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Category: Race and Ethnicity

Civil Rights Groups Challenge Harvard’s Legacy Admissions

Jose Luis Magana/ AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Three Massachusetts-based civil rights groups are challenging donor and legacy admissions at Harvard University, arguing that the practice gives an unfair boost to mostly white students whose family members are either alumni or wealthy donors. The…

Under Republican Pressure, EPA Ditched “Cancer Alley” Cases

Grist/Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Pastor Philip Schmitter waited more than 20 years for the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job. In 1992, he’d filed a civil rights complaint to halt the construction of a power station that would spew toxic lead into…

The Supreme Court Made It Even Harder to Close the Racial Wealth Gap

Mother Jones; Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Within 24 hours, two rulings from the nation’s highest court—one striking down the use of race-conscious college admissions, and the second gutting Biden’s student debt cancellation plan—rolled back years of progress towards greater…

Did Justice Jackson Sneak a Loophole into the Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ban?

Jacqueline Martin/CNP/ZUMA Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The Supreme Court’s conservative majority banned race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities on Thursday, ruling that using race as an admissions factor violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The decision invalidates the University of North Carolina…