Congratulations to Olivia, Rodney, Kayla, Allie, and Sumeyah, the Black United Fund of Oregon (BUF-OR) announced with pride. All earned Amina Anderson scholarships awarded to students to pursue higher education at an accredited college or university within the State of Oregon. To qualify for the scholarship, students must identify as Black, African-American, or of African descent.

Other minority students in Oregon celebrated, too. There was the Oregon Latino Scholarship from the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber, where applicants must be of Hispanic ancestry and permanently residing in Oregon or Clark County, A total of $117,700 was awarded to 40 students on May 3rd, 2024, during the Chamber’s annual Scholarship Award Luncheon at the Oregon Convention Center, in Portland, Oregon.

There was also the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association Scholarship for Chinese high school seniors, and the Full Circle Scholarship from the American Indian College Fund for American Indian and Alaska Native students in Oregon.

I hope they treasured their awards. They may be among the last winners. All college scholarships restricted to minority students in Oregon and other states could soon be on the chopping block.

A lawsuit just filed against McDonald’s in federal court Nashville, TN alleges that the company is discriminating against non-Latinos with its HACER National Scholarship Program. The program offers scholarships between $5,000 and $100,000 to up to 30 outstanding students from across the US with at least one parent of Latino or Hispanic heritage.

“So non-Hispanics—including non-Hispanics with severe financial need and racial minorities like blacks, Arabs, and Native Americans—are flatly barred based on their ethnic heritage,” the lawsuit says. “This kind of discrimination was never lawful.”

The lawsuit was filed by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, led by Edward Blum. His lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina led to a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to stop affirmative action admissions at colleges. Blum has consistently argued against laws and policies that make distinctions based on race or ethnicity in areas such as voting and education.

“Like the vast majority of Americans, I believe that an individual’s race and ethnicity should not be used to help them or harm them in their life’s endeavors,” Blum told The New York Times after the Supreme Court ruling. ” This opinion is the end of the beginning. This issue of race and ethnicity in our public lives is not going to go away.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling has already spurred other nonprofits outside of Blum’s to target what they perceive to be discriminatory scholarships and fellowships. The Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, for example, has filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office over universities’ minority scholarships and fellowships,

As The Washington Post has observed, the Supreme Court’s decision “is being closely watched because of its possible implications for race-conscious programs in the private sector.”

Get ready for change.