In student loan and affirmative action rulings, advocates fear losses for racial equality
Associated PressWASHINGTON — As a Black student who was raised by a single mother, Makia Green believes she benefited from a program that gave preference to students of color from economically disadvantaged backgrounds when she was admitted over a decade ago to the University of Rochester. “Despite today’s upsetting ruling, we demand that the Biden Administration delivers on the promise of student loan debt relief,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson, in a statement. On student loans, Sharpton said: “Generations of Black youth were sold a bill of goods that higher education was a pathway out of poverty – only to be saddled with crushing debt that never lets them see their dreams fully realized.” Both cases focused on policies that address historic racial disparities in access to higher education, as Black borrowers tend to take on disproportionately more debt to afford college, said Dominique Baker, an education policy professor at Southern Methodist University. “This is a long tactic of conservative, white supremacist-leaning groups to use education and limit Black people’s access to education, as a way to further control and oppress us.” In the 1960s and 1970s, many colleges developed affirmative action plans to address the fact that many predominantly white schools struggled to attract people from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities. “We need the schools to say, ‘Look, the court says we can’t consider race, but we still see you,’” said Hewitt, whose organization defended affirmative action before the Supreme Court in October.