来源：《自然》
原文刊登日期：2023年7月3日
The decision of the highest US court to end race-conscious admissions to the nation’s universities was widely expected. Nevertheless, when it came, on 29 June, the verdict shook many in academia, as well as the three Supreme Court justices who voted against the decision.
美国最高法院决定终止美国大学的种族意识录取，这一决定是人们普遍预期的。然而，当6月29日判决到来时，学术界的许多人以及三位投了反对票的最高法院大法官都感到震惊。
The court decided by a majority of six to three that Harvard University, a private institution, and the public University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment by considering race in their admissions policies. The decision deprives universities of a crucial tool in the ongoing struggle to establish more-diverse and more-equitable educational environments.
最高法院以6比3的多数裁定，私立的哈佛大学和公立的北卡罗来纳大学在招生政策中考虑种族因素，违反了美国宪法第14修正案的平等保护条款。这一决定剥夺了大学在建立更多元化、更公平的教育环境的斗争中的关键工具。
Institutions must now find innovative and alternative ways to continue their efforts to build a more diverse academic environment. This is important not only for moral and ethical reasons: evidence also shows that greater diversity improves all students’ education and leads to increased innovation, which ultimately benefits all of society.
各院校现在必须找到创新的替代方法，继续努力建立一个更加多元化的学术环境。这不仅是出于道德和伦理原因，证据还表明，更大的多样性改善了所有学生的教育，促进了创新，最终使整个社会受益。
Race-conscious policies, also known as affirmative action, were initially established to redress generations of harm that racism had caused to Black people in the United States. They were conceived in the years after Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling to desegregate schools. Some white-majority communities fought vehemently to maintain segregation. In 1957, the US military was needed to escort the ‘Little Rock Nine’, the first African American teenagers to be admitted to a formerly white-only school in Arkansas.
种族意识政策，也被称为平权行动，最初是为了纠正种族主义对美国几代黑人造成的伤害而制定的。1954年，最高法院做出了具有里程碑意义的废除学校种族隔离的裁决，布朗诉堪萨斯州托皮卡教育委员会案之后的几年里，种族意识政策就诞生了。一些白人占多数的社区为维持种族隔离进行了激烈的斗争。1957年，美国军队需要护送“小石城九人”进入大学，这是第一批被阿肯色州一所以前只招收白人的学校录取的非洲裔美国青少年。
Affirmative action was an acknowledgement that, without robust efforts to diversify workplaces and student bodies, segregation, although no longer enshrined in law, would effectively continue by default through existing disparities in educational and professional achievement.
平权行动承认，如果不大力实现工作场所和学生群体的多元化，种族隔离虽然不再载入法律，但由于教育和专业成就方面的现有差距，实际上会自动地继续下去。
It is well established that evaluations of educational achievement based on grades and test scores typically reflect the opportunities that students are afforded, which are inherently unequal. For example, schools that serve predominantly Black and Hispanic communities typically receive thousands of dollars less per student than do those serving predominantly white communities.
众所周知，基于成绩和考试分数的教育成就评估通常反映了学生之前获得的教育机会，而这些机会本质上是不平等的。例如，以黑人和西班牙裔社区为主要服务对象的学校，每个学生的经费通常比以白人社区为主要服务对象的学校少数千美元。
Opponents of affirmative action argue that race should have no bearing on university admissions. But the evidence suggests that efforts to increase diversity by considering other factors, such as socio-economic status, are not having the desired effect. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her 69-page dissenting opinion, “Superficial colorblindness in a society that systematically segregates opportunity will cause a sharp decline in the rates at which underrepresented minority students enroll in our Nation’s colleges and universities.”
平权行动的反对者认为，种族不应该影响大学的录取。但有证据表明，通过考虑其他因素(如社会经济状况)来增加多元性的努力并没有达到预期的效果。正如最高法院大法官索尼娅·索托马约尔在长达69页的反对意见中所写的那样，“在一个系统地隔离机会的社会中，肤浅的不考虑肤色将导致代表性不足的少数族裔学生进入美国高校的比例急剧下降。”