Ken Buck to students: Look to ‘role models who didn’t need affirmative action’

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) suggested on Thursday that young students should look to “role models who didn’t need affirmative action” after the Supreme Court decided to effectively end affirmative action in college admissions. 

“Look to all sorts of role models who didn’t need affirmative action, who worked hard in elementary school, middle school, high school, [who] were admitted to universities because of their achievement, because of the merit of their actions and grades,” Buck said on “The Hill” on NewsNation.

The Colorado Republican was responding to a question about what he’d tell young students who might feel, after the Supreme Court’s decision, similarly to former President Barack Obama — who said that affirmative action policies “allowed generations of students” like him and former first lady Michelle Obama “to prove we belonged.”

Buck said he would tell young students to look at Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, both of whom are Black.

“Look to those as role models, as true role models, for how to get ahead, and don’t rely on some give-out, give away, from a university or a government,” Buck said.

The Court issued decisions Thursday that heavily restrict the use of race as a factor in college admissions, ruling 6-3 against race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. 

Many Republicans have lauded the decision, while Democrats have decried it as a blow to diversity in the college admissions process. 

“If we want to do something about, and we should do something about, the gap between Black student achievement and white student achievement, we should make sure that we have school choice in the inner cities, we should make sure that we take the teachers’ unions to task and allow more merit-based opportunities in the inner cities,” Buck said.

Asked about the implications of the Supreme Court decision on the private sector, Buck on Thursday also said corporations’ hiring decisions should be based on merit to avoid “discriminating against someone” due to their race.

“I think there will be implications in the private sector. And what I would say is that equality – the idea that we are going to treat people equally based on merit – is something that corporations should look at also,” Buck said.

“That’s exactly what these corporations need to do. They need to make sure that they are hiring based on the merit. Discriminating against someone because of the fact that they’re Asian or the fact that they’re white is disgraceful,” he said. 

NewsNation and The Hill are both owned by Nexstar.