In a 6-3 ruling yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ended affirmative action. The decision will likely reduce racial diversity in many colleges and cause numerous talented students of color to pursue a postsecondary degree elsewhere. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) can help fill the gap, but these institutions must receive greater investment to do so, Andre M. Perry, Hannah Stephens, and Manann Donoghoe emphasize.
Earlier this month, Russian foreign policy expert Sergey Karaganov called on Russia to lower the threshold for use of nuclear weapons in order to break Western support for Ukraine. Steven Pifer explains why, should Karaganov’s idea gain traction in the Kremlin, Belarus could become a prime nuclear target.
In the United States, more than 2.3 million felonies and 10 million misdemeanors are handled by over 2,300 individual prosecutor’s offices each year. These crucial decisions happen mostly in private, leading to serious questions about fairness and equity. Howard Henderson, Kiana Henley, and Tri Keah Henry explain how Black defendants are disproportionately harmed by prosecutorial charging decisions and propose reforms to improve transparency and uncover biases.
The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.