If the Chamber of Commerce’s claim that discrimination isn’t unfair is correct, why does Student for Fair Admissions have “fair” in its name?

I am working on an article about the CFPB’s determination that discrimination is unfair, a claim that the Chamber of Commerce and banking trade groups are challenging in litigation. Consequently, I am collecting examples in which people used the word “fair” to mean “without discrimination,” or conversely, “unfair” to convey discriminatory conduct. A prominent example of just such a use came in last week’s decision invalidating affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Students for Fair Admissions describes itself as comprised of people who “believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair.”  When even conservatives–the Chamber’s usual allies–see discrimination as unfair, the Chamber has an uphill battle. Incidentally, if you have other examples connecting fairness and discrimination, especially but not necessarily from around 1938, when Congress gave the FTC the power to pursue unfair conduct, I would be interested in hearing them. In the meantime, I am reading about fair lending.

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