While I believe in a meritocracy, I also don’t see that it would be good for our society to have a “permanent underclass”. Accordingly, I view some race-based actions on the part of universities–minority outreach, for example–to be reasonable and positive. Lower standards, though? “The soft bigotry of low expectations.”
The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions”… The document does not explicitly identify whom the Justice Department considers at risk of discrimination because of affirmative action admissions policies. But the phrasing it uses, “intentional race-based discrimination,” cuts to the heart of programs designed to bring more minority students to university campuses.
It’s interesting that the linked article addresses discrimination against white applicants when the obvious discrimination is against Asian applicants.
(A few hours after writing that I add the following)
Turns out that the Gray Lady might have been telling a White Lie:
The Justice Department was attacked as racist due to a false New York Times story claiming the DOJ was working to protect white students from discrimination… The Daily Caller first reported that a DOJ source said this Times article “appears to assume it deals with white students without evidence.” DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores later put out a statement confirming this. “Press reports regarding the personnel posting in the Civil Rights Division have been inaccurate. The posting sought volunteers to investigate one administrative complaint filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American associations in May 2015 that the prior Administration left unresolved,” Flores wrote. “The complaint alleges racial discrimination against Asian Americans in a university’s admissions policy and practices.” The May 2015 complaint centered around Asian-Americans claiming they got passed over for worse students due to quotas at Ivy League schools.
So would the NYT article qualify as “fake news”?