The Enduring Impact of Family

Story Square’s in its intense planning season for the 2nd annual Story Square’s Lit with Families Texas Family Literacy Festival. During this planning, just 2 weeks ago, the Court put affirmative action to bed shedding light on how special and necessary our work is. The end of affirmative action is confirmation that our world is ever-changing – at times, in dramatic fashion. I recently read a super cute book to my daughters, The End is Just the Beginning, by @Michael Bender that encourages our hope in the ends. Because we begin and end at all times, our world truly rotates on change.

We do not live on the moon, just yet😊, where there is no change. What happens on the moon stays on the moon like Neil Armstrong’s 54-year-old footprint. We live on Earth without the option of an unwavering loyalty to the past. Thankfully. We must learn to navigate a world that is always changing. Seasons change. Technological advancements, trends, and people change. And of course, good or bad, the laws that govern the people change. Below is a timeline of how affirmative action was substantively changing all along and brought us to this point of reckoning. 1961: Affirmative action enters our nation’s discourse. President Kennedy’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity first used “affirmative action” when requiring non-discriminatory hiring practices in federal contracts. 1969-70: Nixon’s Secretary of Labor, George Schultz, expands the definition of affirmative action by employing racial quotas for the first time. 1978: The Supreme Court rejected the use of racial quotas in college admissions, ruling them unconstitutional. However, it deemed the pursuit of diversity as constitutional saying, “Universities must be accorded the right to select those students who will contribute the most to the robust exchange of ideas.” 2003: Diversity, still considered a compelling interest under the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, now had limitations on how race could be used. Race could only be used as a factor in admissions, among the many other attributes presented. And “…race-conscious admissions programs…must have a logical end.” 2023: Times up. The Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action is racially discriminatory, therefore unconstitutional. Race lost its as-a-factor role in the admissions process and now, “…the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race.” Story Square understands the high winds of change are brewing not just now, but always. As a result, we firmly stand by the institution that has the most power to change lives – FAMILIES. Families create an enduring impact for generations. What happens in families, good or bad, tends to stay with families. So, when families have a space like Story Square, where they can affirmatively take action to create the change they want to see in their generations to come, they change the world forever.