The Supreme Court landmark ruling restricting affirmative actions programs was one of the most controversial decisions of the 2022-2023 term if you asked Democrats and the media.
But according to average Americans, it's one of the most expected and popular.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday the decision was not only "quite popular," but explained the data shows that "even Black Americans are unlikely to strongly object" to the ruling.
The data includes at least two major polls. A new Economist/YouGov poll, for example, showed that 59% of Americans approved of the ruling while just 27% disapproved. That's a more than two-to-one gap. The findings corroborate an ABC News poll that found Americans approve of the decision by a 20-point margin over those who dislike it.
The Post, moreover, highlighted what is "striking" about the data: Black Americans approve of the ruling:
What’s particularly striking about the Economist/YouGov poll is how Black Americans responded. Indeed, more of them actually approved of the decision (more than 4 in 10) than disapproved (fewer than 4 in 10). And more Black Americans “strongly” approved (31 percent) than disapproved (26 percent).
This finding is also in line with previous polling. While polls have long shown Black Americans in favor of affirmative action, The Washington Post-Schar School poll showed nearly half (47 percent) supported banning the use of race and ethnicity in admissions.
The Post tried to explain away black approval by attributing it to a "lack of a perceived personal connection to the policy."
But this explanation discounts the obvious reason why black Americans might oppose race-based college admissions: They know what it's like to be reduced into a monolith based on skin color.
Perhaps black Americans do not overwhelmingly support affirmative action, to the surprise of the mainstream media, because they understand precisely what Justice Clarence Thomas explained in a concurring opinion last week: that categorizing Americans by their skin color is an inherently unjust endeavor because one group always loses at the benefit of another.
"This vision of meeting social racism with government-imposed racism is thus self-defeating, resulting in a never-ending cycle of victimization," Thomas wrote.
"In the wake of the Civil War, the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment charted a way out: a colorblind Constitution that requires the government to, at long last, put aside its citizens’ skin color and focus on their individual achievements," he added.
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