I'm Major Jackson and this is the Slowdown.

We are in the midst of an attack on perceived advantages.

This year, the U.S. Supreme Court ended race, conscious, admissions, and higher education.

The decision is sure to have a domino effect in our society.

The ruling closed one of the proven means to economic and upward mobility for everyone.

But especially talented youth of various backgrounds born into low-income households

or, like me, raised in working-class communities.

Instead of increasing opportunities to remedy structural privilege and very real historical inequities,

we've kicked the social ladder that America promises away from the building,

along with other affirming legislation and constitutional rights.

I am one of many whose life trajectory and future was dramatically altered by the gains of higher education,

degrees that I could not afford.

My cherished network of teachers, mentors, and friends helped me unlock the hidden curriculum of academic success,

but more importantly of life.

And yet, ascending the ladder also came with emotional fallout, which I've had to face alone.

I psychologically battled everything from isolation and racist perceptions of feeling a diversity quota

to constant othering to outright slurs, like the one on a student evaluation I received years ago.

We're another person would have been seen as naturally competent in the eyes of non-black peers.

I came across as overconfident, but that's par for the course.

No one was more critical of himself than me.

I was obsessed with proving my worth and presence, which left me physically and mentally exhausted.

I hate it that I doubt down my talents to fit in.

...