Issue No. 1 | August 8, 2023

Affirmative Action Ruling Highlights Need for Corporate Standards to Advance Equity

Welcome to our inaugural Corporate Racial Equity (CRE) Alliance newsletter — a quarterly update on our corporate standards effort, how to get involved, resources for business leaders, and spotlights on the work of our partners. This quarter, as we continue in our effort to develop a unified approach for businesses to tackle inequality and meaningfully advance equity, the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action looms large.

As universities grapple with the Court’s ruling, employers are finding themselves at an inflection point in their efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The course they choose will have long-term impacts on the stability of their workforce and strength of their business. The Court’s ruling also signals that our corporate standards tackling inequality are needed now more than ever to support businesses. What some see as the end of affirmative action is just the beginning for corporate DEI. Read our latest article on how companies must double down on DEI.

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

Broad stakeholder engagement is instrumental to ensuring our standards are maximally actionable and impactful. In the spring of 2022, the CRE Alliance hosted our second public comment period on the corporate standards. We received thousands of comments from hundreds of individuals reflecting a wide array of lived experience and expertise. In early 2024, we will share a synthesis of the public comments and an explanation of how we are incorporating the rich feedback in the standards. As part of our development process, we are excited to be testing the draft standards with companies in 2023 and 2024 through a series of pilots.

Your voice is critical to our success! Stay tuned for our next public comment period with the release of the corporate standards in early 2024.

How You Can Get Involved

• Individuals: Would your colleagues or peers be interested in the corporate standards, especially to lend their voice to this important work? Forward this newsletter and encourage them to join our mailing list.
   
• Companies: Does your company meet the requirements? Explore participating in our standards pilots. Reach out to us at pilot@corporateracialequityalliance.org with questions or to indicate your company’s interest.
   

Partner Spotlight

Greenlining Institute’s Just Futures Summit provides a unique opportunity to hear some of the most important voices in the racial equity movement — advocates, issue area experts, organizers, educators, and community leaders.

Don’t miss 2023’s keynote speaker, award-winning author and comedian, W. Kamau Bell. Learn more and register for the 2023 Just Future Summit. 

Greenlining Institute works towards a future where communities of color can build wealth, live in healthy places filled with economic opportunity, and are ready to meet the challenges posed by climate change.

Resource Spotlight

In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, here are some resources to support companies in creating a fairer, more level playing field for workers and our next generation of leaders:

• Letter from 21 Democratic Attorneys General to Fortune 100 Companies urges them to “double-down on diversity-focused programs.”
   
• What SCOTUS’s Affirmative Action Decision Means for Corporate DEI, by Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow, explores three types of DEI action that show “the era of diversity and inclusion is far from over.”
   
• In How to Effectively — and Legally — Use Racial Data for DEI, Lily Zheng shares “the key to sustaining DEI progress and commitment” in light of the recent ruling.
   
• Unpacking the Supreme Court's Ruling on Affirmative Action is a helpful webinar from the Othering & Belonging Institute that explains the legal ins and outs of the Supreme Court ruling. 
   

Keep in Touch and Stay Up to Date

Learn more about the Corporate Racial Equity Alliance founding partners: FSG, JUST Capital, and PolicyLink.

Reach out with questions to info@corporateracialequityalliance.org