Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 162.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

23 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

Black  students  faced  racial  epithets  and  stereotypes,  re-
ceived hate mail, and encountered Ku Klux Klan rallies on 
campus.  2 id., at 781–784; 3 id., at 1689. 

To this day, UNC’s deep-seated legacy of racial subjuga-
tion continues to manifest itself in student life.  Buildings
on campus still bear the names of members of the Ku Klux 
Klan  and  other  white  supremacist  leaders.    Id.,  at  1683. 
Students of color also continue to experience racial harass-
ment, isolation, and tokenism.20  Plus, the student body re-
mains  predominantly  white:  approximately  72%  of  UNC
students identify as white, while only 8% identify as Black. 
Id., at 1647.  These numbers do not reflect the diversity of
the State, particularly Black North Carolinians, who make
up 22% of the population.  Id., at 1648. 

ii 
UNC is not alone.  Harvard, like other Ivy League uni-
versities in our country, “stood beside church and state as
the third pillar of a civilization built on bondage.”  C. Wil-
der, Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History 
of America’s Universities 11 (2013).  From Harvard’s found-
ing, slavery and racial subordination were integral parts of 
the institution’s funding, intellectual production, and cam-
pus  life.  Harvard  and  its  donors  had  extensive  financial 
ties to, and profited from, the slave trade, the labor of en-
slaved  people,  and  slavery-related  investments.    As  Har-
vard now recognizes, the accumulation of this wealth was 
“vital to the University’s growth” and establishment as an 

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20 See 1 App. 20–21 (campus climate survey showing inter alia that “91 
percent  of  students  heard  insensitive  or  disparaging  racial  remarks 
made by other students”); 2 id., at 1037 (Black student testifying that a
white student called him “the N word” and, on a separate occasion at a 
fraternity party, he was “told that no slaves were allowed in”); id., at 955 
(student testifying that he was “the only African American student in the
class,”  which  discouraged  him  from  speaking  up  about  racially  salient 
issues); id., at 762–763 (student describing that being “the only Latina”
made it “hard to speak up” and made her feel “foreign” and “an outsider”).