By Aya Waller-Bey, Contributing Columnist
It’s been a year since the conservative-majority United States Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admissions practices, shattering 50 years of affirmative action precedent in higher education. The decision ushered in a wave of conservative–backed, anti-DEI and anti-Black legislation, as well as lawsuits against several universities and organizations across the country.
The Court’s decision represented a strategic backlash against racial diversity, equity, and inclusion, with everything from attacks on university-sponsored, race-conscious scholarship programs at North Central University and Duke University to lawsuits against a reparation program created in Evanston, Ill., to attacks on support for Black descendants of housing discrimination and segregation.
Scholars and researchers have indicated that previous anti-affirmative action decisions have led to a chilling effect–a decrease in racial diversity on college campuses among students and faculty. However, the barrage of legal contestations, coupled with rampant misinformation about the purpose and utility of DEI, indicates the affirmative action ruling was not the conservative endgame, but the beginning of their playbook.
A few weeks ago, former Detroit TV reporter and anchor Jeff Vaughn filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired from a Los Angeles TV station group because he is an older, white, straight man. The same week, a conservative group filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University’s law school, claiming it discriminates against white men.
The lawsuits, although filed in different states and industries, have one common denominator: America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit legal group founded and led by Stephen Miller, a senior policy advisor to former President Donald Trump.
America First Legal prides itself on the assembly of strategic lawyers and thinkers willing to go after liberals or the “radical left.” It’s also the byproduct of disgruntled white supremacists committed to stalling and eliminating racial progress for Black, Latine, and other minoritized and marginalized groups and communities.
Another key player contributing to the attacks on racial and gender diversity is conservative activist Edward Blum, one of the leading anti-affirmative architects. Blum leads the nonprofit Student for Fair Admissions, which led the charge to dismantle affirmative action. He is also a member of the American Alliance for Equal Rights, a nonprofit membership organization whose mission is “dedicated to challenging distinctions made on the basis of race and ethnicity in federal and state courts.”
The same group sued the Atlanta-based venture capital firm Fearless Fund, alleging that the firm’s grants reserved for Black, women-owned businesses discriminate against business owners of other races. Arian Simone, the company’s president and CEO, is a native Detroiter.
These lawsuits represent just a small portion of emerging anti-Black and anti-DEI attacks across the country, and we would be wrong to think that having a democratic governor in Michigan will provide an impenetrable safeguard against legal action.
Ultimately, conservatives continue to stoke fear through racist rhetoric that promotes scarcity sentiments. They spread misinformation that suggests race-conscious approaches to higher education access, business grants, scholarships, and reparations means that they lose centuries-worth of resources and opportunities. The result is that the far-right is increasingly embedding themselves into school boards, state-level, and federal government to protect white interests.
These protections are outlined in the extremely detailed and racist policy playbook, Project 2025. In the nearly 900-page Mandate for Leadership, the authors share their plan to “eliminate and remove DEI, gender equity, reproductive rights, and other language out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” The document contains other directives, including the elimination of the Department of Education, which will only exacerbate the racial inequality and inequity experienced by Black, Latine, the poor, women, LGBTQ individuals, and all those already marginalized and oppressed by the historical and current socio-political landscape.
This is death by a thousand cuts. With each anti-DEI bill, book ban, and lawsuit claiming anti-white or anti-white male discrimination, slices of civil rights and civil liberties are cut into the increasingly fragile constitutional fabric. Conservatives and people on the far-right will continue to weaponize the conservative-majority Supreme Court and young, conservative federal judges appointed by Donald Trump to advance their goals of colorblindness and white supremacy.
To combat these racist and anti-DEI assaults, we must enact coalition-building efforts to eliminate institutional and industry silos that buy these bigots time to sharpen their tools and coordinate their attacks. We also must vote our interests, at every level of government, to limit the reach and scope of efforts that blatantly curtail Black advancement.
Aya Waller-Bey completed her B.A. in Sociology with a Social Justice concentration and minor in African American studies at Georgetown and earned her MPhil in Education at the University of Cambridge in England. She also completed an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, where she’s currently a Ph. D. candidate studying trauma narrative in college essays. She has presented her research at local and national talks and symposiums, conducted storytelling workshops, and written op-eds for international publications.