Six pieces of guidance related to affirmative action issued between 2011 and 2016 were among 24 nullified on Tuesday by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who said they were "unnecessary, outdated, inconsistent with existing law, or otherwise improper".
This week, as the Administration signalled that it would target affirmative action, the relationship between seemingly disparate pieces of the President's resentment agenda became clearer.
"There are differences between affirmative action and diversity," he said.
Texas A&M's decision underscores the volatile relationship between affirmative action and legacy preferences.
These include abortion, affirmative action, and the relationship between church and state.
To list a few examples, it has disowned affirmative action, finding no difference between Jim Crow and laws designed to help disadvantaged minorities.
Confusing these processes propagates misunderstandings, not only of affirmative action policy, but also between the two sides, ultimately narrowing the potential for meaningful dialogue and perspective-taking.
Wilson's eagerness to destroy the only first-tier graduate schools in the state system, simply because his constituents won't tolerate elitism, makes the choice between affirmative action and its alternatives seem easy.
Ms. Konner's reasoning, in a sense, mirrors the difference between Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity: The general idea behind Affirmative Action is that when one group has been disadvantaged for a long time, offering Equal Opportunity is not enough.
Finally, we also talk about a recent panel at the Virtuous Circle conference where TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot discussed the relationship between affirmative action and efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the tech industry today.
