For many high school students, the chance to gain entrance to the college of their choice is one of the most exciting and promising opportunities their educational path presents them. They study hard, they drive daily toward the future, they dream big and then, for too many of our country’s students — and particularly our Black and brown and low-income students — the news comes that they’ve been waitlisted, or even more upsetting, they didn’t get in.

This is far too familiar a story for too many of our kids. In fact, this was my story.

I remember checking my mail every day, waiting for the decision to arrive. Would I get in? Would I be able to go to the school I’d always hoped for? Would I be able to make the dreams I had a reality? I knew I put in the work as a student. I knew I deserved a place among all the other incoming freshmen at the schools of their choosing — but at the same time, I’ve always been a realist. So, I also knew there were many factors working against Black boys like myself.

One of the most pernicious of these factors is one that occurs too frequently and carries with it too much weight. The practice of legacy admissions — or giving preference to an applicant whose parent or other family member graduated from the university — is unjust and perpetuates oppressive systemic exclusivity that primarily rewards affluent white families, as affluent white folks have historically been those to attend college, and thus, their children the most likely to benefit from legacy admissions.

Supporters of legacy admissions — most typically schools themselves — try to argue that banning the practice could lead to a potential loss in donors and a loss in attendance; they decry the dismantling of precious “tradition.” But in reality, after abolishing the practice, schools actually see no effect or even an increase in donations — which is what happened at the University of Texas.

Furthermore, schools that end legacy admissions don’t lose students, but rather, continue to have thriving student bodies and alumni communities — just more socioeconomically diverse student bodies and alumni communities. And as for clinging to “tradition?” Well, that can of course be more aptly translated to adhering to practices that support exclusion and systemic racism, since legacy admissions, founded in the 1920s, were first created to exclude Jewish and second-generation immigrant applicants.

Over the past year, increased efforts have arisen across the country to ban legacy admissions, with the aim of making college accessibility more equitable for every student. In June 2021, Colorado became the first state in the country to end legacy admissions for its public colleges and universities, and in the fall, Amherst College followed suit. Even more recently, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman introduced the Fair College Admissions for Students Act, which seeks to abolish legacy admissions nationwide. And in New York, State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker launched the Fair College Admissions Act, aimed at banning the legacy preference and binding early college admission policies in New York.

So, what does all of this tell us? It tells us it’s high time for change. It tells us the country is hungry for it, and that our students are deserving of it. What can we, as citizens, do to help? Well, we do what we have always done and done best: we get involved. We get loud. We get things done. We call up our representatives and tell them we will not stand for any practice that unfairly gives an advantage to anyone based on where their parents went to school. We tell them we will not tolerate any system that perpetuates inequality, elitism and injustice by excluding opportunities from promising students. We tell them we want change and we want it now.

We do it for each and every student — like my past high school self — who works hard, day after day, striving for a brighter future, only to have that future unfairly handed over to another student, merely because that other student’s parents went to the school. We do it so our Black and brown and low-income students believe their worth is rightly on a par with every other student’s in this country. And we do it so their dreams have a real shot at becoming their realities.

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