I read something yesterday that was saying that affirmative action is bad because it’s equivalent to saying that minority students cannot get into college on their own merits. No, just no. Affirmative action is a countermeasure that has been enacted in order to combat the social, economic and educational inequality that was institutionalized by state and federal government until recently. Yet some would argue this is still institutionalized today.

Brown v. Board of Education — which held that segregated schools for black and white students were unconstitutional — was decided in May 1954, almost exactly 60 years ago. That means that there have only been two to four generations of students who received education from integrated schools. “Separate but equal” was a destructive myth, and the destruction can be seen today. The United States has suppressed entire generations of students on the basis of race. Modern “white flight”, which occurs especially in areas such as rural Mississippi where I worked last year, continues this harmful process. Policy-makers send their children to private schools that show little integration while continually cutting public education funding and progress. Our schools are still separate, and still unequal, in many cases.