I am proud to have recently completed my first year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — one of the two universities involved in the recent Supreme Court rulings that overturned affirmative action. As a Black student who has benefited from affirmative action, I am living proof of the power of these policies. I am not an exception, but one of many students whose lives have been transformed by the opportunity to learn in a diverse environment. The Supreme Court's decision threatens the future of these inclusive stories.
A year ago, I joined the legions of high school seniors navigating the complex terrain of college applications. After applying to 15 universities — ranging from local ones like the University of Alabama at Birmingham to prestigious institutions like Harvard University — I was fortunate to receive acceptances from all 15 and merit scholarships from 11, amounting to a total of over $2 million.
I learned about the power of diverse narratives firsthand after sharing my college admissions experience on TikTok. The video garnered 9.7 million views. Most rewarding were the dozens of students who reached out, telling me how my journey inspired them to strive for their own successes in the following year’s application cycle.
Yet, I also received several comments on my video undermining my achievements including, “Yes, because Blacks are not required to work and study as hard. They get in based on color. If he were white, he wouldn't have got[ten] in.” Blinded by misconceptions about affirmative action policies, some attributed my success more to my race than to my accomplishments. These included becoming valedictorian at Alabama’s largest high school, participating in the television show Jeopardy, and captaining my school’s varsity soccer team.
In my high school, where more than 27% of students were Black, I was the only Black male in all seven of my Advanced Placement classes during my senior year. At UNC, by contrast, I’ve had the privilege of learning within diverse classrooms. Our vibrantly varied student body, where unique experiences and backgrounds collide, has enriched my educational experience immensely. But this diversity is not accidental. It's the result of intentional policies designed to ensure our student body reflects North Carolina's rich and diverse population.
By ruling against race-conscious admissions, the Supreme Court has implicitly endorsed the illusion of a meritocratic college admissions system. The reality is that this process inherently favors wealthier, white applicants due to policies such as legacy admissions and structural educational inequities. For example, both SAT scores and essay content and style are strongly correlated with household income.
Data from a 2019 National Bureau of Economic Research paper revealed that 43% of white students accepted into Harvard were recruited athletes, legacy students, children of faculty and staff, or on the dean’s “interest list” (those with family members who had made donations to Harvard). Furthermore, it found that a striking 70% of the legacy applicants to Harvard were white. At UNC, there’s a similar history of exclusion, where the university practices legacy admissions yet did not admit its first Black undergraduates until 1955, a time when these Black students were not even legally entitled to the same civil and voting rights as their peers. The glaring paradox of an admissions system that sustains inequality while hindering efforts to rectify poses a significant challenge to our pursuit of fair and equitable admissions.
It’s also crucial to highlight that racial disparities exist distinctly from socioeconomic status. Research from Opportunity Insights, a nonpartisan policy institute at Harvard University focused on improving economic opportunity, reveals that even when boys grow up in the same neighborhood with parents who earn similar incomes, Black boys experience worse economic mobility than white boys in 99% of the country. While both Black and white boys have better outcomes in low-poverty areas, black-white gaps are even larger on average in these neighborhoods, demonstrating the unique yet powerful impact of race on mobility.
Affirmative action may not be flawless, as evidenced by admissions officers’ own biases, but it's crucial that schools have the opportunity to consider race when curating a diverse student body. It is impossible to be colorblind in admissions when our nation itself is not colorblind in academic discipline, in social mobility, in imprisonment rates, in academic achievement, in hospitals — in its history, or in its present.
Minority youth of today are fighting not only for college admission but for the recognition of our worth, our struggles, and our potential. We are advocating for a future where our children won't have to defend their rights to exist in diverse spaces. The Supreme Court's decision to overturn affirmative action is a disturbing testament to our nation's contemporary values.
Still, we will continue to share our stories, to challenge misconceptions, and to fight for a more inclusive and equitable education system. We will continue to hope and work for a day when our nation's schools and universities reflect the rich diversity of our nation itself.
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
