DEIB: Vision, Framing, and Action in a Post-SFFA World

We have been here before.  At critical inflection points throughout history, racial justice and civil rights progress has been met with well-funded and coordinated attacks that have translated into powerful backlash. So for many of us, the Supreme Court's recent decision in SFFA v. Harvard was not a surprise, but rather a culmination of decades of attempts to tether an ahistorical colorblind ideology to the Equal Protection Clause. Since the overturning of affirmative action, the various strategies to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in higher education and the workplace are at a fever pitch. Our work is to not only prevent the backlash from taking hold but to move beyond a defensive posture to achieve resilient, ambitious, and transformative change.  In this panel, we will explore how we can harness the powerful vision of Belonging without Othering and Targeted Universalism through empirically tested narrative strategies, litigation, and forward-looking philanthropic efforts for racial equity and economic opportunity.

Location: HJK NORTH BALLROOM