Dear John,
Children's Defense Fund President and CEO Rev. Dr. Starsky
Wilson issued the following statement upon the announcement of the U.S
Supreme Court's decisions to nullify affirmative action policies
in college admissions:
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) placed more
obstacles on the path to Black and Brown young people achieving their
dreams. But our children, their families, and those of us who stand
with them will keep fighting to shape a nation where young people grow
up with dignity, hope, and joy.
In a disappointing decision, the conservative majority on the Supreme
Court gutted affirmative action policies, reversing decades of effort
to diversify university campuses and promote economic mobility for
Black and Brown families. History has shown that "race-neutral
policies" in university admissions are a license to
discriminate. As Justice Jackson notes, "our country has never
been colorblind." Unquestionably, SCOTUS's decisions will
lead us backward to a time when countless qualified students of color
were denied access to the gifts of higher education. Georgetown
University's Center on Education and the
Workforce determined earlier this year that if the court
decided as they did today, selective institutions will be
"extremely unlikely to enroll student bodies that come close to
mirroring the demographic diversity of the high school class."
Further suppression of Black and Brown students in college admissions
threatens our nation's growth toward a multicultural
democracy.
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As Justice Sotomayor noted in the dissenting opinion, "the Court
stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous
progress." Affirmative action is one effort to acknowledge and
correct centuries of economic and social policies that have prevented
Black families from attaining access and accumulate assets which are
critical to America's promise of economic mobility. With
education as the most promising path from poverty to prosperity, a
wider college-access gap will further expand Black-White income and
wealth disparities. According to CDF's 2023 State of
America's Children report, the income of White families
with children is more than double that of Black families with
children. This intentional disregard of the conditions our nation has
created itself speaks loudly to the ongoing need for race-based
affirmative action policies.
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With the increasing diversity of young people in America,
'affirmative action' in every facet of public life is more
important now than ever. What the Supreme Court has made clear is that
the responsibility is ours. We, the community of advocates, activists,
organizations, faith leaders and community champions must take
affirmative, assertive, and even aggressive action to build a nation
where all people can thrive and 'let America be America
again.'
As partners with educators and institutions of higher education across
the country, Children's Defense Fund is invites university
leaders who have benefited from more diverse learning environments
over the last two generations to hold fast to their commitments to
excellence and creatively leverage innovation in the face of this
challenge.
We encourage individuals and institutions of resource and access to
invest in the infrastructure of historically Black colleges and
universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs)
whose missions are more important than ever and whose capacity will be
tested by an influx of students seeking sanctuary from the world the
Court is advancing for their education, formation, and development in
critical years.
More than anything, we speak on this dark day to the 1,500 college
students leading the CDF Freedom Schools® program across the
country this summer, the 16,000 young Scholars in their care, and the
most diverse generation of children in our nation's history
whose path to college just got narrower. The Supreme Court may have
signaled that you are on your own, but we will organize, advocate, and
build the power to ensure that you are never alone.
For our children,
Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson
President and CEO
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