BAMN Press Statement June 29, 2023:

The Supreme Court Rules For Racism

*The Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFAI) v. President and Fellows of Harvard and SFAI v. University of North Carolina allows for the restoration of legal Jim Crow segregation and inequality in America.

*The Court’s decision emboldens the racist and pro-fascist Trump movement to increase racist and anti-immigrant attacks.

*Defend  Brown v. Board of Education.

*Stop the resegregation of higher education.

*Eliminate the use of standardized tests in university admissions.

*Maintain underrepresented minority enrollment at every public and private university By Any Means Necessary.

*End all admission criteria including the weighting of grade point averages and legacy points that provide advantages to elite, privileged and rich white students and others.

*Defeat racist, separate and unequal education – stop the growth of Trump’s racist and fascist movement.

*Defeat the attacks on all the gains of the civil rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights, LGBT+ movements, and the other movements of the oppressed for equality and integration.

*Increase the number of Supreme Court justices now.

*Build the new youth-led integrated civil rights and immigrant rights movement.

The US Supreme Court has ruled for racism. Its decision to ban the use of affirmative action programs in college and university admissions, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFAI) v. President and Fellows of Harvard and SFAI v. University of North Carolina, clears the way for the restoration of Jim Crow in America.

This decision is the biggest legal victory for Trump’s racist, sexist, and pro-fascist movement since the Dobbs decision overturning abortion rights. These two decisions rival the Justice Department’s refusal to charge Donald Trump for leading his movement’s attempted coup on January 6, 2021. It will embolden and further the racist and anti-immigrant attacks by Trump supporters and by white racist mass murderers.

This decision is an attack on Brown v. Board of Education and all the gains of the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King. Affirmative action policies are based on recognizing that the only way to end segregation in higher education and in the legal, medical, dental, business, and other professions is to use race-conscious university admissions policies. Nothing has changed to alter the necessity of using affirmative action policies to achieve a modicum of fairness and equal opportunities to exist for black, Latina/o/x, Native American and other underrepresented students, women and poor students of every race. The outlawing of these programs will deepen the growing racial, gender and class disparities in this society.

While there is no quick fix or equally effective replacement for affirmative action policies in college admissions, there are steps that can be taken by every public and private educational institution to prevent the near total resegregation of higher education:

BAMN therefore calls on every university to implement these admissions policies:

1. Follow the example of the University of California system and stop using standardized test scores in making admissions decisions.

2. Use every method available to maintain underrepresented minority student enrollment, including the measures adopted by the University of Texas and sanctioned by the Supreme Court in its 2016 decision Fisher v University of Texas. In that affirmative action case, the University of Texas relied on an admission system that offered admission to the top 10% of all Texas High School graduates and favored the admission of students from Texas High Schools that the University of Texas historically excluded from its campuses.

3. End the policy of adding additional points to the grade point averages of more privileged high school students who come from high schools that offer every or most advancement placement classes available

4. End the policy of giving significant advantages to legacy applicants, whose only qualification is that one or more of their parents or grandparents went to the university she/he is applying to.

5. Stop the near automatic admission of children of rich donors to the university.

Institutional racism in our society is a reality. The new Jim Crow is on the rise. BAMN pledges to use any means necessary to restore affirmative action in higher education and to defeat the campaigns of racists to eliminate affirmative action policies in high school admission programs, the military, and in employment and contracting. Our aim is to defeat the rise of fascism rather than to normalize it as a legitimate political viewpoint.

We pledge to use any means necessary to defeat the racist and pro-fascist movement of Donald Trump.