Introduction

This is an episode from our archives.

This week the Supreme Court put an end to affirmative action in college admissions, meaning universities can no longer consider race as a factor when accepting a new class of students. The ruling is expected to have pretty big repercussions for schools and students. But Evan Mandery, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says we’re talking about the wrong issue. In his book Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us, Mandery explains how top schools disproportionately favor wealthy white students — and why that’s dangerous.