The Injustice of Ending Affirmative Action while Allowing Legacy Admissions to Persist

There I was, glued to my laptop. The Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, decreed that college administrators violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment when they decide admission based on racial factors. In an afternoon, the court had stripped away one of the primary measures that had sought to counteract the racial disparities deeply embedded within our society.

But what strikes me as particularly hypocritical is the acceptance of legacy admissions—a system that has long favored the privileged. It's an insidious practice where children of alumni are given a significant edge during the admission process. This, by any measure, is a perpetuation of privilege, an indirect means of preserving a deeply ingrained social hierarchy. In a society that claims to value meritocracy, how can we allow legacy admissions to persist unchecked? It is fundamentally unfair.

While the affirmative action policy has always been the subject of public scrutiny and debate, legacy admissions seems to have been given a pass. Let me ask you this: If it's unjust to consider race in college admissions, isn't it just as unjust to consider who one's parents are?

If colleges and universities truly aim to cultivate a student body that mirrors the diversity and inclusivity of the real world, then legacy admissions must be the next domino to fall.

Legacy admissions are a perpetuation of privilege. It's a form of institutional racism, a system that disproportionately benefits white students from wealthy families who've attended these prestigious institutions for generations. Selective outrage against affirmative action and the silent acceptance of legacy admissions is wrong.