Bureaucrat Supplement: Reading the Affirmative Action Opinion

Imperial Paideia and Group Narcissism

“Instead, what the Court actually lands on is an understanding of the Constitution that is “colorblind” sometimes, when the Court so chooses.” - Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College

In the recent Supreme Court Opinion on racial affirmative action policies in higher learning, the simplicity of the surface-level dispute between colorblind policy and positive discrimination belies a complex nest of conflicts over identity and socioeconomic justice, and between concealed material interests. The nest provides a snapshot of the enormous identitarian mess our country’s leadership has gotten us into. Perhaps this is one reason they’re so desperate to find enemies to externalize American enmity upon.

From the armchair Bureauperspective, I sense multiple interests at stake for elite partisans in this debate. I’ll discuss three below. The first is what I call imperial optics, the second is related to the interests of rich donors, alumni, and affirmative action elites, and the third is group narcissism.