California Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned that the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action will have a “significant” impact on minority communities as he declared that he was “frankly unsurprised” by the move on Thursday.
Newsom weighed in on the decision as he noted the impact of California Prop. 209, a 1996 ballot proposition that banned affirmative action in the state’s public higher education, as well as the University of California system’s end to affirmative action the year prior.
“The impact that had on Black and brown communities was profound. For those that are wondering what’s going to happen in their states, they only have to look to California to know exactly what’s going to happen,” he said
“You’re going to see a significant decline in African American and Latino admissions in institutions of higher learning.”
Data shows first-year college-age Hispanic students made up 21.5% of the population at UCLA and University of California at Berkeley in 2020, 29 percentage points under the population of college-age Hispanic students in California, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
The population of Black and Hispanic students at the state’s “selective schools” also dropped in the wake of the ban while those populations increased at “less selective public” universities, the analysis detailed.
Newsom later added that UC Berkeley admitted about 228 African American students among 7,000 admissions last year.
“I’m very concerned about this, I think you should be, as well,” Newsom said.
“I’m frankly unsurprised because we have a Supreme Court that wants to bring us back to a pre-1960s world.”