Kerby Anderson

Victor Davis Hanson argues that the “end of affirmative action was inevitable.” He provided ten reasons why it died. Here are five of them.

First, “supporters of racial preferences always pushed back the goalposts for the program’s success.” How long was this reverse bias supposed to last? We never heard a clear answer.

Second, “the true barometer of privilege was rendered meaningless.” He talks about “truly privileged” people (like Barack and Michelle Obama) lecturing the country about its unfairness, “as if they had it far rougher than the impoverished deplorable of East Palestine, Ohio.”

Third, affirmative action supporters were never able to explain why the racial sins of prior generations fell on individuals today. And why should “those who had never experienced institutionalized racism, much less Jim Crow,” be collectively compensated today?

He also argues that there was never a “rainbow” coalition of shared non-white victimhood. For example, Asians have been subjected to “coerced internment, immigration restrictions, and zoning exclusions.” Yet they as a racial group do better economically and have longer life expectancies than any other racial group.

Finally, intermarriage and mass migration made it more and more difficult to adjudicate affirmative action standards. Tiger Woods is half Asian American, a quarter Anglo American, an eighth African American and an eighth Native American. Then you have Senator Elizabeth Warren claiming to be Harvard’s first Native American law professor.

These are just a few reasons why the end of affirmative action was inevitable. Although the media failed to report it, most Americans agreed with the Supreme Court's decision and were ready for affirmative action to end.