DOJ Investigating Harvard’s Racial Preferences

Roger CleggEducation

Over the summer, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division was taking steps to investigate Harvard University’s use of racial preferences in admissions, especially insofar as they discriminate against Asian-American applicants. You may recall that the Center for Equal Opportunity was mentioned prominently as encouraging the investigation (see the statement we issued here) when the story was first reported in the New York Times.  Well, news stories are now confirming that this investigation is, indeed, under way. Good. As I explain here, such an investigation is entirely appropriate. What’s more, such discrimination should be stopped …

Why Racial Preferences Remain Wrongheaded

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

Last week, Inside Higher Ed published my essay on racial preferences, which you can read here: Why Racial Preferences Remain Wrongheaded Those who defend them should consider whether they’d require them indefinitely and whether such a requirement is consistent with good race relations in the country America is becoming, argues Roger Clegg. Last month, The New York Times reported that the U.S. Justice Department was preparing to begin “investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants.” It turned out that what the Justice Department was really up to was investigating admissions discrimination against …

CEO Praises Justice Department

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

Last week was a busy one here at the Center for Equal Opportunity. After word broke in the New York Times late Tuesday that the Justice Department was planning to take on affirmative action in college admissions (a story I was quoted in), a predictable media frenzy was unleashed to cover the story. Of course, the usual suspects on the Left attacked the Trump administration and played the race card, labeling any effort to stop racial preferences in college admissions as “racist,” but the Center for Equal Opportunity was out in full force to applaud the Justice Department and educate the public on the legal and …

Art for Color’s Sake

Roger CleggEmployment

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio wants to coerce museums and arts groups that receive city money into using hiring quotas based on race and ethnicity, according to the New York Times. But it would be illegal for employers to give in to this pressure, because Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids such discrimination. Federal statute aside, it is unconstitutional for the city to engage in such pressuring. Any use of racial and ethnic classifications is “presumptively invalid” and triggers “strict scrutiny,” which can be met only if, for starters, there is a “compelling” government interest. …

“Diversity” and Other Euphemisms

Roger CleggEducation

Last week, the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed complaining that the word “diversity” is a euphemism, since its proponents really want nothing more than nondiscrimination.  My published rejoinder to this dubious claim: I wish it were true that those asking for “diversity” were asking only for nondiscrimination, as Noah Berlatsky writes. But in many contexts the opposite is true: The last thing they want is nondiscrimination, and what they are asking for is precisely discrimination, albeit of the politically correct sort. (“‘Diversity’ is a euphemism. We should be careful how we use it,” Opinion, July 10) Thus, when universities …

Uber Takes Eric Holder’s Bad Advice

Roger CleggEmployment

Uber hired former attorney general Eric Holder to give it some advice about its scandal-ridden workplace. Predictably, much of that advice turned out to be more politically correct than legally sound, much like the Justice Department when he was running it. Alas, the Uber board has already announced that it will adopt Mr. Holder’s recommendations. In particular, Mr. Holder wants Uber to get its numbers right, by hiring more “underrepresented” minorities and women. And so: “The Head of Diversity (or Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer) should set goals with respect to annual improvements in diversity and regularly publish data on …

“Cultural Flavor” and University Admissions

Roger CleggEducation

Some documents recently uncovered at Princeton show that, when awarding a preference on the basis of race or ethnicity, the admissions office wants to make sure that the student being considered has a strong “cultural flavor.” That is, for example, you can’t just be Hispanic, you have to act Hispanic, whatever that means for the admissions office. Offensive, of course, but unsurprising. After all, the “diversity” rationale for such racial and ethnic discrimination is premised on such stereotyping. That is, there are supposed to be “educational benefits” to exposing students to people with different backgrounds and perspectives; if the recipient …

Skin Color Determines “Who Gets In”

Roger CleggEducation

A new book by Rebecca Zwick, Who Gets In?, has some interesting data on, among other things, the effect of racial preferences on university admissions.  According to the discussion this week in Inside Higher Ed: What she found is that an admissions system based solely on grades and test scores would result in significant increases in Asian [and white] enrollments and declines in enrollments of underrepresented minority [i.e., black and Latino, and sometimes American Indian] students. … Model for Impact of Different Admissions Models at Colleges That Admit Less Than 10% of Applicants Race/Ethnicity Current If Decisions Based Only on …

Cognitive Diversity versus P.C. Diversity

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

We are constantly being told by the proponents of racial, ethnic, and gender preferences in business and academia that diversity results in better problem-solving, learning, and so forth. Now, there are a number of rebuttals to this justification for discrimination, but one of them has always been that, to the extent that there is truth here, it is cognitive diversity that matters rather than diversity of superficial characteristics like skin color. And it does not make sense to use skin color as a proxy for different perspectives and backgrounds. Well, The Harvard Business Review has published an article that provides …