Actions to Affirm: A Letter to the SCOTUS

Take a second to review the life you lived so far. Think about the times you’ve experienced your first understanding of who you are, explored the possibilities of what you could be, and had a safe space to really just figure it out. If you’re like me, you’ve just imagined your collegiate experience at your HBCU. On a campus or classroom where your culture wasn’t an experiment, phase, or an attempt to boost someone’s image of diversity. A space where you got to exist without carrying the weight of representation in a world that doesn’t curate safety like it does preconceived notions according to the color of your skin.  

The Supreme Court has ruled that colleges and universities can no longer consider race as a basis for admitting students. This landmark decision has overturned a long-standing precedent that benefited Black students at PWI’s and HBCUs. This supreme court decision is one of many discriminatory decisions announced on the week of June 26th. These decisions include ruling the Student debt cancellation plan unconstitutional, and providing businesses the power to discriminate against the LGBTQIA+ community[1].

Some view the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision to remove race from collegiate applications as an opportunity for people of black and brown descent to gain equity in the college application process. For those with a different perspective it feels like an attack on spaces that were created out of original lack of acceptance in request for higher learning. No matter which way you spin it, the reality of the matter is we live in a political climate that seems to be moving towards eliminating the historical evidence of systemic racism in academia from a K-12 perspective as well as higher learning education.

As the new ruling has taken place the question now is what does this look like for us[2]. Here are a few questions we are asking you to think about with us:

1. We need to increase funding to support the influx of students preparing to apply to HBCUs and Community Colleges in our state. How can we be responsive to this need in our pursuit of higher learning?
2. We need to evaluate the meaning of “Prestigious” and “Elite” schools. What is the history behind this language? Our network of HBCU’s have produced some of the most contributing members of our society, advancing the progress towards economic justice, fairness, and historical accuracy. How do we continue to highlight this?
3. Examining the current state of things, and our enormous human potential and take the time to radically reimagine what is possible in higher education, literacy, the arts and sciences, what does that future look like to you?

These are the actions we affirm:

Please join our NoCap Book Club where we facilitate discussions, build relationships, and analyze the world around us. This summer’s text is “Assata: The Autobiography of Assata Shakur”

You can also be on the lookout for the application for our annual organizing fellowship in the fall. We are committed to increasing civic engagement through culturally competent education, creative mobilization, and unwavering commitment to grassroots community organizing and the remaining power of the vote.

What actions will you affirm next?

To stay connected, email us at kylah@southernvision.org