectual and social self-confidence among all students. Faculty have also reported that racial and ethnic diversity in the classroom helps students broaden the sharing of experiences, raise new issues and perspectives, confront stereotypes relevant to social and political issues, and gain exposure to perspectives with which they disagree or do not understand.
This Court noted over fifty years ago that law school provides a particularly important environment for meaningful cross-racial interaction:
The law school, the proving ground for legal learning and practice, cannot be effective in isolation from the individuals and institutions with which the law interacts. Few students and no one who has practiced law would choose to study in an academic vacuum, removed from the interplay of ideas and the exchange of views in which the law is concerned.
Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 634 (1950). Given the deep racial isolation that still exists in our society, such exchange of views between individuals of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds is a critical life tool for all students.
In the absence of other means for redressing systemic racial disparity, Justice Powell's opinion in Bakke has been crucial to opening up opportunity for African Americans and other racial minorities, in a way that has helped begin to create a pipeline of racially diverse leaders and has fostered the fuller participation of previously dispossessed segments of our society. It is critical that colleges and universities retain the limited ability to rely on race, not only to achieve the educational benefits of diversity but also so that such institutions may continue the long road toward a more just and equitable society.
