Democrats are out of touch with American opinion on affirmative action
Jack Elbaum
As the Supreme Court prepares to release its decisions on affirmative action later this summer — likely ruling that the 14th Amendment and Civil Rights Act bar “the use of racial preferences by public colleges and universities” — a new poll from the Pew Research Center sheds light on Americans’ views on the subject.
Pew finds that 50% of American adults disapprove of “selective colleges and universities taking prospective students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds into account when making admissions decisions,” while only 33% approve.
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There is not a single racial group whose majority approves of affirmative action.
There is a 29-point gap between approval and disapproval among whites, a 15-point gap among Asians, and an equal proportion of approval and disapproval among Hispanics. Black Americans are the only group whose plurality approves of affirmative action — but it does not even reach 50%.
These findings should not be surprising, as polling has long demonstrated that racial preferences in admissions are deeply unpopular.
A 2019 Pew survey found that 73% of Americans said they believed race should play no role in admissions decisions — including 62% of blacks. And a poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in 2018 found that “72% of U.S. adults oppose giving preference to Black Americans in hiring and promotion.”
One reason the proportion was likely lower in the most recent Pew poll is due to the framing of the question.
It asked the question and then added at the end that the goal of considering race is to “increase racial and ethnic diversity at the school.” So the question essentially included the argument in favor of the policy it was asking about.
That is textbook response bias. The true proportion of Americans who oppose racial preferences is likely even higher than stated in the newest poll.
Even so, this Pew poll suggests that the view of the Democratic party on this issue — namely, that affirmative action is exceptionally important — is seriously out of line with most Americans.
It makes sense that most Americans feel the way they do.
The idea that we are going to make important decisions on the basis of skin color rather than merit sits uneasily with many people because so much of American history has been dedicated to trying to move beyond race-based policies. Writer Coleman Hughes points out that even the phrase “affirmative action” is a euphemism that can be more accurately described as “racial preferences.”
Additionally, there is serious doubt whether affirmative action even truly benefits Black Americans.
Research on the “mismatch” effect and the policy’s disproportionate benefit for high-income blacks suggests it is not at all clear if affirmative action is achieving its intended goal.
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Democrats should consider Americans’ true views on affirmative action before they try to mobilize the nation against it in protest following the Supreme Court’s inevitable decision. It could save them from some added unpopularity, and it could save the country from more unnecessary polarization.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.