Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that has dealt a major blow to affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. This decision will effectively end the use of affirmative action to ensure a rich and diverse student body at our colleges and universities, deprive millions of deserving applicants from communities of color the opportunity to pursue higher education, and return us to the days when college campuses were nearly uniformly white, and privileged. Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice strongly condemns this ruling.
As an interfaith organization, we are dedicated to the principles that our country only thrives when all its inhabitants have equal opportunities, when diversity is welcomed and embraced as foundational to what makes us strong, and when we honestly confront the racism that persists in our society and do all in our power to dismantle it. Turning a blind eye to the realities of racism, pretending it is possible, or even desirable, to live in a color-blind society, as Justice Thomas seems to intimate in his concurring opinion, will only further exacerbate the deep inequalities that pervade our society.
The lawsuits that led to this extreme decision allegedly were on behalf of Asian American students who the suits claimed were harmed by affirmative action. But the reality is the suits were brought by Edward Blum, who is white, and who has made a career out of challenging voting rights and affirmative action, as part of his white supremacist agenda. It was his suit that led to the devastating decision in Shelby vs. Holder that gutted key parts of the Voting Rights Act.
We see the same forces of white supremacy here in Wisconsin. Most recently, our state legislature has proposed a biennium budget that dismantles the state university’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity programs. Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice denounces these blatant attempts to pit one group against another. We know that we all are stronger when we work together for justice, and that justice is not a zero-sum game. Each of our communities, white, black, brown, Asian, LGBTQ+, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, young and old, able-bodied and disabled, all are made in the image of the divine. All deserve the same opportunities for education, good-paying jobs, safe and stable housing, food, health care, and joy and fulfillment of all their dreams.
Today’s ruling is just one of the recent rulings of this Supreme Court that reverses decades of precedent and rolls back the clock on whatever progress we have made toward a more just and equitable society. It is a ruling, like other recent rulings, that goes against the wishes and beliefs of the majority of Americans. Instead, it reflects a narrow and extremist view that favors a privileged few and seeks to overturn all the gains in civil and human rights that we have made.
Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice has joined a new national coalition of human and civil rights organizations, United for Democracy (https://unitedfordemocracy.us/). We stand together with our partners to oppose these right wing judicial forces that seek to divide us and take away our rights. We will continue to work together with our allies and with people of all faiths to build a society that is just, equitable, compassionate, and that celebrates the diversity that makes our country great.
