We will talk to a few key people about this.
Andrew and 2019 unz chapel hill grad heading to Columbia law school, the son of two attorneys
and he told CNN last year his parents taught him how affirmative action helped black families
prosper and testified in a lower court hearing on this case and then attended the supreme
court's oral arguments.
Kyra graduated from uc Berkeley last spring, the first in her family to finish college.
She told "The New York Times" about what she faced at Berkeley.
Quote black students refer to themselves as the 1.9% share their of the student population
down from the double digits just a year before the ban you feel isolated, she said.
Also with us Janice Jackson, the former Chicago public schools chief.
She is now the CEO of hope Chicago which pays for college for thousands of Chicago area
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for thousands of Chicago area students and their parents in its first year they say college
enrollment for students at the schools they work with jumped 30%.
Here is what she told "60 minutes."
>> We have to catch up.
That's the bottom line.
Do believe education is the single most powerful way to disrupt generational poverty.
It is.
>> Former president Obama yesterday highlighted hope Chicago's work his statement after the
supreme court ruling.
Andrew, Kyra, Janice, join me now.
Good morning.
Andrew, what is striking and I think important is the way that you discuss affirmative action,
the role it has had in your life, and you don't shy away from the fact that you have
even said I may not have been at Columbia law school but for this.
Here's why it is so important.
Can you speak to the decision, Andrew?
>> Absolutely.
You know, yesterday's decision was disappointing.
When I first came to unc chapel hill I was one of 11% of the
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hill I was one of 11% of the campus that was African American in a state of North Carolina
that was 22% African American.
I grown up in the south my entire life, but it wasn't until being on campus at unc that
I had witnessed my first confederate rally.
It was in that context that this lawsuit was brought and it's why so many students of color
like myself sought to intervene in the lawsuit so our perspective could be included in the
record.
>> Kyrie, could you speak to your experience at Berkeley?
I read a little bit of what you told "The New York Times" about being called the 1.9%,
but also people there questioning if you should be there or if was just because of your race,
which is, you know, not based on fact given race-conscious admissions have been banned
there more than two decades.
Do you support what the court did here?
>> No, absolutely not.
It's already very difficult at uc Berkeley and all public
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uc Berkeley and all public schools in California who have been struggling to get the numbers
back up since 1996, they have to do -- they have to circumvent the laws in a way like
students have to put in so much work, students are so overworked at uc Berkeley, especially
black students, because they have to put in extra recruitment efforts due to prop 209
being passed banning affirmative action in 1996.
So it was very difficult to even get black students to attend, and also my first year
uc Berkeley was rated the lowest uc for black students in, like, it was the worst through
a usc study.
That being my first year was a real shock to me and students were upset and we to put
in even more work to make students even want to come to uc Berkeley.
It was very difficult and I do not agree with the ruling at all.
>> Justice Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion while I am
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concurring opinion while I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have
befallen my race, I hold that enduring hope that this country lifts up to its principle
in declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, are equal citizens and
must be treated equally before the law.
He sees this as finally treating black suicide equally and you say?
>> The declaration of Independence was written when black people were slaves.
So I wouldn't necessarily take something that was written when, you know, black people weren't
even allowed to have education, and that goes to show how hard black people have had it
versus others.
Especially in this country, especially African Americans in this country who have a legacy
of being beaten down and having to, like, pull ourselves up by
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to, like, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, for lack of better words, to even get where
we are.
So we need things like affirmative action to level the playing field for us.
>> And the whole case is centered around the 14th amendment and what equal protection actually
is.
Janice, to you.
The reason I really -- I am so glad you could join us this morning is because you work with
the kids, the work that you do at hope Chicago, I should note, obviously, something started
by a friend of mine.
But what you do there is send children to college for free and one of their parents.
So I'm interested in what this will mean for them one year, two years, ten years down the
line.
>> Yeah.
Well, make no mistake.
The decision was definitely a setback students and Latino students across the country.
At hope Chicago, we introduced this as a solution to make sure and remove barriers for black
and Latino students and
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and Latino students and first-generation students to have access to college.
This closes another door.
As Kyra pointed out, you will see more students having to circumvent different processes which
is another barrier towards the promise of education.
I think educators and decisionmakers across this country are upset by this, but my message
to folks is we have to get out here and think creatively how we don't lose the ground we
made the past generation.
Make no mistake.
There are no bright spots what happened yesterday.
>> Do you think you can do that?
Does this ruling make your job harder getting those kids into the --
>> Absolutely.
>> Even with the window -- >> Absolutely.
>> That justice Roberts pointed out saying you can write about it in essays, you just
can't check a box.
>> Yeah.
Let's take a step back.
Black and Latino first-generation students have always had to be twice as good and do
much more to have equal access.
That has been a vestige of our public education and higher Ed
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public education and higher Ed system for entries in this country.
When you continue to put laws in place that make it more difficult, not only is it more
difficult for the students and the families, it's much more difficult for the colleges
who have made tremendous strides in trying to diversify their student body.
This makes it harder.
And you only have to look at California and look at what prop 20 9ds did.
You see a complete reduction in black students in particular attending some of the most elite
universities in California.
We should expect to see same thing across this country.
But I would also challenge people to lift up their voices and do things like what we
are doing at hope Chicago to remove more barriers.
>> Andrew, final question you to.
Your family -- a little background for folks.
You are family is upper middle class.
Your father was Dean at Kentucky law school.
It relates to what justice Robert said, let's say -- talking about any student, viewpoints
are close with white applicants, his parents went to
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applicants, his parents went to Harvard, he is a legacy, under your system when he checks
African American he gets a tip.
That was the question that justice Roberts raised.
What is your reaction to that?
>> Well, I think first of all putting aside the fact -- sorry?
>> Go ahead.
>> Can you hear me?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
Putting aside the fact that justice Roberts' comments ignore facts in this case and how
unc actually uses race in the admissions process, I think it speaks to a fundamental fallacy
here.
You can't have a race-blind admissions process when our country itself isn't race blind.
So the answer to the question is, yes.
Even the sons of law school deans experience racial harassment, racial hostility, and racial
prejudice on a regular basis.
The subject of my college admissions essay was about how throughout high school I was
called an oreo.
I was black on the outside and white on the inside because I
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white on the inside because I got good grades in school.
That's the kind of experiences that black students need to write about.
As justice Sotomayor pointed out in her dissent.
Because of the decision, the police can consider my race when assessing my suspicion of a crime,
but a college admissions officer can't consider my race when assessing my potential to contribute
to a college campus.
That is the tortured logic at play here.
And everyone is hurt by that, not just black and brown students.
Everyone benefits from diverse campuses and they are under threat because of this decision.
>> Andrew, Kyra, Janice, thank