In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 decision that effectively bans affirmative action and race-conscious admissions policies in higher education, there has been an onslaught of attacks to DEI programs, including over 100 legal challenges to programs related to internships, grantmaking, scholarships, and other policies that strive to uplift or provide support for communities that have historically been underserved or underrepresented. In response, civil rights organizations have mobilized across sectors and leveraged their collective power to advance policy recommendations protecting race-explicit programs, provide legal tools and pro bono support to help organizations right-size their legal risk, and raise awareness about the dangers of shying away from strategies that seek to address systemic racism. Since early 2023, AAPIP has partnered with ABFE, HIP, and NAP to develop an initiative called READI (Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative) to ensure that the philanthropic sector continues to promote, expand, and defend race-explicit grantmaking and programming and that racial justice is foundational to creating a multicultural democracy.
It is against this historical backdrop that AAPIP has a responsibility and moral obligation to take a leadership role in educating, activating, and mobilizing our network and the broader philanthropic sector about our shared movements and intersectional identities. Through a partnership with Chinese for Affirmative Action, AAPIP plans to launch a series of discussions and in-person advocacy intended to (re)situate Asian Americans within the broader conversations around civil rights, and affirmative action specifically; provide an overview of the current legal landscape with an emphasis on how race conscious programs can still thrive despite the Supreme Court decision; and develop tangible, collective actions to support an infrastructure within philanthropy and beyond for race-explicit grantmaking, programs, and policies. Above all, this is the time to be brave, creative, and resilient, and we hope to inspire and mobilize our network.