Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/162

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)

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Sotomayor, J., dissenting

Black students faced racial epithets and stereotypes, received hate mail, and encountered Ku Klux Klan rallies on campus. 2 id., at 781–784; 3 id., at 1689.

To this day, UNC’s deep-seated legacy of racial subjugation continues to manifest itself in student life. Buildings on campus still bear the names of members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist leaders. Id., at 1683. Students of color also continue to experience racial harassment, isolation, and tokenism.^[1] Plus, the student body remains predominantly white: approximately 72% of UNC students identify as white, while only 8% identify as Black. Id., at 1647. These numbers do not reflect the diversity of the State, particularly Black North Carolinians, who make up 22% of the population. Id., at 1648.

ii

UNC is not alone. Harvard, like other Ivy League universities in our country, “stood beside church and state as the third pillar of a civilization built on bondage.” C. Wilder, Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities 11 (2013). From Harvard’s founding, slavery and racial subordination were integral parts of the institution’s funding, intellectual production, and campus life. Harvard and its donors had extensive financial ties to, and profited from, the slave trade, the labor of enslaved people, and slavery-related investments. As Harvard now recognizes, the accumulation of this wealth was “vital to the University’s growth” and establishment as an

↑ See 1 App. 20–21 (campus climate survey showing inter alia that “91 percent of students heard insensitive or disparaging racial remarks made by other students”); 2 id., at 1037 (Black student testifying that a white student called him “the N word” and, on a separate occasion at a fraternity party, he was “told that no slaves were allowed in”); id., at 955 (student testifying that he was “the only African American student in the class,” which discouraged him from speaking up about racially salient issues); id., at 762–763 (student describing that being “the only Latina” made it “hard to speak up” and made her feel “foreign” and “an outsider”).

[1] See 1 App. 20–21 (campus climate survey showing inter alia that “91 percent of students heard insensitive or disparaging racial remarks made by other students”); 2 id., at 1037 (Black student testifying that a white student called him “the N word” and, on a separate occasion at a fraternity party, he was “told that no slaves were allowed in”); id., at 955 (student testifying that he was “the only African American student in the class,” which discouraged him from speaking up about racially salient issues); id., at 762–763 (student describing that being “the only Latina” made it “hard to speak up” and made her feel “foreign” and “an outsider”).

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