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Matter of Opinion

Affirmative Action Isn’t Perfect. Should We Keep It Anyway?

Matter of Opinion

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Ross Douthat, News, New York Times, Journalism

4.27.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases, one involving Harvard and the other the University of North Carolina, that could reshape college admissions. Both schools are being accused of race-based discrimination in their admission practices. In the coming year, the court will examine whether it’s lawful for college admissions offices to consider a student’s race. These cases and others have brought into focus the role affirmative action plays in higher education, and whether it helps or impedes the overall goal of achieving racial equity on college campuses. So the question Jane debates this week is: Should we end affirmative action? On today’s episode, the Opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang sets the stage by sharing with Jane his view that affirmative action policies merely make for “cosmetically diverse” campuses, rather than contributing to broader social justice initiatives. Jay and Jane’s conversation is followed by a debate between two guests with starkly different views. Ian Rowe, the former chief executive of Public Prep, a nonprofit charter school network, believes that race-based affirmative action needs to be retired in favor of class-based solutions. Natasha Warikoo, a professor of sociology at Tufts University, believes affirmative action is worth saving, and we should find ways to reframe it. What is your take on affirmative action: end it, or keep it? We want to hear from you. Share your thoughts in the comments on this page once you’ve listened to the debate.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Jane Poston. This is the argument.

0:04.4

Last week I called up my colleague, friend, and fellow sports officiagnato, J. Caspey and

0:12.3

Kang.

0:13.3

What's your sense of all this bangle stuff?

0:15.6

It feels incorrect.

0:17.8

It's weird.

0:19.9

It's seeing bangle's super bowl stuff.

0:22.5

Like obviously, I want to get something, but I feel like wearing it will break it.

0:28.1

When he's not helping me sort through my complicated feelings about the Cincinnati bangle's going

0:36.5

to the Super Bowl, a set and set feels wrong somehow.

0:40.4

Jay is a writer at Times Opinion and at the Times Magazine.

0:43.8

And lately, he's been writing a lot about affirmative action in college admissions.

0:47.4

It's a topic that's been in the news a lot lately, because the Supreme Court just agreed

0:51.4

to hear two big cases that could spell the end of race-conscious admissions policies

0:56.0

that go back to the Civil Rights era.

0:58.6

Whether or not affirmative action is the right way to make college more equitable is a big

1:02.3

debate.

1:03.3

And it's one I've been wanting to have on this show for a while now.

1:07.2

If we believe that all these practices are just to make the campus a better place, then

1:13.9

I think that's fine.

1:14.9

You can make those arguments.

1:15.9

I just think that we shouldn't make these arguments that these are somehow like massive, restorative

...

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