MADISON – Today’s US Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in college admissions is another step backward and a slap in the face to young people who are trying to access more opportunities than the generations before them. Senator LaTonya Johnson released the follow statement after the decision:
“In Wisconsin, we have seen decades of harm done to communities of color in order to restrict access to basic human rights and dignities. Systemic harm to people of color at all levels, whether it be the courts, the Legislature, or locally, have proved to be misguided priorities and today’s action is another step towards codifying barriers to opportunities for communities of color.
“This decision comes at a time when we are witnessing targeted and overt attacks on the voting rights of Black and Latino Americans. Here in Wisconsin, we’ve seen efforts to enact strict voter ID laws, limit early voting, and impose harsh restrictions on absentee and mail-in voting. These measures disproportionately impact Black and Latino communities and impede their fundamental right to vote. Today’s ruling is a blatant entry on a growing list of institutional barriers erected to keep people of color from the same opportunities that their white counterparts have long been afforded.
“5,650 people are estimated to have served in the Wisconsin State Legislature since 1848, less than 33 have been identified in the press as Black or African American, the majority of whom represented Milwaukee area. We’ve made progress despite the barriers attempting to hold us back, and today shows us just how much work is left to be done.
“Throughout history, my African American ancestors have shown their perseverance, strength, and resilience in the face of the many adversities that have been intentionally placed upon us. If conservatives in all aspects of government believe they can stack the deck so far against us that we will give up, they are mistaken. We will rise. We will continue to speak out against injustices.
“As Ketanji Brown Jackson says so poignantly in her dissent, ‘…deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.’”
