“Race based scholarships,” “preferential hiring,” and other DEI initiatives are “unlawful practices” under Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, according to the Department of Justice.
It issued a memo on July 30 that “clarifies that federal antidiscrimination laws apply to programs or initiatives that involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (‘DEI’) programs.”
As The College Fix reports,
The memo lists several examples of “unlawful practices.”
“A university’s DEI program establishes a scholarship fund exclusively for students of a specific racial group (e.g., “Black Student Excellence Scholarship”) and excludes otherwise qualified applicants of other races, even if they meet academic or financial need criteria,” the memo states. “This extends to any race-exclusive opportunities, such as internships, mentorship programs, or leadership initiatives that reserve spots for specific racial groups, regardless of intent to promote diversity.”
“Preferential hiring” for “underrepresented groups,” as well as promoting on the basis of these characteristics is also illegal.
Similarly, a “safe space” or “lounge” that excludes on the basis of race would also violate the law.
The Dept. of Justice also warned about using “proxies” for illegal discrimination, including “diversity statements” and “cultural competence requirements”
A DEI training can also be unlawful when it “[c]reates an objectively hostile environment through severe or pervasive use of presentations, videos, and other workplace training materials that single out, demean, or stereotype individuals based on protected characteristics.”
In 1994, a conservative panel of appeals court judges struck down a racially-exclusive scholarship program for blacks at the University of Maryland in Podberesky v. Kirwan. But progressive law professors have long criticized the decision, arguing that civil rights laws should not be interpreted to protect white people or preclude compensatory race-based programs for historically disadvantaged groups.
So colleges in other parts of the country continued offering race-based scholarships for blacks. The most left-wing regional office of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights — its San Francisco office — refused to do anything about such race-based scholarships, even when they violated both state and federal law.
Such race-based programs abounded. On July 30, The College Fix described a “Black Scholars Matter” program at California State University Northridge, which excluded whites, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans based on their race.
Civil rights experts note that the Cal State program is illegal under the plain language of federal and state civil rights laws, as well as the logic of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down Harvard’s racial preferences for blacks and Hispanics, and a 2001 California Court of Appeals decision against racial preferences under the state constitution.
Gail Heriot, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the chair of the American Civil Rights Project, noted that Cal State was “violating the law” by making “financial aid available only to students based on their race.”
As Heriot explained,Cal State has violated both state and federal law. “Whenever students of one race receive benefits that are not available to students of other races at a California public university, it’s a violation of the part of the California Constitution put there by Proposition 209,” which added a ban on racial preferences to Article I, Section 31 of the California state constitution in a 1996 ballot initiative.
