I really appreciated this convo w/ @RickKahlenberg (a thoughtful researcher), both on the merits/empirical effects of changes to college admission and on the politics of the (Supreme Court required) changes.
Why did an ardent Bobby Kennedy liberal like @RickKahlenberg step up to testify as a key expert witness on behalf of Students for Fair Admissions, the conservative group that brought the cases against Harvard and UNC that led the US Supreme Court in 2023 to strike down race-based affirmative action in college admissions?View quoted post on X
@hyded and I asked him to join us on the latest episode of Blue City Blues (link to follow) to explain why he believes elite colleges and universities' reliance on race-based affirmative action was both politically divisive and largely functioned as a fig leaf that allowed these institutions to perpetuate class privilege.
And why he thinks the landmark - and controversial! - 2023 court ruling, which has had repercussions far beyond the confines of American campuses, was a necessary step in reforming American institutions to make them more willing to confront their complicity in reinforcing our growing class divides.
This was a fascinating conversation with the nation's foremost advocate of class-based affirmative action - and one of the most cogent and influential critics of race-based approaches to promoting diversity.
