Affirmative Action Ban Continues to Inflict Severe Damage on Black Higher Educational Opportunities in California

Despite the Supreme Court’s Grutter ruling in 2003, public universities in California are still forbidden under state law from considering race in their admissions decisions. This law, enacted by public referendum in 1996, continues to have a devastating effect on black higher education opportunities in California. Blacks, who are about 8 percent of all high school graduates in California, made up only 3.4 percent of the students admitted to the University of California’s 10 campuses this year.

As expected, the impact of Proposition 209 is felt particularly severely at the most selective of the University of California campuses. There were 288 black students admitted to Berkeley this year, an increase of 10 percent from a year ago. But blacks made up only 3 percent of all admitted students at Berkeley. This is less than one half the level that prevailed prior to the enactment of the ban on race-sensitive admissions.

Only 2 percent of all students admitted to the University of California at Los Angeles for this fall’s entering class are black. There were 210 black students admitted, down from 247 a year ago. In 1997, before the ban on race-sensitive admissions went into effect, there were 485 black students admitted to UCLA.

There were 335 black students admitted to the University of California at San Diego this year. This is up slightly from a year ago but down nearly 7 percent from 1997, before the ban on affirmative action went into effect. But blacks are only 1.9 percent of all admitted students to the San Diego campus this year.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.