Nigerian Teen gets accepted into all IVY League Schools

[soliloquy]

I can understand why some would think that providing additional benefits to any person based upon color, religion, gender, or sexual orientation would be considered discrimination. I understand the argument that affirmative action actually utilizes discrimination in trying to eliminate discrimination. This idea of assisting whole classes of people is born of court opinions and political initiatives that were trying to interpret he Civil Rights guarantees within the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

I’ve heard both sides of the argument.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor defended affirmative action in her book, My Beloved World, where she tells her story of being admitted to Princeton University and Yale Law School. She set forth quite candidly that when she entered Princeton on a scholarship in 1972 despite unspectacular test scores, Sotomayor recalls that the school was in only its third year of admitting women and had barely a handful of minority students. She also mentions that she had much the same experience as a Yale law student before becoming a New York prosecutor, a private lawyer, and a federal judge. When President Barack Obama appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009, she became its third-ever female justice and first Latina.

In a past speaking engagement, Sotomayor has said that she is a "product of affirmative action,” and she writes that her accomplishments at Princeton, including receiving the highest prize given to seniors, earning a place in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and graduating with highest honors, speak for themselves.

"Yes, I needed help, but once I got there, I worked at it and I proved myself worthy," Sotomayor said at a speaking engagement in San Francisco. She said she wants to tell "people who have been accused of getting in because of special favors not to feel ashamed" of what they achieve on their own.

On the other side of that argument is Clarence Thomas. "I learned the hard way that a law degree from Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks, no matter how much anyone denied it,'' he wrote in his memoir, My Grandfather's Son. "I'd graduated from one of America's top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value."

Yes, when I think about affirmative action, the first thing that comes to mind is equal opportunity for African Americans. But, I know that affirmative action also protects other minorities who are discriminated against based upon race, religion, gender, or national origin. Affirmative action has had an important role for women as well. In employment women benefit from programs and recruitment efforts that consider women when making hiring decisions or decisions regarding promotion. This is important in eliminating under-representation of qualified women in specific job categories. In education it helps women get into programs that have largely been comprised of men including engineering, math and the physical sciences. Affirmative action also encourages government agencies and contractors to do business with qualified companies owned by women. It also gives assistance to businesses owned by women.

However, when I consider cases such as Fisher v. University of Texas, 570 U.S. ___ (2013), I agree with Clinton’s opinion on affirmative action which he gave in a speech on July 19, 1995.

“Let me be clear about what affirmative action must not ... It does not mean – and I don’t favor – the unjustified preference of the unqualified over the qualified of any race or gender. It doesn’t mean – and I don’t favor – numerical quotas. It doesn’t mean – and I don’t favor – rejection or selection of any employee or student solely on the basis of race or gender without regard to merit…”