Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the U.S. ruled that affirmative action, or race-based college admission decisions, of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina is unconstitutional.

According to Chief Justice John Roberts:

Because Harvard's and UNC's admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.

Harvard University officials reacted negatively to the Supreme Court's decision, releasing a statement declaring:

We write today to reaffirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. That principle is as true and important today as it was yesterday. So too are the abiding values that have enabled us—and every great educational institution—to pursue the high calling of educating creative thinkers and bold leaders, of deepening human knowledge, and of promoting progress, justice, and human flourishing.

Michelle Obama, an intelligent woman who nevertheless probably benefited from affirmative action — and legacy college admissions thanks to her talented brother — also expressed her opposition to the Supreme Court decision.

Back in college, I was one of the few Black students on my campus, and I was proud of getting into such a respected school. I knew I'd worked hard for it. But still, I sometimes wondered if people thought I got there because of affirmative action. It was a shadow that students like me couldn't shake, whether those doubts came from the outside or inside our own minds.

But the fact is this: I belonged. And semester after semester, decade after decade, for more than half a century, countless students like me showed they belonged, too. It wasn't just the kids of color who benefitted, either. Every student who heard a perspective they might not have encountered, who had an assumption challenged, who had their minds and their hearts opened gained a lot as well.

In other words, she inadvertently degraded herself, admitting she was chosen not for her academic prowess, but for her different "perspective."

Agreeing with his wife, former president Barack Obama (D) added:

Affirmative action was never a complete answer in the drive towards a more just society. But for generations of students who had been systematically excluded from most of America's key institutions — it gave us the chance to show we more than deserved a seat at the table. In the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision, it's time to redouble our efforts.

Unfortunately, Obama is correct in stating "generations of students ... had been systematically excluded from most of America's key institutions."  But do such talented people as the Obamas really have "to show we more than deserved a seat at the table"?  A "table"-deserving applicant wouldn't need affirmative action.

But "redouble ... efforts" for race-based affirmative action is certainly on the agenda, in spite of/because of yesterday's decision.  There are ways of getting around the Supreme Court ruling, as both Chief Justice Roberts and the Harvard faculty noted. 

The Court also ruled that colleges and universities may consider in admissions decisions "an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise." 

So, some advice to the many Asian-American and Jewish students and others who are rejected from colleges merely because admitting them would destroy the institution's "diversity," among other evasive reasons: take your talents and your brains elsewhere.  Better, don't even bother applying to such narrow-minded, bigoted institutions.  Instead, seek out and attend those schools that value you for being you.

And take your money with you.

If you really, really want to/must attend a school which endorses racial standards among other admissions criteria, OK, do it.  But don't let their bigotry affect you.

Photo credit: US Embassy, New Delhi, CC BY-ND 2.0 license.