In case you missed it: while you were celebrating all the progress we’ve achieved in America – 242 years of opportunity resulting in a burgeoning sense of equality and diversity – the Trump administration placed a cherry bomb in your inbox.
After the long holiday, the federal government under Trump would like you to think we’ve gone backwards in time, at least pre-Obama, as you get back into work today, especially when it comes to the use of race in admission in education. It’s like the Trump administration’s own affirmative action. It’s given college administrators a handy blindfold in red, white and blue.
In a joint memo from the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, essentially, you’re on your own when it comes to race and admissions.
“The Departments have reviewed the documents and have concluded that they advocate policy preferences and positions beyond the requirements of the Constitution, Title IV and Title VI,” the letter reads. “Moreover, the documents prematurely decide, or appear to decide, whether particular actions violate the Constitution or federal law.”
One thing worse than an activist court is an activist justice or education department on the wrong side of the issue. So, what the new anti-guidance is saying is feel free to do your rightward, backward, anti-diversity thing. The Trump administration is looking the other way. It’s playing hardball on the southern border against mothers and their children.
The memo specifically says all the Obama administration policies that gave guidance on universities’ use of race as a factor will no longer be available on official websites. Looking for that Sept. 30, 2016 “Questions and Answers About Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, aka Fisher II?”
Or the Dec. 2, 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter Regarding the Use of Race by Educational Institutions,” or it’s accompanying 2011 “Guidance on the Voluntary Use of Race to Achieve Diversity and Avoid Racial Isolation in Elementary and Secondary Schools?”
