Bending The Arc July Missive 2023
A Social Justice Newsletter for Educators (even over the break)
Greetings, friends!
I hope this message finds you managing your stress levels in healthy, nourishing ways. If you are currently on break, may you enjoy ample opportunities to do the things that feel good. In the event that this is not your designated period of rest, please know that I see you. May the next recovery phase be close at hand.
I’m writing now because yet again there are a number of recent events that warrant mention and at such times, it helps me to at least share some resources that help me get a handle what’s up and what’s at stake. This is going to be very US-centric, so feel free to dash away, if you do not feel addressed.
The Supreme Court of the United States, one of the three branches of US government next to the legislative branch (The House and Senate) and the Executive branch (President & cabinet), has been very busy not only this week but this last year steadily rolling back major civil rights wins of the 20th century. Many of us felt it acutely when Dobbs fell and federal protection for the right of pregnant people to seek an abortion was taken away. This week alone has seen decisions handed down in which the conservative majority determined the following:
Affirmative Action is no longer permissible in college and university admissions, which means that race and ethnicity can no longer be considered as part of applicants’ profile.
That businesses offering artistic services may refuse service to members of a protected class based on the service provider’s religious beliefs. (In this case, a hypothetical same-sex couple asking about a wedding website.)
President Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation plan was struck down. (And options still exist for him to manage some form of relief. Waiting…)
Now, I neither have the expertise nor the capacity to explain the relevance of each of these decisions, so I am going to share a bunch of links for you to read further. The important thing is to understand the larger context in which all of this is happening. The 6 conservative justices against 3 liberal justices puts all kinds of civil rights in jeopardy as the billionaire-funded right wing machine sets its sights on further restrictions.
Start by reading the dissent documents on the Affirmative Action case from Justices Sotomayor and Brown.
Listen to legal scholar, Kimberlé Crenshaw, describe what’s at stake:
Philosophically, the terms of the battle over affirmative action were the gateway to the right’s current and all-consuming fixation on suppressing the freedom of ideas, books and education in the name of vanquishing an opponent in “wokeness” they cannot even themselves define. Learning about the history of slavery in 1619 is not a driver of white guilt but a tool for understanding our society. Learning about intersectionality is not discriminating against whites; it is about understanding why holding more than one identity at once could expose a person to layered systemic barriers. …
How profoundly these decisions on affirmative action shape the rest of the lives of all Black Americans and people of color depends on how hard we fight back to achieve the justice and democracy we deserve.
Roxane Gay offers these thoughts:
We are losing so much, so quickly, in so many realms. The supreme court, in all their wisdom, also decided that it’s just fine for businesses to discriminate against the LGBTQ community or anyone else whose existence troubles them.
This retrenchment is part of a much broader campaign to undue the social progress of the last several decades. Undoing affirmative action goes hand in hand with the hysteria over critical race theory and state legislatures trying to erase slavery and its ongoing aftermath from curricula across the country. White people don’t want further reminders of how implicitly and/or explicitly they continue to benefit from this country’s original sin. Liberal, conservative, whatever, a great many people are seething with resentment that we still need to address inequity.
Elie Mystal is a legal journalist worth listening to.
Award winning journalist, Wesley Lowery describes the the cyclical nature of white backlash to perceived Black and minority advancement in this podcast interview on Our Body Politic with Farai Chedayi.
Pay attention to the the fact that the Supreme Court’s legitimacy is being questioned on multiple levels. Most recently social and financial ties to billionaires have come under increased scrutiny.
All this to say, expect matters to get worse - more precarious and reactionary - before they get better. (Tressie McMillan Cottom describes this dynamic unfolding in Florida’s higher education landscape.) Plenty of folks saw this coming and told us so. Find them. Listen to them.
That’s of course more than I planned to share. Check out what seems helpful. Also, stay hydrated, get plenty of rest, make space for joy and ease.
Take care,
Sherri