b'POLITICSWhite Women Benefit Most from Affirmative Actionand are Among its Fiercest OpponentsBy Victoria M. Massie, VOX2016 portionate representation of white women busi- Furtheractionswouldbetakenin1973and ness owners set off concerns that New York state1974 to address anti-discrimination protections would not be able to bridge a racial gap amongforpeoplewithdisabilitiesandVietnamveter-T heUniversityofTexasAustinwasAbigailpublic contractors. ans, respectively.Fisher\'sdreamschool.Fisher,fromSugarA 1995 report by the Department of Labor foundWhite women have become some of affirmative Land, Texas, a wealthy Houston suburb, earnedthat6millionwomenoverallhadadvancesataction\'s fiercest opponentsa 3.59 GPA in high school and scored an 1180their job that would not have been possible with- Ingeneral,womentodayaremoreeducated on the SATs. out affirmative action. The percentage of womenand make up more of the workforce than ever Not bad, but not enough for the highly selec- physicians tripled between 1970 and 2002, frombefore, in part because of affirmative action poli-tive UT Austin in fall 2008; Fisher\'s dreams were7.6 percent to 25.2 percent, and in 2009 womencies. Indeed, from the tech industry to publish-dashed when she was denied admission. were receiving a majority of bachelor\'s, master\'s,ing, diversity has emerged as an overwhelming In response, Fisher sued. Her argument? Thatand doctoral degrees, according to the Americanincreaseinthepresenceofwhitewomen,not applicantsofcolor,whoseracialbackgroundsAssociationofUniversityWomen.Tobeclear,necessarily people of color.were included as a component of the university\'sthese numbers include women ofIncidentally, over the years white holistic review process, were less-qualified stu- all races; however, breaking downwomen have become some of affir-dents and had displaced her. affirmative action beneficiaries bymative action\'s most ardent oppo-Students graduating in the top 10 percent ofrace and gender seems to be rarenents.any Texas high school are granted an automaticin reported data.spot at UT Austin. Other students are evaluatedContrary to popular belief, affir- According to the 2014 Cooperative throughaholisticreviewprocessincludingamative action isn\'t just black. It\'sCongressionalElectionStudy, race-blind review of essays and creating a per- white, too. But affirmative action\'snearly70percentofthe20,694 sonalachievementscorebasedonleadershipwhite female faces are rarely at theself-identifiednon-Hispanicwhite potential, honors and awards, work experience,center of the conversation. women surveyed either somewhat and special circumstances that include socioeco- Gender was a blind spot in theorstronglyopposedaffirmative nomic considerations such as race. original affirmative action policy action.AfewareacceptedthroughprovisionalslotsSexdiscriminationprotectionsWhitewomenhavealsobeen that include attending a summer program priorwerenotincludedwhenaffirma- Victoria Massie the primary plaintiffs in the major to the fall. One black student, four Latino stu- tiveactionpolicywasinitiallySupreme Court affirmative action dents, and 42 white students with lower scoresinstitutionalized in the 1960s. cases,withtheexceptionofthe thanFisherwereacceptedundertheseterms.firstRegents of the University of California v. Alsorejectedwere168African-AmericanandThe National Labor Relations Act in 1935 wasBakke in 1978that was brought to the courts Latino students with better scores than Fisher. one of the first federal documents to use the termby a white man."affirmative action" to correct unfair labor prac- Twenty-five years after Bakke found that race According to court documents, even if Fishertices.WhilethePublicWorksAdministrationcan be one but not the only criterion for evaluat-hadreceivedaperfectpersonalachievementtemporarily followed racially proportional hiringing admissions applications, four white women score that included race (which, in itself, over- practices (which were dismantled at the end ofhave filed lawsuits seeking retribution for admis-simplifiestheadmissionsprocess),shestillWorldWarII),itwasn\'tuntilPresidentJohnsions rejections based on the premise that they would not have necessarily qualified under UT\'sF.Kennedyissuedanexecutiveorderin1961were denied a spot over less-deserving students admission rubric. requiring affirmative action to counter employ- of color.In fact, when she applied for the class of 2012,ment discrimination among federal contractors,The first successful case to challenge affirma-theadmissionratefornon-automaticadmitswith specific attentiontorace,thataffirmativetive action policy was Hopwood v. Texas in 1996. wasmorecompetitivethanthatofHarvardaction was institutionalized. Cheryl Hopwood claimed that despite excellent University. In some ways, the narrow focus on "race" andscores and fitting the profile of a surefire admit, Nonetheless, Fisher spent the past seven years"color"wasthegovernment\'sresponsetothethe University of Texas School of Law admitted in court, and Thursday the US Supreme Courtdemandsoftheburgeoningcivilrightsmove- 62 people of color, only nine of whom had better ruled 4-3 that UT\'s admissions policy proceduresmentthatbroughtracialdiscriminationfrontLSAT and GPA scores than she did.are constitutional. and center in America. TheFifthCircuitCourtofAppealsruled But the battle to erase race from the applica- However,affirmativeactionwasambiguous,thatdiversityalonewasnotenoughtojustify tion review process for admission comes with anreferring, at the very least, to federal contractorsracialpreferences.Forexample,onlyMexican-interestingparadox:"Theprimarybeneficiariestaking a step or gesture in opposition of discrimi- American and African-American students\' racial ofaffirmativeactionhavebeenEuro-Americannating against groups of people, but one of thebackgroundsweretakenintoconsiderationat women,"wroteColumbiaUniversitylawpro- limits of the order was that penalties were notUT\'s law school. The Supreme Court refused to fessor Kimberl Crenshaw for the University ofenforceable. hear the case, but the decision dismantled UT\'s Michigan Law Review in 2006. KennedycreatedaPresident\'sCommitteeonearlier racial affirmative action policy and cata-A1995reportbytheCaliforniaSenateEqual Employment Opportunity to monitor thelyzed UT\'s 10 percent policy to admit the best Government Organization Committee found thatorder, chaired by thenVice President Lyndon B.students in a state that still suffers from de facto whitewomenheldamajorityofmanagerialJohnson. segregationaccordingtoUT\'sSupremeCourt jobs (57,250) compared with African AmericansHowever,itwasnotuntilOctober1967,fol- briefs for the Fisher case.(10,500), Latinos (19,000), and Asian AmericanslowingpressurefromthesurgingWomen\'sBut in 2003, two other white women approached (24,600) after the first two decades of affirmativeMovement,thatPresidentJohnsonamendedthe Court in parallel cases citing a misuse of race action in the private sector. In 2015, a dispro- anearlierordertoincludegenderprovisions.inadmissionspolicies.InGrutterv.Bollinger, BarbaraGrutterarguedthatshewasdenied admissiontotheUniversityofMichiganLaw Schoolasadirectresultofthelawschool\'s consideration of race in the admissions process. InGratzv.Bollinger,JenniferGratzargued similarly that she was denied acceptance to the One black student, four Latino students, and 42 whiteUniversityofMichigan\'sflagshipuniversityin Ann Arbor as an undergrad because of race.students with lower scores than Fisher were accepted underTheSupremeCourtdecisionsweresplit these terms. Also rejected were 168 African-American andbetweenthetwocases.InGratz,thejustices ruledthatracewasbeingvaluedinways Latino students with BETTER scores than Fisher. that violated the Constitution\'s Equal Protection Clausestudentsreceived20pointsifthey werefromanunderrepresentedracialgroup compared with 5 points for artistic achievement. Continued on Page 164 JULY 2023 BOCNEWS.com'