June 29, 2023
3 min read
To our community,
We have been bracing ourselves for this decision for months: the conservative majority of this nation’s highest court has ruled against affirmative action at Harvard and UNC. The education community and our workforce will reel from this decision for years to come.
But we’re neither alone nor helpless.
The Opportunity Network (OppNet) and our comrades in the field got into the fight for access, opportunity, and justice for the long haul, knowing we’d make progress and endure setbacks. Without a doubt, today’s decision will set us back. Consistent with this country’s fraught history, our Black, Indigenous, and Latine students will bear the brunt of the impact — from being hypervisible in reality but being treated as invisible in our institutions.
Hypervisible because of the undeniable ingenuity, resilience, culture, labor, and humanity they have brought forth to build this nation.
Hypervisible because their talents are universally sought after and they enrich every space they occupy.
Invisible because we still live in a divided nation. One that is still afraid of grappling with the truth of its past and not yet brave enough to reimagine a more expansive and prosperous future together.
Here’s what we know:
- Higher education institutions are already facing an existential crisis of their sustainability and relevance in the future of work. In order to remain relevant, they need to attract, recruit, retain, and graduate students that will thrive and lead in an increasingly automated and globalized world. They cannot afford to miss out on the dynamic and vibrant lived experiences of our young people on their campuses, because without them, these campuses will become stale and stagnant, and eventually fade out of significance.
- The model minority myth has been one of the most effective racial narrative tactics in sowing division between the Asian American community and the Black, Indigenous, and Latine communities. Instead of falling into the trap of believing that there’s a scarcity of educational opportunities or that our meritocracy exists without privilege and nepotism, we can come together to make all educational institutions higher quality, more accessible, and more affordable.
Here’s what we will do:
- We will continue to rigorously support our young people to set their terms for college “fit” — academically, socially, culturally, and financially. We will continue to partner with allies in higher education to better receive our young people with less bias and to welcome them in whole — with their full humanity and their full potential seen in full picture.
- We will call on our Career Fluency® Partners across the country to weave our leadership, knowledge, voice, and power to form a stronger network for action — one that stands shoulder to shoulder, one that endures, and one that uplifts.
- We will convene with peer organizations, communities, funders, and supporters to deepen our understanding and act together.
With urgency and determination,
AiLun
