In upholding Harvard's admissions policy, a federal judge issued a "defiant ruling" to the forces trying to undermine affirmative action in higher education, according to Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung.
Leung joined Boston Public Radio Friday to discuss the ruling.
"Harvard won a clear cut victory," she said. The judge "also wrote it's not perfect, she recommended some of the admission officers go though implicit bias training ... but more than anything, Judge [Allison] Burroughs said we need affirmative action right now."
Leung said the ruling makes the case that America isn't ready to roll back affirmative action, and that race should remain one of many factors when considering how to make institutions representative of our society.
"The Supreme Court upheld race as part of admissions thinking you'd only need it for 25 years, so we're coming up to that 25 year mark," she said. "But because of the inequities in society now clearly we need to keep affirmative action in higher ed so that one day we will become that society when we don't think about race at all."
