Was 2020 A Turning Point for Identity Politics?

2020 has been a year of racial strife in America. Protests over police brutality toward minorities and the rising popularity of identity politics seek to establish race as a core tenet of American identity and political power.

Yet, at the same time, the Supreme Court will consider Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard—the landmark case claiming that Harvard has discriminated against Asian American applicants in order to increase admissions of other minority groups. Add to that the surprising failure of Prop 16, a California ballot initiative designed to overturn the ban on affirmative action, in a year the state otherwise voted overwhelmingly Democrat.

Despite the public pressure to “do something” about race, these recent political trends have us wondering: Is affirmative action dead? Join PLF and our panelists for a discussion on the state of race and identity in America, and what’s at stake in the coming year.