AUSTIN, Texas -- Today, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa and Texas Coalition of Black Democrats State Chair Carroll Robinson released the following joint statement on the U.S. Supreme Court voting to ban affirmative action in colleges and universities:

“When a country systematically wrongs one group of people – to make those people whole again – merely ending the practice is not enough. The country must then proactively work to right those wrongs. That is what affirmative action is.

“For hundreds of years, Black and Brown Americans – particularly those of us here in Texas – have been subjected to violent, brutal discrimination. This took the form of slavery and torture, lynchings, segregation, police and state brutality, state-sponsored mass murders, redlining, and discrimination in every step of day-to-day life – from the bank to the lunch counter to the workplace.

“What these hundreds of years of discrimination did was disadvantage us as a people. In the face of unrelenting violence, we were not able to accumulate and pass down generational education or wealth. Black and Brown Texans who are successful today have earned that success not by doing ‘the same’ amount of work as their fellow Texans – but by doing so much more, and overcoming their significantly lower starting point.

“Today’s decision is a gut punch to those who have fought for an equal starting point. Today’s decision flies in the face of justice – creating parity between all people in this country. Instead of focusing on the spirit of the law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – which was to right the wrongs of our nation against its Black and Brown brothers and sisters – this decision merely twists out a bad-faith reading of the letter of the law. 

“Achieving equality is not simply a fight of our ancestors, and white Texans in leadership today cannot claim they have no responsibility in exacerbating inequality. Just this past legislative session, Texas Republicans in power – all white – worked diligently to try to gut public education in our state, particularly in our state’s biggest and most diverse districts. They’re setting up yet another generation of Black and Brown students – who will not graduate college until 2040 and beyond – to have a lesser education than their white peers by the time they apply for college. 

“That is what perpetuating injustice looks like. And today, the Supreme Court helped Texas Republicans ensure racial injustice lives on in Texas for generations to come.”

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