Out Boulder County Statement on Today’s Supreme Court 2023 Affirmative Action Decision
Out Boulder County is deeply troubled and disappointed by today’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. The majority of our Supreme Court Justices continue to demonstrate their interest in maintaining discriminatory systems and practices at the expense of the lived experiences of anyone at the margins of our society. We remain steadfast in our commitment to challenging and transforming systems that enable, sustain, and promote systemic inequality, including racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia.
Statement from QTPOC Out Boulder County Staff
Chris Castaneda, Youth Program Manager
Ruby Lopez, QTPOC Program and Spanish Access Coordinator
Juan Moreno, Director of Corporate Sponsorships and Special Events
Tamora Tanniehill, Director of Behavioral Health and Wellness
Today’s Supreme Court decision, which came from a disproportionately white supreme court and seemingly entirely straight and cisgender Supreme Court, is a direct example of why we need more BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people who share the backgrounds and identities of those most impacted making these decisions.Racism and discrimination are real. In today’s decision on race conscious higher education admissions policies, the majority of the justices demonstrated, once again, their allegiance to protecting privilege and inequity at the expense of justice and access to opportunity. LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people know that pretending that systemic discrimination doesn’t exist is not a strategy for addressing the very real and harmful inequalities that result from it. We, and other queer and trans people of color, know that blatantly disregarding the realities of racism, homophobia, and/or transphobia erases a very real part of our identities and lived experiences, and enables those systems to maintain their power to cause real harm.Though they may be limited in their impact and not perfect policy solutions, race-conscious higher education admissions policies were one very small way to attempt to create equity of opportunity for communities that have historically been entirely shut out or severely limited in being permitted to pursue higher education.
Our systematically under-served and under-resourced communities deserve meaningful policies, such as race-conscious admissions, to make our systems more fair and equitable. These policies and other attempts to address systemic racism are not attacks on any group of people. They are just one small and imperfect attempt to correct a system that has always prioritized providing access to opportunities to white communities at the expense of BIPOC and other marginalized communities.