Journal article
Loyalty, Diversity, and Colorblindness
Tennessee law review, Vol.79(4), p891
22 Jun 2012
Abstract
On October 10, 2012, the Supreme Court considered whether a public university can legally consider race in admissions for the first time since it decided Grutter and Gratz in 2003. The Fifth Circuit case under review, Fisher v. Texas, upheld the University of Texas's narrow consideration of race in undergraduate admissions. The Circuit Court opinions in Fisher articulate two competing narratives: one lending great deference to university administrators in their efforts to promote diversity and the other privileging strict colorblindness in the admissions process.'
This Article argues that both diversity and colorblindness are important national aspirations and that Fisher can be understood as being illustrative of a direct conflict between the two. It frames this conflict as a clash between two deeply held loyalties to which the Supreme Court, through a number of precedents, has long sought to adhere, but which, in this instance, simply cannot coexist. Relying upon loyalty literature from the social sciences and humanities, this Article shows that conflicts between loyalties are often difficult for individuals (including judges) to resolve, particularly when the loyalties are important and longstanding. After showing that norms in favor of diversity and widespread inclusion are now deeply entrenched in contemporary society--not only in education but in the corporate and public sectors as well-this Article discusses Fisher in the loyalty context. It then argues that because most efforts aimed at promoting diversity could be rendered illegal pursuant to a reading of strict colorblindness into the Constitution, the Court should privilege diversity in order to permit limited, good faith deviations from the colorblindness aspiration to continue. The alternative, a privileging of strict colorblindness over race-conscious efforts aimed at diversification, has the potential to reverberate far beyond public school admissions and radically reshape both the private and public sectors.
Metrics
9 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Loyalty, Diversity, and Colorblindness
- Creators
- Bret D Asbury
- Publication Details
- Tennessee law review, Vol.79(4), p891
- Publisher
- Tennessee Law Review Association Inc
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Identifiers
- 991020535065304721