CEO Statement on Affirmative Action SCOTUS Decision

Let’s affirm, plainly, what’s right and true: Today’s Supreme Court decision imperils decades of racial and socioeconomic progress for Black people and other people of color. Similar to the Supreme Court’s devastating decision eroding reproductive rights and bodily autonomy almost exactly a year ago, this decision hobbling affirmative action is another willful attack on what’s right—for our communities nationwide, and especially for our young people.  

Affirmative action was designed to rectify inherent systemic injustices based on racial discrimination. For decades, it has been highly effective at combatting race- and gender-based inequities and disparities in higher education and numerous other sectors. In helping to level the uneven playing fields that have been in the groundwater of the American experience since before our nation’s founding, affirmative action has enabled fair access to top-notch educations for everyone. In doing so, it has bettered the lives and futures of generations of Black and brown people. Additionally, generations of students of all races and ethnicities have had better educations as a result of learning together and from one another in diverse, inclusive classrooms. 

At its core, affirmative action as a long-standing policy and movement has helped achieve for Black and brown communities what The Door aims to do for all the NYC young people who enter our doors every day: to serve as a beacon of hope that supports who and where they are today and empowers them to pursue better futures and become their best selves tomorrow. 

In the face of systemic attacks like this one, The Door community will continue to battle and organize against all policies that hold us back. 

As Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her eloquent dissenting opinion for this decision: “…deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” 

To our Door young people of color, we see you, and we will continue to fight any and all unjust decisions and policies like this one that could inhibit your path while supporting you to reach your full potential through our comprehensive services no matter what.

–Kelsey Louie, CEO