In Wake of SCOTUS Rulings, Woods Fund Chicago Remains Explicitly Committed to Racial Justice

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled the race-conscious affirmative action policies at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina (UNC) unconstitutional, a win for Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. This conservative, anti-affirmative action group claimed the two universities’ policies discriminated against White and Asian applicants. Although the ruling appears to allow for a narrow consideration of race through an individual applicant's essay or narrative, it has effectively gutted the inclusion of race in college admissions and overturned 40 years of legal precedent. Chief Justice Roberts’ gavel was a bludgeoning hammer to many private and public colleges and universities nationwide concerned about the ruling’s chilling effect on addressing racial diversity and increasing access to students from under-represented populations on their campuses. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pulled no punches in her dissent, exclaiming, “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life. And having detached itself from this country’s actual past and present experiences, the Court has now been lured into interfering with the crucial work that UNC and other institutions of higher learning are doing to solve America’s real-world problems.”

The Court’s decision will not only have a detrimental effect on college campuses but perhaps also on nonprofits and foundations whose missions, programs, and advocacy explicitly address and advocate for racial justice. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed in her dissent, “Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal. What was true in the 1860s, and again in 1954, is true today: Equality requires acknowledgment of inequality.” Nevertheless, the political right has been organizing and funding anti-affirmative action campaigns for decades, and we are seeing the rotten fruits of their labor. They have succeeded in falsely framing affirmative action as a race-only policy benefiting undeserving Black, Latino/x, and Native American people at the expense of deserving White Americans and Asian/Asian-Americans, even though affirmative action opened the door of opportunity to many groups, including White women, poor and working-class people, people with disabilities, religious minorities, and LGBTQ people. SCOTUS also issued a ruling last week in favor of a Colorado graphic designer refusing to create same-sex websites on the grounds of religious freedom, thereby laying the ground to deny “protected classes” access to public accommodations.  

Civil rights gains and social progress are eroding before our very eyes. Now is not the time for liberal and progressive funders to navel-gaze, cower, or be tepid amid accelerating and escalating attacks. We must continue to be explicit and loud about our commitment to racial justice and firm in our support of BIPOC communities and grantee partners.

We must make bigger and long-term investments in community organizing and general operating support. 

We must proactively offer grantee partners additional support beyond core grantmaking, not wait for them to approach us.

We must be bold co-conspirators with grantee partners and the communities they organize and advocate with. 

We must support BIPOC leadership from impacted communities.

We must organize and advocate in philanthropy for more funders to pool their resources, elevate their voices, and make a resounding collective impact.

Woods Fund Chicago refuses to back down from our explicit focus on racial justice, and we call on our fellow funders to do the same. We strongly urge foundations to join us and continue to boldly and publicly center BIPOC communities in their grantmaking. Too much is at stake, and we have no time to waste.