Affirmative Action is just the beginning.
Atlanta’s current racial wealth divide, at a ratio of 1:46, is as high as the national racial wealth divide was just after Emancipation in the 1860s. At the same time, national income inequality nears an all-time high, with Black communities experiencing the harshest impacts. Traditional ways of accessing upward mobility — homeownership, higher education, and small business ownership — for most Americans are phantoms of a bygone era. The Supreme Court’s decision on Affirmative Action opened a lane for bad-faith actors to diminish our collective ability to meet one of the greatest challenges of our generation. If we don’t act, where we are today is the most equal our society will ever be.
Edward Blum — the architect of the plaintiff’s lawsuit in the Affirmative Action decision — announced his intentions to go further in July, and subsequently brought a legal challenge against venture capital (VC) firm Fearless Fund and we know it won’t end there. The suit alleges discrimination over a program that provides start-up grants to Black women, who receive less than 0.35% of all VC funding. The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), an organization Blum founded, followed with suits against two major law firms Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster over fellowship programs that support interns of historically marginalized backgrounds.
This move is coming at a time of significant efforts across the country to increase economic access, especially targeted at marginalized groups. Within the past four years we’ve seen over 100+ guaranteed income pilots, with many focused on economically vulnerable groups; baby bonds legislation intended to help bridge growing wealth divides; and a reparations policy in Evanston, Illinois aimed at repairing the harm of racism in housing. This growing movement demands more than President Kennedy’s call for “affirmative action” on racial equality. This movement wants equality. Against this backdrop, Blum and Company systematically undermine the legal mechanisms by which we can achieve that goal. They claim to want a level playing field, but in practical terms, they would — quite literally — perpetuate white supremacy.
The progression of this legal assault is rapid, and it goes beyond fellowships and scholarships. Whether we’re talking about immigrant, LGBTQIA+, or Black communities, we’re all at risk here. The suite of lawsuits being pushed by AAER are intended to produce a chilling effect on those leading work to repair inequalities. At my organization, we pilot a guaranteed income program designed to actualize research on how to close the racial income and wealth divides. We’re particularly interested in the impact of policies like guaranteed income on the economic stability of Black women — a group faced with the disparate impacts of race and gender in our society. Under the aggressive legal regime pushed by conservative activists, programs like ours may become a blip on the historical radar. Blum already stated his interest in attacking “certain research grants. If we can’t consider any of the cultural or historical identities that for centuries drove public resource allocation in the U.S., the tools we have left are incapable of closing the racial income and wealth divide.
Proponents and opponents of affirmative action may well argue that income considerations will suffice to help bridge growing inequalities. However, those closest to the work know that income alone is a blunt and inadequate instrument to achieve the progress we want, which in the words of Malcolm X, is not only to pull the knife out but also “healing the wound that the blow made.” Only a large-scale infusion of wealth — greater than General Sherman’s promised “40 acres and a mule” — benefiting Black Americans could possibly close the divide at this point. The growing support for reparations today, especially among young people, demonstrates that increasingly Americans understand this connection. Even very generous “Universal” policies which ignore race have difficulty closing the divide. Baby Bonds, a proposal often credited to the economist Darrick Hamilton that would invest money for every child below a certain income level until they turn 18, is estimated to impressively cut the racial wealth divide in half. Half is not enough. There’s simply no path towards an equitable society that doesn’t include making Black communities — specifically — whole.
We may soon be looking at the end of the lawful pursuit of programs to economically support marginalized communities. The effects will be devastating. Though, as someone immersed in this work, I do still find reasons for hope. At The GRO Fund, we pilot policies like Guaranteed Income and Baby Bonds. These types of initiatives can significantly reduce economic disparities, and our program isn’t alone. There is work happening in every state to address inequality. We can find hope and lessons not only from local work but from history. From the Freedmen’s Bureau to the Welfare Rights Movement: Black communities have been here before and persevered in creating a more equitable economy in the face of racist opposition.
We have always been the authors of our own destinies, making a way when the path forward is unclear. The question is now for friends and allies: does a growing racial wealth dvide and historic inequality really reflect your values?
Hope Wollensack is the founder and Executive Director of the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity (GRO) Fund. GRO develops bold evidence-based and community driven solutions to eliminate poverty and narrow the racial wealth divide. GRO’s flagship program is the In Her Hands’ guaranteed income program serving 650 Black women across Georgia.
