George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology & Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights Dorothy E. Roberts was named to TIME’s 2025 list of ‘The Closers,’ recognizing 25 Black leaders working to end racial equity gaps.
“For many Black Americans, closing the racial equity gap can feel like an insurmountable task… And while there have been major wins, extensive disparities—embedded in the fabric of the country—persist,” TIME editors wrote. “Last year, TIME’s inaugural Closers list focused on leaders working to chip away at the Black-white wealth gap. This year, TIME has expanded its focus to highlight 25 Black leaders who are working to close racial equity gaps more broadly.”
The second annual ‘Closers’ list, revealed in February, also included Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock, and actor/director Colman Domingo, among other notable Healers, Innovators, Leaders, and Advocates.
Roberts, a legal scholar and public policy researcher who exposed racial inequities in health and social service systems, was honored for her advocacy for the abolition of child protective services.
“This is not a system that supports families,” she said in a feature profile from TIME, which cited research that indicates Black families are almost twice as likely as white families to be investigated by CPS, often in situations where parents are impoverished rather than neglectful. “It does a terrible job at keeping children safe. It’s really a system that terrorizes families and tears them apart and doesn’t provide what families need.”
Roberts pointed to reform as a possible solution but sees dismantling the CPS system in favor of financial, health, and relational support resources for parents as a better way forward.
“It isn’t the kind of system you can fix because its core, its very foundations, are so oppressive,” she said. “Just as important as dismantling this harmful system is replacing it simultaneously with a better approach to keeping children safe and supporting families.”
Robert’s work encompasses reproductive health, bioethics, and child welfare. She sheds light on systemic inequities, amplifies the voices of those directly affected, and boldly calls for a wholesale transformation of existing systems.
In October, Roberts was named a 2024 MacArthur Fellow, receiving a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” to continue her work addressing inequality, social justice, and race issues.
Original source can be found here.