Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/159

20 interlocked factors place underrepresented minorities multiple steps behind the starting line in the race for college admissions.

In North Carolina, the home of UNC, racial inequality is deeply entrenched in K–12 education. State courts have consistently found that the State does not provide underrepresented racial minorities equal access to educational opportunities, and that racial disparities in public schooling have increased in recent years, in violation of the State Constitution. See, e.g., ''Hoke Cty. Bd. of Ed. v. State, 2020 WL 13310241, *6, *13 (N. C. Super. Ct., Jan. 21, 2020); Hoke Cty. Bd. of Ed. v. State'', 382 N. C. 386, 388–390, 879 S. E. 2d 193, 197–198 (2022).

These opportunity gaps “result in fewer students from underrepresented backgrounds even applying to” college, particularly elite universities. Brief for Massachusetts Institute of Technology et al. as Amici Curiae 32. “Because talent lives everywhere, but opportunity does not, there are undoubtedly talented students with great academic potential who have simply not had the opportunity to attain the traditional indicia of merit that provide a competitive edge in the admissions process.” Brief for Harvard Student and Alumni Organizations as Amici Curiae 16. Consistent with this reality, Latino and Blackblack [sic] students are less likely to enroll in institutions of higher education than their white peers.

Given the central role that education plays in breaking the cycle of racial inequality, these structural barriers reinforce other forms of inequality in communities of color. See E. Wilson, Monopolizing Whiteness, 134 Harv. L. Rev.