More often than not, a legacy denotes greatness. Something to be applauded and remembered for decades and generations to come. This word though, legacy, has come to find many definitions and indicate many different meanings throughout the year 2023.
One definition for the word in Webster’s dictionary defines legacy as a candidate for membership in an organization (such as a school or fraternal order) who is given special status because of a familial relationship to a member. Based on the ongoing controversy regarding race based admissions processes, especially at Harvard University, It is safe to say Webster defined this word because of the schools history with admitting students with legacy surnames.
Affirmative action, the process of diversifying workplaces and colleges/universities by acknowledging race in a nondiscriminatory approach, aims to provide equality in not only higher education but it strives to create a diversified work environment in the future. With a vast majority of legacy students being white and therefore systematically favored, affirmative action and universities’ loyalty to legacy students and surnames cannot coexist.
With rallies, protests, and lawsuits dating back to the early 2000’s, the idea of affirmative action has been misconstrued. Rather than a system implemented to give minority students the same opportunities as their white peers, the phrase, affirmative action, has been tarnished; made out to be an unfair system giving minority students ‘the upper hand.’
Amidst the controversy the supreme court had the monumental ruling to either put affirmative action to an end (taking a step backwards in regards to racial equality). Conversely, in an attempt to truly carry out liberty and justice in all aspects, vote in favor of affirmative action.
Monumentally, they voted against race based affirmative action which immediately set minority students back, again. In an area both historically and systematically against the minority, affirmative action strived to uproot the weeds of systemic racism and deliver long overdue equity. This supreme court decision ignores what has methodically been whilst instead ignorantly nurturing the seeds of legacy surnames.
Affirmative action and university legacies cannot in fact coexist, the court’s verdict only solidifies the fact, further carrying out the sad lie of ‘legacy’. Just as those opposing the ideal have redefined affirmative action, the word legacy seems to have a new meaning as well.
In regards to affirmative action, legacy can be defined as a lie carried out by those who refuse to accept a diversified future and favor a two tiered hierarchy; the two tiered hierarchy consisting in a gap between people of color and white people, a significant gap in between.
