Affirmative action in college admissions is a key tool in the journey to racial equity, and the removal of it has become yet another burden in the fight for justice.

This week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions, ending a half-century old practice.

In a world where we have perfect racial equity in all aspects of society, affirmative action would not be necessary. However, that is just not the world we live in, and thus, affirmative action is a necessary step towards racial equity.

The unfortunate truth is that there is a significant disconnect between our ideological foundations and the reality of our society. Many of the ideas that we were built on are great and worthwhile ideas, but our practices, especially as it pertains to racial justice, have not reflected those.

It was almost 100 years after the Declaration of Independence declared that all men are created equal that the slaves were finally freed. It was another 90 years after that before school segregation was struck down by the Supreme Court, and another decade after that before the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.

Affirmative action in college admissions helps put stitches in some of the wounds of injustice. In the 250 year history of our country, it was less than 70 years ago that school segregation was ruled unconstitutional. Almost two centuries of segregation in education and across all facets of society led to inequities that have deep and obvious effects today.

It is not a poor work ethic or laziness that causes the need for affirmative action-it is the poor opportunities that have been caused by 250 years of racist laws and policies.

Because these communities have been historically marginalized and deprived of economic and educational opportunities, it becomes very difficult to break the cycle of poverty and move upward socially. 

Affirmative action helps this problem by uplifting people from these communities who do not receive the same opportunities as many of their peers. It is crucial that universities seek out students in marginalized communities who may not otherwise be provided the resources and knowledge to reach out to the universities.

Opponents of affirmative action may argue that these students are receiving “special treatment” and that it is unfair to students to can’t be admitted on the basis of affirmative action. However society and education have been unfair to people of color in the entire history of the US. 

Do not blame the people who are trying to get an education and get out of poverty-blame the racist legislators and businesspeople who made society work against people of color and made affirmative action necessary in the first place.

Education is one of, if not the best things anyone can utilize if they want to earn more money. According to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, people aged 22-27 who do not have bachelor’s degrees but did graduate high school have a median income of $30,000 per year. For people in the same age group with bachelors’ degrees, that number jumps to a median of $52,000 per year.

We have a long, long way to go before we achieve racial equity in any aspect of US society, but affirmative action was a good start to achieving racial equity in education. The Supreme Court’s decision to rid it from our education system will hamper the fight for justice.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.