A STATEMENT FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF BLACK SOCIOLOGISTS REGARDING THE SUPREME COURT DECISION ON RACE AND COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESSES

The Association of Black Sociologists (ABS) stands against the opinion issued by the United States Supreme Court in Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. V. President And Fellows Of Harvard College. ABS supports the sentiment of those believing in equal opportunity and social justice that June 29, 2023 was a very dark day in America. Minoritized people of color in our country continue to be denied appropriate access to higher educational and other formal institutions. Yet, the decision issued by the Court strikes a blow against the policies and efforts designed to address and remedy the pervasive and consistent discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization to which these people have been subjected.

In her dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asserted:

Our country has never been colorblind. Given the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America, to say that anyone is now victimized if a college considers whether that legacy of discrimination has unequally advantaged its applicants fails to acknowledge the well documented “intergenerational transmission of inequality” that still plagues our citizenry.

She also declared that “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.“

The very existence of ABS is predicated upon the understanding that race is exceedingly relevant in life. It is the perseverance of race and the deleterious effects of racism in America that is the impetus for the work that the members of the Association have dedicated themselves to pursuing throughout its fifty-three-year history. Accordingly, its members have demonstrated that racial disparities persist, as do the efforts of individuals, acting within social institutions, to oppress, restrict, contain, and dehumanize and delegitimize Black people and other people of color.

The scholarship produced by members of ABS has emerged within a social climate of increased hostility for such work. This is reflected by efforts to eliminate the teaching of Black history, race relations, and the experiences of African Americans and other people of color in higher education classrooms, and in American educational systems more generally. ABS will not surrender to these forces and conditions. As we move forward, we will continue to document and interpret the effects of race and racism in and on our society. We will support sociologists and other scholars who strive to seek truth and who support social justice in their efforts to do so. Moreover, as scholars within and citizens of higher educational institutions, we pledge to support the efforts of those in such institutions to protect and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. We commit to doing so in our undying effort to make America more fair, more just, and better for all of its people precisely because of the continued relevance of race and racism.

– The Executive Committee of the Association of Black Sociologists