This month, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases - Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and v. UNC. In both cases, Students for Fair Admissions seeks to create barriers for students of color to access higher education.
With the Supreme Court’s rulings on these cases expected soon, ALC’s executive director Aarti Kohli shared her thoughts on race-conscious college admissions and their vital role in addressing the multi-generational harms of anti-Black racism and white supremacy.
Q: Why do we need holistic and race-conscious admissions policies?
Aarti Kohli: Every day, more and more people are learning about how systemic racism has shaped and continues to shape our country. We’re living through a racial reckoning at a scale our country has never seen before.
Our organization was founded in 1972, inspired by the Third World Liberation movement, the Black Panthers and the fight for ethnic studies at Berkeley. Still, I don’t think we’ve ever seen as many people join local and state movements for addressing anti-Asian racism as we’ve seen in the past few years. I’ll never forget the intensity and solidarity of June 2020, and now the Black Lives Matter movement is the largest protest movement in all of U.S. history.
Why is all of this happening? Because systemic racism is inescapable in our country - and because people are taking action to create a better world.
Just this past month, California’s statewide task force on reparations published its first report and recommendations. Let me just share a few points they made:
- Nationally, non-white school districts get $23 billion less than predominantly white school districts.
- A 2020 study found that, since 2000, the percentage of Black students enrolled has decreased nearly 60 percent at the 101 most selective public colleges and universities.
- Studies over the last five years have found that the vast majority of Black students and other students of color are served by segregated and unequally resourced schools.
The reparations task force summarized their section on education by writing that “for hundreds of years, governments at all levels in America inflicted compounding educational harm upon Black children, and they have never made sufficient amends.”
And so, yes, we still need race-conscious and holistic college admissions, unquestionably. We need policies and programs that embrace students’ freedoms to be themselves and be seen and supported for who they are. In fact, we need race-conscious admissions AND a lot more if we’re going to create a world that celebrates every student and helps them create a safe, fulfilling, thriving life, no matter what they look like or how much money they have.
Q: Our latest amicus brief looks at how race-conscious admissions have strengthened movements for equality and diversity in education, including for Asian and Pacific Islander communities. What are some of the key takeaways?
AK: With support from dozens of other Asian American and Pacific Islander civil rights groups, student organizations, and advocacy organizations, our amicus brief looks back at decades of civil rights history, and the ongoing disparities in access to higher education today.
As recently as 1947, California law permitted segregation of “children of Mongolian or Chinese descent.” We’ve come a long way, winning fights for justice alongside Black, Latine, and Indigenous students, teachers, community members, and policymakers.
After universities implemented affirmative action programs in the 1960s and 1970s, Asian and Pacific Islander students' enrollment in college ballooned, from about 200,000 in 1978 to 1.1 million in 2008, a six-fold increase in just a few decades.
Still, those gains have not been realized everywhere. Discrimination in housing, immigration, and workplaces continues to entrench disparate access to educational opportunities, particularly for Southeast Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students within the broad and diverse API community.
As we wrote in the brief, “abandoning race-conscious admissions programs will undo the progress that has been hard fought and won, and impede progress where it still is needed.”
Q: The rulings come as some universities and colleges are moving away from using standardized test results. Why is that important?
AK: Yes, a large number of colleges and universities have made tests like the SAT optional. Many have recognized that standardized tests are often poor predictors of future academic success, and have a troubling record of racial bias.
Standardized tests like the SAT capture and magnify racial segregation and inequalities in K-12 education. There is also racial bias in how the tests are developed, in access to test prep, and even in the test taking experience.
The result is that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian students often score lower on standardized tests than white students. And that gap is widening.
Colleges and universities that continue to consider test scores can’t truly understand what those numbers mean without considering the reality of how racism shapes those numbers. By ending the use of standardized tests, colleges and universities can take an important step to addressing racial inequality and barriers to higher education.
Q: Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, the work to strengthen equity in education and create a multiracial democracy continues. What can people do in their communities?
AK: We expect that Edward Blum is counting on the same Supreme Court judges who took away our freedoms to decide what to do with our bodies and to pass gun safety regulations. Let’s be clear: Blum’s cases are part of a broader, decades-long, and well-funded strategy to deny the existence of racism as a means to thwart an inclusive, multiracial democracy.
But, as we’ve done in the past, we can come together to protect our freedoms, expand opportunities, and embrace our full diversity.
No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, there’s work to be done at all educational institutions to make it possible for low-income students and students of color to enroll, thrive, and pursue their interests and passions.
In our local communities, there’s so much we can move forward alongside our neighbors and fellow community members, from funding K-12 public schools and expanding financial assistance to canceling student debt and increasing teacher training and diversity in recruitment. In 2021, California passed a historic API Equity budget that included funding for restorative justice programs in schools, helping students address bullying, harassment, and discrimination in ways that lead to greater community healing and belonging. ALC was one of many groups advocating for those funds, and we can keep building on these initial programs.
The fights for racial justice need all of us. I hope as more people learn about how those in power are trying to sow division for their own gains, more of us will take action with our neighbors, friends, and families to stand together for the solutions we need to have a good life.
