June 29, 2023
Assemblymember Akilah Weber, M.D. Issues Statement on
Supreme Court Striking Down Affirmative Action
On a day where Californians and people watching globally will have heard the recommendations from the historic Reparations Task Force, we are hit with devastating news that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action.
For hundreds of years, African Americans, Native Americans, and other non-white people were excluded from our institutions of higher education. Data show that greater educational attainment is linked to higher employment rates, higher wages, and greater access to quality healthcare.
Therefore, affirmative action sought not only to level the playing field for an equitable access to education and to diversify the student bodies to represent the demographics of the American people, but to improve the social determinants of health for all.
Affirmative action does not excuse educational merit or skill. However, the policy was necessary because education institutions systematically obstruct access for people of color. This tragedy already hit us in California with Prop 209, and now other states across the nation will experience the same reeling back of progress.