FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –  JUNE 29, 2023

Media Contact: Aurea Bolaños Perea,Strategic Communications Director
aurea@colorlatina.org

DENVER, CO- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court released its ruling on affirmative action, essentially revoking 50 years of precedent that, while imperfect, gave Latinxs and other communities of color a chance to seek the freedom of knowledge. This ruling comes at the heels of SCOTUS obliterating the 14th Amendment’s abolitionist history, denying constitutional protection to our reproductive freedom with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Today, it attacks that history again to grant constitutional protection for the unequal racial order.

“Access to education is the cornerstone of any Democracy,” said Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of COLOR. “These decisions have represented yet another blow to the civil rights infrastructure that our communities have attempted to build for generations. The outcry from the far-right, which attacks programs such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and bans books from the hands of young people, is another example of how these are all threaded with the same intention – to further marginalize, oppress, and subjugate communities of color.”

This ruling will essentially affect every college and university across the United States. This means we will see a dramatic drop in Latinx students’ ability to access their absolute right to an education. As Justice Kentaji Jackson wrote in her dissent, “Today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”