MSNBC’s Joy Reid claimed that the only reason she got into Harvard University was because of affirmative action, slamming the recent SCOTUS decision on the topic.
Last week, the Supreme Court finally struck down affirmative action when it came to university admissions, ruling in a 6-3 decision that racial preferences or quotas violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race,” Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that ending up directly striking down the admissions policies of both the University of North Carolina and Harvard.
“Many universities have for far too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
Speaking to Chris Hayes last week, Joy Reid, who is black, suggested that the “only” reason she ever got into Harvard was because of affirmative action. “I went to a school no one had ever heard of in Denver, Colorado, in a small suburb. I didn’t go to a prestigious high school like Exeter or Andover. I didn’t have college test prep,” she said.
Reid claimed that when she attended the prestigious institution, her “presence was questioned by white people… I was in this big conference class where some white students stood up and said, those students, the black students, they’re only here because affirmative action. It became a huge argument that we all ended up having.”
Exactly. The misconception that affirmative action meant unqualified people have been admitted into college solely because of their race was never true and is quite frankly an ignorant interpretation. Thank you @joyannreid for setting the record straight and sharing your truth! pic.twitter.com/l7WevN1DuW
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) July 1, 2023
Conservative black commentator CJ Pearson slammed Reid in a video posted to Twitter that has received over 1.4 million views at the time of writing, noting that Reid claiming affirmative action got her into Harvard wasn’t “the flex that [she thinks] it is,” and was actually “pretty damn embarassing”:
“I would honestly much rather have achieve the accomplishment than have people wondering for the rest of my life whether I had actually earned it, or whether I had just got it because he was black. Because here’s the deal, and maybe this is the difference between me and you Joy. I don’t need my blackness to open doors for me. My work ethic will, my passion will, my drive will, my ambition will. That is all that I need, and the idea that black people need affirmative action just to be as good as the white man is a racist idea within itself.”
🔴 NEW VIDEO: @JoyAnnReid recently proclaimed that the only reason she got into Harvard was due to affirmative action.
Imagine ADMITTING to something so embarrassing.
Unlike Joy, I applaud the SCOTUS for its decision to stop treating my blackness like a disability. pic.twitter.com/HgdHnMgY1E
— CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) July 2, 2023
Following the SCOTUS decision, Harvard suggested in an email sent to reporters that it believes it can use essays from prospective students to racial attributes of individuals and admit them accordingly.
It’s not that universities have used the oppressor/oppressed system to make decisions. It’s that the entire United States of America is now based on this explicitly communist way of thinking. That’s why one ruling won’t change anything. It cannot be ALLOWED to change anything. https://t.co/DnLQpg5fi2
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) June 29, 2023
