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It’s about time the Bush administration did something to stop blatant skin color preferences and to uphold the Constitution.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the government is suing Southern Illinois University (SIU) for discriminating against whites, Asians, males, and anyone else who’s not black and female:
“The University has engaged in a pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against whites, non-preferred minorities and males,” says a Justice Department letter sent to the university last week and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The letter demands the university cease the fellowship programs, or the department’s civil rights division will sue SIU by Nov. 18.
Most “mainstream” blacks don’t see anything wrong with skin color distinctions in public hiring and admissions as long as blacks are the ones receiving the benefits of discrimination. It’s called human nature. Back in the day when government skin color distinctions harmed blacks, they called it what it was: repugnant.
Race-based funds at public universities are unconstitutional and violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the legislation drafted and passed during the Civil Rights movement designed to end racial discrimination. The article cites Title VII, but Title VI is more precise in this context:
No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
Just to be clear, a “college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education” meets the definition of “program.” John F. Kennedy, the “civil rights” president, understood exactly why racial discrimination was wrong:
Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination. (Source)
Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a liberal who doesn’t want to be called a liberal, accuses the Bush administration of trying to divide voters. “One of my concerns has been with all the problems the Bush administration is having, that they’ll start resorting to what they consider to be wedge issues as a way of helping themselves politically.”
As if government sanction of racial discrimination isn’t politically divisive? That’s why Obama is a liberal.
So how do schools discriminate against whites and Asians, for example, to the benefit of “minorities?” Southern Illinois University, like so many universities, designates certain scholarships for non-white and non-Asian students. Their Bridge to the Doctorate program awards money to “underrepresented minority students to initiate graduate study in science, technology, engineering and math.” We all know that “underrepresented” is code for “black,” but they can’t say that. Why? Because it is illegal.
Under the Proactive Recruitment and Multicultural Professionals for Tomorrow program, applicants must be from a “traditional underrepresented group.” Other scholarships at SIU: The National Medical Fellowships skin color program, which offers money to “United States citizens who are African-American, mainland Puerto Rican, Mexican-American, American Indian, Alaska Natives or Native Hawaiians,” and the Latino Scholarship Fund. To receive these funds, you must be a “full Latino or both parents must be at least half Latino.”
Do you think it’s appropriate for a publicly-funded school to determine whether someone is a “full” or “half” Latino??? I’ve been blogging about this stuff for two years, and if people don’t understand why this is odious, perhaps I’m not doing a good enough job explaining myself.
If the government sues SIU, it had better start serving notice to hundreds of other public universities that offer the same type of skin color-based scholarships.
The Center for Equal Opportunity is committed to keeping these issues at the forefront. Roger Clegg, who I blogged about earlier this year, said “I don’t think there’s any way that Southern Illinois can defend these programs legally, and I don’t understand why they’d want to run a program that refuses to consider some individuals on the basis of their skin color.”
Skin color-based scholarship programs in public universities can’t be defended legally or morally. If blacks advocate skin color preferences because they’re afraid of getting left behind socially, educationally, and economically, they need to improve performance and generate opportunities for themselves rather than using public funds to “level the playing field,” which is nothing more than a moronic baseball analogy that didn’t make sense 40 years ago and makes less sense now.
As long as we have eyes, we’ll never be colorblind. That sentiment is just as laughable as any liberal’s dream of a socialist utopia. But public policy ought to be colorblind, and there’s no good reason why it shouldn’t be.
Related posts and op-eds:
- Idiocy By Any Other Name
- A Forgotten Tune
- Affirmative Action V. Race Preferences
- Barack Obama’s Pro-Death Vote
- The Great Black Hope!
- Dumbed Down And Diverse
Addendum: A government with the power to discriminate in favor of blacks also has the power to discriminate against blacks. Remember that.
