Black Academic Institutions Are Under Direct Threat From the Department of Education

Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

Black education programs are the next target in the Trump administration’s long list of things they would like to rip apart as they attempt to collapse American society as we know it. 

On Friday, the Department of Education sent a letter threatening to pull federal funding from any educational institution that uses race in most aspects of student life. 

The letter — written by Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights for the Education Department — is targeted at “preschool, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions that receive federal financial assistance from the Department.” 

Trainor wrote:

In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families. These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia. For example, colleges, universities, and K-12 schools have routinely used race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming. In a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities. 

Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon “systemic and structural racism” and advanced discriminatory policies and practices. Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them—particularly during the last four years—under the banner of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (“DEI”), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline. But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal. 

Trainor cites Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard — the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Affirmative Action in college admissions — saying that as the ruling “clarified  that the use of racial preferences in college admissions is unlawful, sets forth a framework for evaluating the use of race by state actors and entities covered by Title VI.”

Title VI is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits programs and activities that receive federal funding from discriminating based on race, color, or natural origin. The law was written to protect Black Americans from the racism they experienced post-enslavement and during Jim Crow. 

More from Trainor:

Although SFFA addressed admissions decisions, the Supreme Court’s holding applies more broadly. At its core, the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law. Federal law thus prohibits covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life. Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race.

This is happening and the Trump administration continues to attack DEI initiatives. 

As CNN notes, “This interpretation could open a wide range of challenges to courses and literature taught in schools, scholarships for non-White students, and various student organizations, including Black fraternities and sororities.”

Trainor is also critical of DEI efforts and initiatives, writing, “Other programs discriminate in less direct, but equally insidious, ways. DEI programs, for example, frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not. Such programs stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on crude racial stereotypes. Consequently, they deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school.”

Trainor’s letter goes on say that all academic institutions have until Feb. 28 to “(1) ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law; (2) cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends; and (3) cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race.”

“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” he continues. 

He concludes by saying, “Thank you in advance for your commitment to providing our Nation’s students with an educational environment that is free of race, color, or national origin discrimination.”

SEE ALSO:

Op-Ed: The Electoral College Proves White Conservatives Actually Love DEI

NC School Board Member Apologizes For Telling Anti-DEI Advocates The Truth About ‘Mediocre White Men’

Read more