Abstract
70 years after Brown, students of color remain underrepresented in U.S. colleges and universities and in professions like law, medicine, business, and academia, which, in turn, drives inequitable social and economic outcomes. Recent Supreme Court decisions threaten to further exacerbate this inequity by preventing schools from considering race when making admissions decisions and shaping their classes. This article contends that by placing greater emphasis on applicants’ experiences of race, admissions officers can more accurately assess merit, improve services to disadvantaged communities, and achieve the pedagogical benefits of diversity. The article situates the lived experience approach within a well-established tradition permitting the consideration of racialized experience in contexts from K-12 admissions and redistricting to criminal investigations and reparations. Although compliance with current legal interpretations is important in the near term, the lived experience approach’s greatest promise lies in advancing the true purpose of the Reconstruction Amendments—actively dismantling racial inequities and actualizing a multiracial democracy.
Recommended Citation
Taonga Leslie and Claire Comey,
The Promise of Lived Experience: Assessing Race and Merit After SFFA,
20
Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol'y.
58
(2024).
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njlsp/vol20/iss1/3
