Top Reads, Listens & Follows of the week
Affirmative Action
Takeaways:
Last week the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, ending 40+ years of precedent. The majority held that race-based affirmative action violates the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In an evaluation of whether or not affirmative action furthered a “compelling interest” and was “narrowly tailored” to achieve that interest, Justice John Roberts wrote that the objectives of diversity based admissions were commendable, but “not sufficiently coherent for purposes of strict scrutiny” and not measurable. Further, he wrote that “the use of these opaque racial categories undermines” the true goal of diversity and is plainly overbroad, thus affirmative action fails the “narrowly tailored” criteria.
The Pew Research Center, the New York Times, and Reuters/Ipsos research and polling finds that the majority of Americans believe that race should not be a factor in college admissions. Nonetheless, affirmative action is a particularly challenging topic because it challenges our abstract notion of fairness, our belief (for right or wrong) that America is a meritocracy, and it forces us to assess the generational impacts of the ugliest parts of our history. Scott Galloway, in his usual brash style, often notes that the most important factor in determining a person’s future is when and where they are born. Professor Raj Chetty finds the same, and quantifies it. When viewed that way, what is fair and unfair or equal and unequal anyway?
The implications of this decision will undoubtedly impact higher education and eventually corporate America as hiring processes will get challenged.
Reads: If you have trouble accessing some of these reads, try this
How Executives and Connected Investors Make Well Timed BioTech Trades (here)
The Triumph of John Adams (here)
AI and the automation of work by Benedict Evans (here)
Value Investing: What’s the Story Behind EBIT/TEV? (here)
The West Again Learns That War Needs Industry (here)
Why You Believe The Things You Do by Morgan Housel (here)
Chris Arnade walks Dakar, the capital of Senegal (here)
Listens:
The Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action (here)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy and Justin Mares on the US Health Crisis (here)
Rob Dyrdek Tells All - Net Worth, Houses, His Investment Portfolio & Health (here)
Francisco Toro & Paul Podolsky - Hipster Dictators and the Risk To Democracy (here)
Follow, Watch & Other great content:
Drew Dickson visualizes Apple’s 3 trillion market capitalization (here)
The Hill Bombing Skateboarders of San Francisco (here)