Affirmative Discrimination for Firefighters?

Roger CleggEmployment

There are, alas, no minorities or women in the Cranston fire department — the only Rhode Island city so stained.  But the city is aware of the ignominy and is aggressively trying to find suitable applicants — and indeed it admits to “loosening” its hiring requirements in order to solve this problem. But just a second:  Is it really a good idea to be lowering standards for those in charge of saving other people’s lives?  Councilman Michael J. Farina apparently thinks not.  “Maybe minorities don’t want to be firefighters,” he says. “I can’t see lowering our standards” to hire them, …

Obama Disavows Diversity Hiring (Sort Of)

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

President Obama spoke at the University of Chicago law school last week about his nomination of Merrick Garland — a white male (tsk, tsk) — to the Supreme Court.  At one point, he was asked about “diversity” in this context, and the answer he gave is interesting (search for the word “diversity” to find the relevant question and answer).  The president professed not to make judicial appointment decisions on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex, instead insisting only on a process that ensures that all the best candidates are identified and looked at.  He said the same thing for …

Bowdoin’s Sombrero Scandal

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

The horror, the horror:  Sombreros were apparently distributed during a tequila party at Bowdoin College (see Weekly Standard item here).  Needless to say, the powers of political correctness at the college are in high dudgeon.  They are being accused of overreaction — but, really, how can one overreact to this sort of vicious cultural appropriation in what is supposed to be a civilized society in the 21st century?  Off with their hats, I mean heads! Trump and Affirmative Action – One addendum to this National Review Online post on the Michelle Fields matter:  The Breitbart reporter was asking Mr. Trump …

Dissing “Diversity”

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

It turns out that the corporate “celebration of diversity” is not only unfair, divisive, inefficient, illogical, immoral, and illegal — it doesn’t work very well by its own terms, according to the Harvard Business Review. So here’s a crazy idea: How about if companies announced that from now on people were going to be judged as individuals and that nobody would be given any preference or suffer any discrimination on the basis of skin color, national origin, or sex? They could make clear that this applied to men and women, minorities and non-minorities alike. Might that possibly be a good way to advance …

Dan Rooney

The Washington Post Hides the Ball

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

The Washington Post had a long article recently headlined in the hard copy, “Why do poor boys become jobless men?” (the headline on the jump-page was “Study: Poverty especially harmful to job prospects of boys”).  It begins by noting that, while generally and historically men have been more likely to work than women, in some places now there is a “reverse gender gap” and it is men who are less likely to have jobs. And it goes on and on about poverty and race and geography and segregation, dropping a few tantalizing references to “unstable, high-poverty environments” and “family, schools and policy” …

Answering Linda Greenhouse’s Question

Roger CleggEducation

Linda Greenhouse recently had a meandering New York Times column about Fisher v. University of Texas – in which  the Supreme Court is considering a challenge to racial and ethnic preferences in student admissions –  in which she unhappily concedes that the “diversity” rationale is the only way that universities can legally justify their use of such preferences. And she poses the core question that follows this way: “If diversity is the only acceptable rationale for taking account of race, as the court insists, then what is the rationale for diversity?” Luckily (or unluckily) for her, I answered this question …

Unkingly Discrimination

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

As  Americans honor the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is sobering to see how far many of our public entities have strayed from Dr. King’s important message about equality. A case in which the Center for Equal Opportunity joined and helped write an amicus brief this month makes that sad point very well. So entrenched have racial preferences become that, last March, a federal judge tossed out a case against government-mandated discrimination, Midwest Fence v. United States Department of Transportation. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral argument in an appeal …

UT President Bill Powers speaks with media after U.S. Supreme Court hearing.Photo: Paul Fetters.

Fisher v. University of Texas Wrap-Up – Whew!

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

It’s been a busy last couple of weeks for us here at the Center for Equal Opportunity, with the oral argument before the Supreme Court in Fisher v. University of Texas and all the media coverage before and after.  In our email this week, I’ll be focusing on some of what we’ve written — most of what you’ll read below is “truth squad” work that first appeared on National Review Online — and said about the case, which involves a challenge to that school’s use of racial and ethnic preferences in undergraduate admissions. A Vehement Agreement with Chief Justice Roberts …

CEO President Roger Clegg debates Scalia's comments on affirmative action

CEO President Roger Clegg debates Justice Scalia’s comments on affirmative action

CEO StaffRacial Preferences

http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/debating-scalias-comments-on-affirmative-action-585279555618 Related posts: Fisher v. University of Texas Wrap-Up – Whew! Good News: Trump Rescinds Obama’s “Affirmative Action” Guidance Affirmative Action, Here and There and Everywhere TESTIMONY OF ROGER CLEGG, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, CENTER FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT

Fearless Predictions on How Racial Preferences Will End

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

Loyal supporters of the Center for Equal Opportunity know that we don’t like racial preferences in university admissions (a.k.a. “affirmative action”). For example, they can read here and here how I’ve urged the Supreme Court to rule in Fisher v. University of Texas, where we have played a leading role and in which that practice is challenged.  They should also make generous year-end donations to the Center for Equal Opportunity, because I’m pretty sure the Supreme Court has already mandated that. This week, however, rather than discuss what the Court should do, I thought I would discuss in broad terms …