For Immediate Release
June 29, 2023
ATLANTA – Today, Kendra Cotton, executive director of the New Georgia Project and member of the Black Southern Women’s Collaborative, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court decisions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina:
“With its rulings in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, the U.S. Supreme Court just reified the racist structures that our country was built on and that still permeate nearly every facet of our society. While Black Americans and other Americans of color have made huge strides, especially in education and college admissions, no one can deny the fact that affirmative action has been a critical safeguard in ensuring Black and brown students, who already face so many systemic barriers, do not continue to get left behind. So-called colorblind practices exist solely to ease the guilt of the more privileged and pay lip service to the fantasy of a post-racial society that, unfortunately, too many people in this country wrongly believe is reality.
“Instead of scapegoating Black and brown students by digesting the sour grapes propagated by a few more privileged students who did not get into the schools of their choice, the Court should have demurred and made a strong statement encouraging these elite institutions to dispense with legacy admissions and special preferences for the children of the monied class, because THAT is the real source of inequality where college admissions is concerned.
“As a former academic and the mother of a recent college grad, an entering college freshman, and a soon-to-be college applicant, I’d much prefer to live in a world where I felt reassured that my Black children could rely solely on their stellar academics and extracurriculars to gain admission into our country’s best universities. Unfortunately, that’s not the world in which we live. My kids and so many others like them already must work twice as hard in school to overcome the systemic barriers placed before them, and now true equity in our higher education system is even farther out of reach.”
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