On June 23rd, 2023, the Supreme Court officially ruled against race-conscious college admissions. These strategies would have acted as a government-based solution to the ongoing discrimination faced by People Of Color (POC) across the United States of America in terms of educational and employment opportunities. The 6-3 ruling shut down the efforts of Democrats in the U.S to “balance the scale” and provide meaningful effort to rewrite years of systematic racism that has created barriers and obstacles in the face of POC aiming to rise up through the American Dream. Based on his writings in The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin would have criticized repealing Affirmative Action as America’s attempt to keep POC in “their place.” Baldwin’s essays presented his detailed critiques regarding the system black people have been entrapped in where, “white people… had robbed black people of their liberty and…profited by this theft every hour that they lived” (Baldwin 23). James Baldwin would believe that the Supreme Court’s ruling will continue to be of benefit for America’s “countrymen” as they profit off of the lack of liberty underprivileged people are robbed from. 

In Baldwin’s perspective, America fails to properly equip historically under-resourced communities with tools necessary for success. Baldwin believes that society would only regress with a ‘colorblind’ decision where color is needed to be seen. Baldwin says that “one would never defeat [their] circumstances by working” and that even the most successful black people need  a “handle, a lever” (Baldwin 21). This handle can be interpreted as a policy that would improve opportunities not usually provided for certain demographics as it would allow them to grasp it as they attempt to move up. The lever, when pulled and activated, makes up for the world where “white people hold the power” and the “innumerable ways” the difference is known, felt, and feared. Evidently, Affirmative Action was banned under the premise of violating the Equal Protection Act under the 14th Amendment that should ensure an absence of discrimination and provide similar treatment towards everyone in similar “conditions and circumstances” (“Equal Protection Act”). But to challenge this notion, there cannot be equal treatment where there have never been similar opportunities or experiences i.e. educational and labor opportunities in the United States of America. Race has, on numerous occasions, been used to prevent POC from reaching positions of power in this country. When they are not in similar conditions and circumstances, how can equality be the solution where equity is needed? So in order to truly serve the underprivileged, there must be a lever in place to act as a tool for success.

While many argue that Affirmative Action is not an adequate solution for racial inequity, it is evidently clear that ignoring racial inequality is not an effective solution either. It is apparent that while the policy is not in effect, “forty-three percent of the nation’s private school students [attend] virtually all-white schools, compared to 27 percent of public-school students” (“The overwhelming whiteness of U.S. private schools, in six maps and charts”). This becomes a new form of segregation when the most elite educational institutions lack racial diversity and clarifies the issue of inequality. When this is clear, it is unjust to reject a policy that would provide a necessary “lever.” In New York City specifically, there is what the New York Times refers to as a “racial divide” when specialized high schools act as feeder schools to private colleges but their admissions are statistically represented as 7 out of 895 seats offered to black students (“Segregation Has Been the Story of New York City’s Schools for 50 Years). Affirmative Action is made to take this into account and all of the opportunities missed due to not having advantages such as specialized and advanced teaching/tools that would make one more likely to be admitted to private college. It takes into account one’s identity that may have introduced obstacles in their life, both modernally and historically when the notion of just “working hard enough” is proven to be falsely advertised. 

In Baldwin’s perspective, the shift in power would be similar to a disruption in the universe that “is terrifying because it so profoundly attacks one’s sense of one’s own reality” (Baldwin 9). This threat comes to those in power who believe the only way of maintaining it is by preventing others from reaching it. He states that “the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star”- black men inferior to white and this social structure being repeated so often that it is almost permanent. But a certain terror grows as the black man “moves out of his place” where “heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations” (Baldwin 9). To move out of one’s place is to advance, grow, and prosper. In turn, Affirmative Action becomes threatening because without it, elite institutions remain white. The lack of opportunity given to the fixed stars of the world stems from fear as they may become the sun and prove to have the ability to outshine those that have always been able to move freely. Baldwin eloquently writes that “in order to deal with the untapped and dormant force of the previously subjugated…America and all the Western nations will be forced to reexamine themselves and release themselves from many things that are now taken to be sacred” (Baldwin 44). The dormant force of those systematically oppressed is a powerful one that has been purposefully diluted because otherwise, it is again, threatening. Creating equity is admitting that the current foundations are not fair even though those very foundations are what created the sacrality of power in the hands of a few. It is ultimately an opportunity gap, as Trevor Noah describes it on The Daily Show, an opportunity gap that continues to grow when even the means for success given are stripped away and manipulated. In his book Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, he writes that “In any society built on institutionalized racism, race mixing doesn’t merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent” (Noah 21). While he speaks of mixing races in a literal, reproductive, sense, this applies to the mixing in spaces. In opportunity, position, and power, successful mixing of race and diverse think tanks proves the ideologies that encourage segregated spaces to be false. It proves that diverse spaces thrive and support advancement. Being in agreement with Baldwin, Noah would criticize the rejection of Affirmative Action for failing to recognize its benefits. 

In reality, race plays an extremely important role in most processes of admission. The infamous Personal Essay is directly meant to understand one’s background in a holistic measure. The prompts are aimed to learn about an individual as a whole including the context in which they grew up–most of which includes race. One’s race is part of their identity, which has a high probability of having greatly influenced their life, their struggles, and the situations that shaped the student they are applying as. Race-conscious scholarships and programs come under attack when a policy like this is denied and abandoned, though it was created to assist those in need of policy-based change. While it may be flawed, Affirmative Action aims to allow students and prospective workers to access their potential where they would otherwise be behind. From James Baldwin to Trevor Noah, philosophical thinkers and writers agree that historical patterns of hindrance towards minorities will never be fully transformed unless we start from the foundation.

Works Cited 

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. Rev. ed. Vintage, 1992.

Brown, Emma. “The Overwhelming Whiteness of U.S. Private Schools, in Six Maps and Charts.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 28 Oct. 2021. 

“Equal Protection.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023. 

Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime Stories from a South African Childhood. Cornelsen, 2020. 

Shapiro, Eliza. “Segregation Has Been the Story of New York City’s Schools for 50 Years.” The New York Times, 26 Mar. 2019.