NBA great Charles Barkley has amended his will to leave as much as $5 million to Auburn University, his alma mater, upon his death in response to the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action in college admissions.
Speaking to TMZ Sports, Barkley said that his phone had been ringing off the hook since the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in a 6-3 ruling.
“That’s just my way of trying to make sure Auburn stays diverse. After that ruling yesterday, my phone was blowing up. I was talking to my friends and said, ‘I need to make sure Black folks always have a place at Auburn,’” he said.
Charles Barkley looks on during Game Two of the 2023 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets on June 4, 2023, at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado. (Justin Tafoya/NBAE via Getty Images)
Black students reportedly comprise just 5 percent of Auburn’s student body.
As Breitbart News reported, the Supreme Court argued that affirmative action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The Supreme Court upheld racial preferences — euphemistically called “affirmative action” — in college admissions in the Bakke decision in 1978. Since then, debates have raged about whether to use quotas, point systems, or other ways of favoring one applicant over another based on the color of their skin, with the Supreme Court upholding some approaches while trimming the sails on others. Conservatives have insisted for half a century that the Constitution does not allow any of those approaches.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment commands that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Supreme Court has always acknowledged that the central promise of the Equal Protection Clause is to forbid laws and public policies that discriminate on the basis of race.
While the Fourteenth Amendment applies only to state governments — which includes state and local public universities — Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also extends racial discrimination to institutions that accept federal tax money, such as in grants and tuition aid. That applies to almost every private university.
The ruling sparked fierce reactions from Democrats and other race-based institutions, with the NAACP calling it “hate-inspired.”
“Today the Supreme Court has bowed to the personally held beliefs of an extremist minority. We will not allow hate-inspired people in power to turn back the clock and undermine our hard-won victories. The tricks of America’s dark past will not be tolerated,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, attends the PGA Works Beyond The Green at Union League on April 30, 2022, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Lisa Lake/Getty Images for PGD Global)
“Let me be clear – affirmative action exists because we cannot rely on colleges, universities, and employers to enact admissions and hiring practices that embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he continued. “Race plays an undeniable role in shaping the identities of and quality of life for Black Americans. In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court has displayed a willful ignorance of our reality. The NAACP will not be deterred nor silenced in our fight to hold leaders and institutions accountable for their role in embracing diversity no matter what.”
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed on Tubi, Google Play, YouTube Movies, or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.