Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 197.0

58  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

Brown’s transformative legacy.  School segregation “has a
detrimental effect” on Black students by “denoting the infe-
riority”  of  “their  status  in  the  community”  and  by
“ ‘depriv[ing]  them  of  some  of  the  benefits  they  would  re-
ceive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.’ ”  347 U. S., 
at 494.  In sharp contrast, race-conscious college admissions
ensure that higher education is “visibly open to” and “inclu-
sive of talented and qualified individuals of every race and 
ethnicity.”  Grutter,  539  U. S.,  at  332.    These  two  uses  of 
race are not created equal.  They are not “equally objection-
able.”  Id., at 327. 
  Relatedly, JUSTICE THOMAS suggests that race-conscious
college  admissions  policies  harm  racial  minorities  by  in-
creasing  affinity-based  activities  on  college  campuses. 
Ante, at 46.  Not only is there no evidence of a causal con-
nection between the use of race in college admissions and
the supposed rise of those activities, but JUSTICE THOMAS 
points to no evidence that affinity groups cause any harm.
Affinity-based activities actually help racial minorities im-
prove  their  visibility  on  college  campuses  and  “decreas[e] 
racial  stigma  and  vulnerability  to  stereotypes”  caused  by 
“conditions of racial isolation” and “tokenization.”  U. Jaya-
kumar, Why Are All Black Students Still Sitting Together
in the Proverbial College Cafeteria?, Higher Education Re-
search Institute at UCLA (Oct. 2015); see also Brief for Re-
spondent-Students in No. 21–707, p. 42 (collecting student 
testimony  demonstrating  that  “affinity  groups  beget  im-
portant academic and social benefits” for racial minorities);
4 App. in No. 20–1199, at 1591 (Harvard Working Group on
Diversity and Inclusion Report) (noting that concerns “that 
culturally  specific  spaces  or  affinity-themed  housing  will
isolate”  student  minorities  are  misguided  because  those
spaces allow students “to come together . . . to deal with in-
tellectual, emotional, and social challenges”).

Citing no evidence, JUSTICE THOMAS also suggests that
race-conscious  admissions  programs  discriminate  against