The New Battleground

The Supreme Court’s strike against affirmative action has been followed by a wave of political and legal pressure against colleges. The message is clear: even “race-neutral” admissions strategies — like essays about hardship or geographic diversity — are now being scrutinized . Black enrollment at elite schools is already showing signs of decline.

This isn’t just a matter of policy. It’s a matter of power. If the system is being reshaped to limit us, then we must reshape our own response.

Parents as the First Line of Defense

Families can no longer afford to approach admissions casually. If “merit” is being redefined around standardized testing, then our students must be over-prepared. That means investing early in SAT and ACT prep, just as we invest in travel basketball, football camps, or arts lessons.

We need to normalize test-prep savings plans alongside college savings plans. Parents must see test prep not as a luxury, but as a strategic defense against exclusion.

Building Our Own Test-Prep Institutions

Mainstream prep programs are expensive and often out of reach. The time has come to build Black-owned test prep companies that make access affordable and culturally grounded. Imagine alumni networks, churches, and fraternities pooling resources to create prep co-ops, or Black entrepreneurs launching platforms that rival Kaplan and Princeton Review.

Education is not just a ladder of opportunity. It’s an industry. If we own the infrastructure, we build wealth while also preparing our children to succeed.

Game Changer: “Education isn’t charity. It’s strategy. If they shift the rules, we shift the playbook.”

Beyond the Ivy League – Reclaiming Value

For too long, the Ivy League has been treated as the singular marker of success. But this moment is an opportunity to reframe value.

HBCUs must aggressively pursue top Black talent:

• Offer full scholarships to the best test scorers.

• Partner with corporate America to build direct career pipelines.

• Target families who are frustrated with Ivy gatekeeping.

And this isn’t just about undergrad. Graduate programs at HBCUs — Howard Law, Morehouse Med, FAMU MBA — deserve the same level of prestige in our cultural mindset as Harvard Law or Wharton. We need to celebrate Black students choosing these schools, and highlight the alumni who have risen to the top of their fields from HBCU graduate programs.

Numbers Don’t Lie: HBCUs produce 50% of Black lawyers, 40% of Black engineers, and 80% of Black judges. Yet their graduate programs remain under-marketed.

Strengthening Policy and Legal Awareness

Conservative lawsuits are targeting even race-neutral “proxies” for diversity . That means parents and students need to understand the legal landscape. How essays are written, how testing is positioned, and how “neutral” policies are interpreted can all make a difference.

Civil rights and Black legal organizations should move quickly to provide guides and workshops so families know how to navigate this evolving environment. Knowledge of the law is not optional — it’s protection.

Broadening Definitions of Success

While test prep and HBCUs are crucial, we must also expand what “elite” looks like. Top public flagships, strong regional universities, and even international schools can become power pipelines for Black talent.

If Black excellence is spread across more institutions, our leverage multiplies. The true measure of success is not whether we break into one closed gate, but whether we build new avenues altogether.

A Call to Collective Action

This fight isn’t about pity. It’s about ownership.

• Parents must invest in preparation.

• Communities must build our own institutions.

• HBCUs must elevate their graduate programs and claim their rightful prestige.

• Students must see themselves as more than pawns in a culture war.

If policies are designed to push us out, our answer must be to build pathways that cannot be blocked. The future of Black education will not be handed to us. It will be built by us.

Our Answer: “They closed one door. We’ll build a house with ten more.”