Pax Christi USA deeply disappointed by Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action

On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is unlawful for colleges and universities to take race into consideration as a specific factor in admissions, thus overturning decades of affirmative action in higher education.

Pax Christi USA Executive Director Johnny Zokovitch said, “This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is a grave disappointment especially in its failure to acknowledge systemic racism. Pax Christi USA, however, will continue to keep our promise to work for racial justice.”

In light of the decision made on June 29, we share an essay written by the 2021 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Bryan Massingale. Fr. Massingale wrote this piece originally for the September/October 1996 issue of Salt of the Earth magazine; it was republished in 2014 in Romero’s Legacy 2: Faith in the City: Poverty, Politics, and Peacebuilding, Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.

The hidden faces of racism: Catholics should stand firm on affirmative action

Written by Fr. Bryan Massingale in 1996

In order to get a minority, they picked someone who was less qualified than me.” Tales of poorly qualified persons of color being advanced or preferred over better qualified whites express the worst fears of whites and occasion the deepest resentments of people of color in the current politically charged public debate on affirmative action.

For whites, affirmative action at its worst is a fundamental negation of deeply held values and beliefs such as basic fairness – “Just reward for ability and hard work” – self-reliance, and an individual’s own responsibility to make something of him- or herself. From this perspective, affirmative action connotes the granting of unfair advantage and the belief that people of color are “getting something for nothing,” that is, are being rewarded without personal effort and initiative.

To blacks, however, the sentiment that affirmative action is opening the floodgates to legions of unqualified minorities is merely a flimsy rationalization justifying the pervasive presumption that most of “them” are not, and could not be, as qualified as whites. For many African Americans and other people of color, white anxiety over affirmative action is yet another sign of the endemic refusal on the part of the dominant society to admit that racial prejudice stifles the progress of even the most qualified of black persons.

Little wonder, then, that affirmative action is one of the most volatile, delicate, and emotionally charged issues in the minefield of American race relations. Writing in 1958, the U.S. Catholic bishops declared, “The heart of the race question is moral and religious.” Yet the current public discourse over affirmative action is all too often marked by political expediency, the exploitation of racial fears, and polarizing rhetoric. These racial resentments and suspicions can overwhelm the voice of faith. I’d like to allow this voice of faith and its message of challenge and hope to shed some light on this contentious debate.

Let me state at the outset that I do not write as a neutral observer. I bring several biases to the discussion of affirmative action. I am a Christian who believes that faith in Jesus demands a special sensitivity to and concern for the poor and marginalized. I also write as an African American who has benefited from affirmative action. Without the benefit of a scholarship targeted for black students, I would have been unable to attend a prestigious Catholic university and earn my degree with highest distinction. I make a point of saying “with highest distinction” to be upfront about my profound disagreement with the opinion that affirmative action necessarily results in a lowering of quality or a denial of merit.

Finally, I cast this discussion principally in terms of the African American perspective for two reasons. It is the experience with which I am most familiar; and the granting of affirmative action to black people arouses a passion and fury which other forms of affirmative action – in particular those that benefit white women – do not. …

Use this link to read Fr. Massingale’s entire essay.

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Pax Christi USA gives thanks for and affirms the statement from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities:

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on the use of race as a factor among the considerations for college admission is more than disappointing as it ignores the more-than-apparent effects of continued racism in our society. In doing so, it undermines the work that higher education has voluntarily taken on for many decades to be a solution in a society that provides too few solutions for this social evil. At this moment of U.S. history, the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities chooses to be guided by its Catholic Social Teaching and will, within the bounds articulated by this latest decision, continue to create paths by which those in society who do not have opportunity find it at our institutions.

Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities