Students Demand National Protections for Affirmative Action
Attacks on Affirmative Action and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are intensifying across the country, in both Blue and Red states, from Florida to Connecticut and Oklahoma, with the Supreme Court set to make a ruling on Affirmative Action some time this year. Multicultural studies programs, including African American, Chicano, and American Indian studies, are being threatened with massive cuts and outright elimination in several Colleges and Universities. Enrollment of Black, Chicano and Latino students, as well as the enrollment of Native American students is already low nationwide, and the drive towards closing or defunding DEI programs will only result in lower enrollment. These attacks are reaching beyond colleges and universities into K-12 schools, with local school boards banning books and the AP African American History program in Florida being forced to massively revise its curriculum to avoid being banned from public schools. DEI programs and Cultural Studies were hard-won by the determined struggle of students, campus workers, and faculty over the past 50 years, and we refuse to back down from the fight to keep them.
Our chapters across the country have already been mobilizing against these attacks on DEI programs and affirmative action. When Ron Desantis requested a list of staff, programs, and activities regarding DEI programs at Florida colleges, the Florida College Board vowed to end these programs. In response, Florida State SDS and Tampa Bay SDS rallied on campus for the continued funding and expansion of DEI education. Additionally, SDS called a National Day of Action to protect Affirmative Action, which chapters across the country, from Seattle to Jacksonville took part in. On March 6th our Tampa chapter protested against the latest rounds of attacks on DEI funding announced by Governor DeSantis, and were met with a brutal response from University of South Florida Police, who brutalized and arrested 4 members. We fought for and freed the arrestees but are still fighting for the charges to be dropped. In the face of this repression we will stand firm, and make clear that defending diversity is not a crime. We will continue to organize both locally, within our chapters, and as a national organization, to demand our full educational rights and that these attacks end.
Students for a Democratic Society condemns attacks on DEI programs, and we are determined to build the fight to defeat them. That is why we are now taking this up as our National Fight to Save Diversity, to defend these programs and multicultural studies and more, on our campuses and nationwide. In the face of these attempts to pull us back and erase past victories, we demand that these programs be protected and expanded. We demand that the enrollment of Black, Chicano, Latino and Native students be increased nationally, and we demand that Affirmative Action be protected, and we demand that Multicultural studies programs be defended from cuts and elimination.
We work to build the student movement because students and youth have the power to stand up and fight back in the face of attacks like these, and when we are united we have the power to win. We call on students and youth across the country to take part in their local SDS chapter’s fight to defend these programs, to start the fight on campuses where there are not yet chapters, take part in SDS national days of action to defend these programs, and to demand that college and university administrations and state governments take immediate action to expand and protect diversity programs and multicultural studies! In the face of all these attacks, we will not back down, we will not go home, we will take to the streets and fight back!
Stop Attacks on Diversity Programs!
Increase Black, Chicano, Native, and Latino Enrollment!
Defend Affirmative Action!