Alli Myatt is the Co-founder of The Equity Practice, and a Public Voices Fellow through The OpEd Project. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring affirmative action programs that use race- conscious rating systems unconstitutional is like a game of chess.
It offers an opportunity to completely overhaul admissions to be more liberatory and serve the students and society better.
Growing up, my brother tried to teach me how to play chess by revealing the basics a little at a time. After I would move a piece, he would reveal another rule that would allow him to capture one of my pieces and take him one step closer to beating me at the game. He clearly designed the conditions for play so he could win. I quickly declared the game over because he was making the rules to advantage himself.
Similarly, it is necessary to declare "game over" for the current approach to elite university admissions. The SCOTUS decision inspired outrage and condemnation.
But it is crucial to not return to what was. The current admissions process was rigged from its inception to advantage rich, white people and the current model does not even predict success in school.
Audre Lorde wrote, “For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” It's time to redesign these processes with new tools.
The original intention still affects Harvard. Its legacy admission policies benefit the wealthiest in our nation.
This is not just about Harvard; other elite institutions such as Princeton, Yale, and Duke universities as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology have similar legacies. A 2017 study by economist Raj Chetty showed there were more students from families in the top 1 percent of income earners than students from the bottom 50 percent at elite colleges.
Lest someone argue admissions should focus on class and not race, it is important to note that the top 1 percent of income earners are over 90 percent white. As SCOTUS Justice Ketanji Jackson Brown stated in her dissent in the Affirmative Action Case, “Deeming race irrelevant… does not make it so in life.”
It is devastating to see the level of dismay of students of color, realizing the highest court in the land deemed them unwelcome at elite colleges and that they may buy into the lie that the only reason they could get into these schools is because of their race.
As a Black former student who attended two Ivy League colleges during my academic career, I know what it's like to have your accomplishments diminished and discounted due to your race despite evidence of your qualifications.
I also worked in admissions and have been in the rooms when these decisions are being made. I can confirm unequivocally that students of color who are admitted are extraordinary, accomplished and 100 percent deserve to be there.
As Toni Morrison once said, “The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being… None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”
Students deserve an admissions process that does not distract them from their brilliance and results in the equitable outcomes our society desperately needs.
Administrators, faculty, funders, policy makers and all stakeholders need to support colleges and universities to educate all future leaders. Society benefits when leaders reflect the entire community.
To be sure, some may name the alleged harm that happens to Asian students as a result of Affirmative Action, though several Asian leaders have refuted these claims. This SCOTUS case was bought by a white man, and no Asian student testified on his behalf.
These tactics pitting one group against another are attempts to separate people of color from each other and keep them from acting in solidarity to create admissions practices where all students can shine.
Higher education institutions need to be anti-racist. This is possible by identifying what qualities contribute to student learning and the many ways that students might demonstrate those qualities in a holistic way.
It is urgent to abolish the measures that advantage the privileged and wealthy. Society will be more just if enrollment efforts are not a rigged game and administrators find ways to see brilliance in more places and bring those students together to learn from each other.
That is a win-win.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.