'Simply naive and ignores the reality': Mayor Turner talks Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action

HOUSTON - The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the use of affirmative action for college admissions has some Houston leaders calling the ruling "a travesty".

The man occupying the big office at Houston City Hall says he’s in that space and holds the title of mayor thanks to affirmative action, and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says it’s "extremely disappointing".

"As you know I’m a product of Harvard Law School, and I was one that came through, affirmative action was in place. It doesn’t mean that students that come in under affirmative action are any less smart than anyone else. Students that come in are able to compete, able to do well and able to go on and succeed, and I’m one of them," says Mayor Turner, and he adds, "To cut that off as if we’ve reached utopia in this country is simply naive and ignores the reality that exists."

"It’s not fair. It’s not equal yet. So until we get there, until we become a colorblind society things like affirmative action were supposed to help us," explains University of Houston History Professor Matt Clavin.

RELATED: Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions

"If we don’t allow academic institutions to be intentional about recruiting folks who are in underrepresented minority groups, folks who have been at the bottom end of our history of slavery, and of Jim Crow in this country then we’re never going to have true equality in this country," adds Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee but not everyone agrees. 

"Now we have a view of the constitution that is consistent with its original intent. We clearly now have a constitution that is colorblind in the way it’s being interpreted," says Conservative Republicans of Texans President Jared Woodfill, and he adds, "Now we have a 6-3 majority that has gone back and looked at the original intent of the constitution to interpret it as a color-blind document which I think is ultimately the goal of all Americans…I think racism still exists absolutely, but should we move toward our goal of being a colorblind society? Absolutely."

"I can sympathize with people who oppose affirmative action, but it just doesn’t match up with the reality. I think there’s the dream of a colorblind society that almost everyone shares, but there’s the reality of discrimination that still exists. Affirmative action is at least 75 years old. People tend to forget it was only 150 years ago that in the United States, African Americans were literally regarded as property. They weren’t people," Clavin explains, and he says the ruling to strike down affirmative action from a Republican-led U.S. Supreme Court isn’t surprising.

In fact, he says the political makeup of the justices is a result of the GOP party getting behind specific Senate and House candidates. "Those candidates vowed and promised if you elect me I will get us conservative justices, and so they may have lost some battles along the way, but clearly we see now that they’re winning the war for the conservative agenda."

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"I think it’s a terrible decision and this is an awful day for our country.  I think of myself in some of the schools I went to where I was the only black kid in the room, then becoming a lawyer and being the only black at the firm I was in. Not everyone has the same opportunity when they come into this life here in the United States of America. So these types of programs are necessary to ensure that everybody has an equal chance at education," says Menefee and he adds. "It’s a travesty because the fight for equality has been dealt a major blow with this decision…The 14th Amendment was passed in part to deal with our country’s history of slavery. It wasn’t intended to be race-blind. It wasn’t intended to ensure that every single person started at the same place because there are certain people in this country who for generations started ahead of other people. It was intended to address racism against African Americans. This amendment that was enacted by the states in our country was intended to address those issues, not run away from them, and we shouldn’t."

"There’s always been a segment of society who has said African Americans don’t deserve this special treatment. Everyone aspires to a colorblind society, but we’re not there yet so getting rid of affirmative action while it makes sense on some level ideologically it’s certainly going to really hurt African Americans," says Clavin.