LATE-NIGHT MUSIC—THOUGHTS ON A SCOTUS DIVERSITY RULING
I was speaking to my therapist regarding the current climate of modern diversity challenges, especially in the legal arena recently—we had an in-depth chat on the subject. Long and short, Dr. Mack seemed to agree with me that, at times, many people do not grasp why we need it and what it entails to make it a “thing.”
What happened?
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a challenge to the admissions policy at a prestigious Virginia high school that administrators say is designed to mitigate socioeconomic and geographic barriers for prospective students.
The decision from the high court not to take up the appeal by a group of parents challenging the admissions policies at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology leaves intact a lower court decision upholding the criteria, which school officials argue is race neutral. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit concluded last year that the goal of the program is to foster diversity among the school's student body, though the parents that brought the case said it impermissibly discriminated against Asian-American students.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the court's decision not to hear the case. In a dissenting opinion joined by Thomas, Alito said the admissions model adopted by the high school "has been trumpeted to potential replicators as a blueprint for evading" the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision — CBS NEWS
This was the crux of our conversation:
I have often had Southerners ask me about Historical Black Colleges (HBCs), Black history, or businesses like Black hair salons, calling these things racist. In answer, I explain that these institutions are an answer to exclusion; in other words, they were not created to exclude but to provide or address a need in a mainstream White society.
For example, in my youth, l had a White friend who was studying to be a hairdresser. One day, I asked if she would do my hair, and she told me she couldn't.
Black hair care was a separate course, and most White hairdressers didn't learn it, especially since the course costs extra. As a result, Black hair care salons were needed to address Black hair care needs.
It wasn't às if there was a Blacks only sign on the door, in fact, l have been in hair salons getting mah did and and watching as Black hairdressers sewed weave or added extensions and Braids to White hair. This is because many Black hairdressers had to learn how to do White hair by default.
Learn more about this here:
https://crownactlaw.com/cosmetology-school-access
White is the unspoken default setting in America; everything else is the extra cost add-on.
In a roundabout way, this reality explains why some in the South act surprised by how articulate l would appear and would say so, not grasping how insulting their surprise was.
I mentioned this awkward phenomenon recently on Daily Kos. A brilliant someone advised that I politely ask the next person who reacted this way, "Well, what were you expecting?"
Oh, you know me, friends... you know me…
Certain marginalized groups labor under an automatic negative bias perception; a disservice is done to such groups when false dichotomies and cultural comparisons are made. Not all cultural experiences are the same within a nation. If that is unrecognized, it strips away history and fails to recognize how and why we are still struggling for equality.
Diversity is one socially driven way to address and help alter some of these perceptions and combat disparities. But it is not a one-size-fits-all—work, school—opportunity. There are myriad ways to address the issues and actually make the dream of true, lasting diversity real.
I saw a meme once that illustrated the concept well. It showed three people trying to look over a fence. One individual was tall and had no problem, but the others were short.
People tried to address it by giving them all the same-sized boxes to stand on.
Well, the tall person didn't need the box, however, the medium height person was now towering over the fence and the really short person still could not see. In the next frame, everyone was given a box relative to their height differential, and all could now see equally and comfortably over the fence. I wish society grasped the simple idea that true equality will be addressed when individual unique challenges are addressed in individual and unique ways.
This will mean considering the challenges each marginalized group has that are specific to their community. For instance, I do not need gender-affirming care, but a trans person does. Helping them get the medical care they need can assist equality and diversity.
So, Alito and Clarence Thomas can take their non-too-surprising dissent and shove it up their entire evah-luvin—especially sell-out Uncle Thomas. Speaking of, one can just imagine their jacked-up take on Trump’s immunity claim.
Hey Clarence, recuse yourself from the immunity case, man, or forever damn the Supreme Court with your taint.
Peace out!
MY SUBSTACK