After decades of aggressive efforts from right-wing forces, the Supreme Court outlawed race-conscious admissions at universities, dismantling progress and crippling the potential of racial diversity and pluralism at our nation’s institutions of higher education.

Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking for the majority, argued that “the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race.” He was joined by conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The court did not prohibit considering students’ backgrounds and circumstances in holistic reviews of their profiles. Thus, admissions officers can still give credit to applicants who have overcome challenges relating to their race or who would bring unique experiences to campus. Interestingly, the ruling did not apply to military academies.

President Biden said the Supreme Court has done “more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history.”

In her blistering dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson zeroed in on the irony of the decision being based on the equal-protection clause. “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announced, ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,” Jackson wrote. “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” Brown Jackson is right on target in her analysis.

It was notable and disturbing that Thomas has been one of the most ardent opponents of affirmative action, even though that policy afforded him the opportunity to enroll at Yale Law School. It’s also a reason he is on the Supreme Court. He was a Black conservative who was in “the right place at the right time.” Such hypocrisy leaves much to be desired.

Many like to argue for a colorblind society by invoking the powerful words of Martin Luther King Jr., that people be judged not on the color of their skin, but rather, the content of their character. There are numerous problems with such an idealistic but misguided demand.

While America is a very colorful, racially diverse, and pluralistic society, our history has been anything but. While racial progress has indeed occurred on some level, the nation is far from the utopia that King envisioned for it to become. Rather than being colorblind, we are a deeply endemic color-conscious, economically stratified and segregated society.

Factors such as endemic poverty, systemic and systematic racism, sophisticated and subtle discrimination, and lack of access to the mainstream are searing perennial issues for those who are victims of such social inequities and inequalities.

Economic and structural racism, educational disparities, environmental racism, health disparities, and chronically segregated communities are unalterable and undeniable realities in the lives of many poor people of color and indigenous populations. Race-based remedies in college admissions can level a dramatically uneven playing field.

The majority of conservatives who denounce affirmative action are the very same individuals who rabidly mock and ridicule the strengths and advantages a diverse society provides. People of color have not been a genuine priority for them. The disingenuous responses of many on the right to the court’s decision reveal such a sinister truth.

Despite the recent court decision, the truth is that diversity is indeed our nation’s strength. That holds true for higher education as well. Future demographics will continue to demand a multi-racial workforce to meet the demands of its population. Thus, it is incumbent that our colleges and universities are producing a student body that accurately reflects the racial makeup of its citizenry.

While those on the right may declare victory, those of us who are dedicated to equality must work to make sure that such a sinister celebration is pyrrhic and temporary. As the late, self-described Black, feminist, lesbian warrior poet, Audre Lorde so deftly stated, “the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.”

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies. He is also an author and public speaker.