Even though the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled the use of race as a factor in admissions for public and private institutions of higher learning, many public American colleges and universities have a long way before achieving racial parity, data show.

In fact, an examination of public university enrollments, including predominantly white schools that have been at the center of landmark court cases, reveals that many have a long way to go.

In one case that the court ruled on, plaintiffs from a group known as Students for Fair Admissions claimed that the University of North Carolina discriminates against white and Asian American applicants by giving preference to Black, Native American or Hispanic applicants.

But UNC’s student body does not reflect the state’s racial makeup as a whole. For example, in 2021, just 8% of UNC students were Black compared to 22% of the state’s overall Black population.

“Race plays an undeniable role in shaping the identities of and quality of life for Black Americans,” NAACP President and Chief Executive Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

“In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court has displayed a willful ignorance of our reality. The NAACP will not be deterred nor silenced in our fight to hold leaders and institutions accountable for their role in embracing diversity no matter what,” he added in part.

UNC mirrors other flagship universities in states where the Black population exceeds national averages, many of which are in the South.

For example, Georgia had a Black population of 33% in 2021, but Black students at the University of Georgia were only 7% of the population; white students made up 69%.

Mississippi’s Black population as of 2021 was 38%. But the University of Mississippi’s Black student population was 12% while white students made up 77% in 2021.

Maya Wiley, the chief executive officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, noted the contradiction Thursday while on MSNBC.

“This is what we have to understand about the public universities. The selective ones, the Ole Misses, where James Meredith literally had to be guarded by US marshals in1963 when he became the first Black person to enter that flagship university in the South. And, frankly, most of the Southern institutions have the lowest proportional representation (in terms of race). That means there are, by definition, not fair opportunities,” Wiley said.

Since 2000, the percentage of Black students at public colleges and universities has declined, and colleges in states with the largest Black populations are the least accessible institutions for Black students, according to a 2020 report from The Education Trust.

Read more: What to know about 4 major Supreme Court cases to be decided this week

The real barriers to higher education

Many scholars have long argued that affirmative action is only one step towards making higher education more inclusive; real change must involve removing structural barriers that prevent Black students from having access to higher education.

As Andrew Nichols, senior director of higher education research and data analytics at The Education Trust, told The Hechinger Report in July 2020: “Tragically, too many college leaders and policymakers are really standing in the way of racial equity in higher ed…. They have the rhetoric that suggests they value diversity, equity and inclusion, but their actions or their inaction proves otherwise.”

Other scholars note that the argument that college admissions should be limited to quantitative factors like grade-point averages, and standardized test scores perpetuate systemic racism.

“Standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools,” Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to be an Antiracist,” wrote in October 2020.

Education has never been equitable and people of color have never had equal access to resources and education as white people, academics note.

Read more: Adam Harris on the inequalities baked into America’s education system

Natasha Warikoo, professor of sociology at Tufts University noted: “White youths tend to enjoy many privileges in the United States. These privileges include growing up, on average, in more affluent neighborhoods and attending higher-performing schools than Black and Latino youths, even of the same social class; and having parents with more financial resources to support their development.”

Black borrowers owe 100% more in student debt than white borrowers four years after graduating, according to Insider. And as of 2020, the average score on the SAT for white students was 1104 (out of 1600), for Asian students 1217, for Hispanic students 969 and for Black students 927.

Experts like Tiffany Jones, the senior director of higher education policy at The Education Trust, encourage institutions to rethink legacy admissions standards and the emphasis placed on standardized test scores in admissions.

“There might be barriers in place, but these institutions have enormous power, influence and resources, and we just expect them to use them to fight for Black and Brown students, just like they do [for] anyone else they care about,” Jones told The Hechinger Report.

Considering leadership qualities, personal talents, race and ethnicity and family circumstances along with GPAs and test scores minimize the number of institutional barriers to attending higher education institutions.

Unintended consequences?

The defendants in each case – Students for Fair Admissions – claimed that admissions policies at both schools violated federal anti-discrimination laws because they consider race in evaluating applicants in the admissions process.

Students for Fair Admissions is a nonprofit organization that opposes race-based affirmative action policies and has challenged admissions policies at a number of institutions arguing that race-conscious admissions discriminate against white and Asian American/Pacific Islander, or AAPI, students.

However, some AAPI officials say the ruling could have unintended consequences and are using their voices to amplify the importance of enrolling students that contribute to campus diversity.

Rep. Judy Chu, who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, wrote in a statement today that “the end of race-conscious admissions is unlikely to change the net numbers of Asian American acceptance at elite institutions.”

“But AANHPI students from low-income, refugee, or indigenous backgrounds will encounter more hurdles to acceptance. That’s no net positive, and it’s why the majority of AANHPIs in America have expressed support for race-conscious admissions,” Chu said.