On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling on racial preferences in college admissions and stated that in the wake of the decision, schools will be forced to look at cutting down on legacy admissions if they want diverse student bodies.
Khanna stated, “Andrea, what isn’t being talked about enough is the harm this is going to do for students, not just black and Latino students, but white and Asian American students. Consider students going to Harvard who want to become the future political leaders in this country, the future president, senators, congresspeople, do you think they’re going to have a better chance of doing that and doing that successfully if they’re in classes that don’t have adequate representation from African Americans and Latinos? Are they going to understand the country? Or think if someone wants to be CEO of Google or Apple in my district. I can tell you, from talking to those CEOs, how much they have to interact with people in every diverse community. You’re doing a terrible disservice to the future leaders of this country in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy.”
He added that in the wake of the decision, schools will try to look more towards student essays and are “going to have to look — as you’ve discussed earlier — about not having as many legacy admissions, not having as much reliance on standardized test scores.”
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