four steps backward, one step forward

Once again this extreme conservative Court has overturned established law. The elite whites have been trying to get rid of affirmative action since its inception and they finally got their way. Considering race (and in this case race means black or brown as if white is not [when actually there is only one race, the human race, whose skin color includes the whole spectrum]) for admission is bad but considering legacy, how much your parents have donated, and how good you are at elite sports like sculling are fine. That legacy, money, and elite sports are almost completely white is of no consequence. All things should be equal they say but that is not what they really want. If you have a black student, only their grades and community participation should matter and yet when you have a black student excelling in academics and a white student excelling in academics but the white student is a legacy applicant or has parents rich enough to 'buy' a spot or who went to an elite prep school and excelled in an elite sport that isn't offered in your run of the mill education system where football and baseball are king, which student do you think they choose? If all things should be equal then legacy, money, and obscure sports should not be considered at all. But that's not how it works. Without affirmative action we all know that all things being equal the white student is chosen over the black student precisely because of the color of the white student's skin.

Having a diverse student population exposes all students to the wider world, the entire spectrum of the human experience which can only be beneficial to this country and the world at large. The color of your skin does not define what you are capable of achieving given equal opportunities. Unfortunately this country was built with slavery and once abolished white people in power institutionalized discrimination against people of color via segregation and terror initially and once segregation was abolished discrimination still persisted. How many qualified black employees have been passed over for that promotion or even worse, not even considered because of the color of their skin? Even now through voter suppression, gerrymandering in states with large black populations make sure that they have minimal representation. Fortunately the Court did get that one right and these states are going to have to redraw their voting districts to give their people of color better representation.

Two other disastrous decisions were handed down this week concerning discrimination. Student loan forgiveness was declared unconstitutional so those who had to take out loans in order to better themselves will still be burdened with usurious repayment conditions that in many cases prevent the person from ever paying it off so it becomes a lifetime drain on their finances. When you've paid into your debt for 30 years you shouldn't still owe the same amount. The program would not have wiped out entire debts or even apply to all people with student loans. Only those individuals making less than $125,00 a year would qualify and then the maximum relief would have been $10K or $20K for Pell Grant recipients. They would still owe the remainder of their loan. This country bails out banks and the oil industry and the airline industry that fail due to their own poor business practices costing far more than the amount that would be forgiven students and no one squawks. Nearly twice as much that the student loan forgiveness program would cost was forgiven with the PPP loans and many republican congresspeople applied for and got a PPP loan, some upwards of a million dollars and those republicans had no problem thinking their loans should be forgiven. But as we have seen with every no vote by republicans on every bill intended to relieve or benefit the middle and working classes, unless you are rich you'll get no help from them. But if you are a millionaire or billionaire they're right behind you eager to hand out more tax cuts to the 2% increasing the national debt and starving the programs that actually build up the country and its citizens.

The last decision legalizes discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community, an already marginalized group that has seen an increase in violence and restrictive laws in the past few years. In this case a web designer filed suit about a hypothetical request. As a christian she is opposed to same sex marriage and does not want to be compelled to create a website for a same sex couple. She feels that if she creates a website for a same sex couple it is the same as endorsing same sex marriage which is bullshit. As an artist I created work for people I didn't particularly like for a myriad of reasons but at no time did I ever think that my creativity for them meant I approved of their behavior and the way they lived their lives. But apparently, now, in this country if you are a christian (because I sincerely doubt this same tack would be allowed adherents to any of the other religions in this country especially if the people being denied were christian), all you have to do is put the words 'deeply held religious belief' in front of whatever it is you object to to be able to legally discriminate whether it means not doing the job you were hired for like refusing to issue a marriage license to same sex couples or refusing to fill medical prescriptions or refusing to create a product for people you think are icky as if making a cake or a website makes you complicit. If that were the case then every gun manufacturer is complicit in every gun death. When you carve out one exception that allows legal discrimination then other carve outs will follow. Next it will be interracial marriage they will refuse to serve. Then it will be denying women a credit card or bank account. This court of ethically deficient justices, justices who we have learned have taken enormous amounts of unreported gifts and vacations, travel and accomodations from people who have cases before the court and did not recuse themselves, has already allowed medical discrimination towards women, refusing us our bodily autonomy and access to life saving medical procedures based on a particular religious belief that the majority of Americans do not agree with.

This court is taking us backwards, imposing the far right conservative drive to undo all the progress we have made to bring equal rights to all Americans. They complain about liberal judges legislating from the bench when that is exactly what is happening here because they can't get their unpopular policies through Congress.

And while I'm up here let me just point out those hypocritical Republican politicians who voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and are now taking credit for the money flowing in to fund projects in their states.

Edit: This case the SC issued a decision on, the Colorado web designer case allowing discrimination towards the other gendered, was not based on an actual wedding website business or an actual request from the public but just a hypothetical 'what if'. Think about that. It should never have made it to the Supreme Court. Lower courts had dismissed it.