The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) effectively struck down affirmative action last Thursday, June 29, therefore barring universities from considering an applicant’s racial background during college admissions. The decision didn’t come as a surprise to many across the nation, which had long foreseen the conservative-skewed court’s bias against policies meant to afford those of underrepresented and marginalized racial backgrounds equal opportunities and education.
Online through social media posts and in real life via in-person protests, countless artists, activists, students, scholars, and others expressed that their commitments to racial equity will not be thwarted in light of this disappointing news. But many noted that this will be an uphill battle. Last week, SCOTUS also ruled that the United States government has no obligation to assist the Navajo Nation with access to potable water; blocked President Biden’s campaign promise to forgive between $10,000–$20,000 of student loan debt; and determined that businesses may refuse “expressive services” to same-sex couples or LGBTQ+ identifying individuals based on a hypothetical situation, subsequently impacting the lives of millions of American residents for the worse.
Artist Dread Scott is using his platform to address the Court’s most recent and polarizing decisions through social media posts written in accessible, no-nonsense language. Getting to the root of these rulings, which prior decisions informed them, and how the decisions will impact others, Scott summarizes how our rights and liberties have been overturned in a single sentence.
“Today, June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that racism can be used in college admissions and encouraged universities to return to being segregated as they had been for most of history,” Scott wrote in a post about the end of affirmative action.
“Today, June 30, the US Supreme Court affirmed that discrimination is OK, as long as your bigotry is based on a firmly based religious belief,” he wrote in another post about the court’s decision to side with an anti-LGBTQ+ website designer.