Trump Administration Goes After Race Discrimination

Race discrimination is popular with our nation’s elites, much as it was in the 1840s, say, or the 1930s. So it isn’t surprising that it has fallen to the populist Trump administration to oppose such discrimination in principle. The Wall Street Journal broke this story last week, but this link goes to an NPR article:

Texas Tech University’s medical school has agreed to end its consideration of race in selecting candidates for admission, an outcome actively sought by the Trump administration.

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center submitted to pressure from the Education Department’s Office on Civil Rights, which had conducted a 14-year probe into the use of affirmative action in admission policies at the medical school.

So the investigation began during the George W. Bush administration and somehow survived the Obama years.

The agreement is the first reached by the administration and a school to stop using race as an admissions factor.

More are in the works, but I don’t know how many. This investigation grew out of a complaint filed by the Center for Equal Opportunity, whose president NPR quotes. Next it turns to a left-wing activist:

Civil rights advocates blasted the decision.

It doesn’t occur to NPR that those who oppose race discrimination are civil rights advocates.

“It is disturbing that the federal government apparently coerced an agreement that goes beyond applicable constitutional restrictions to bar any consideration of race in admissions,” said Thomas A. Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

NPR explains what he means by “go[ing] beyond applicable constitutional restrictions”:

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools can consider an applicant’s race, but such policies are still subject to court scrutiny.

“Strict scrutiny,” that is. In any other context, the conventional wisdom is that nothing survives strict scrutiny. But of course liberals think that race discrimination deserves special treatment. NPR continues with Mr. Saenz:

“By going beyond the law to enshrine an extreme agenda, this agreement represents a federal government that seeks to preserve white privilege rather than to secure equal opportunity.”

So opposing race discrimination is an “extreme agenda,” and paying no attention to race “preserve[s] white privilege,” while race discrimination is required to “secure equal opportunity.” This is the Orwellian world in which we live.

I suspect that the Trump administration is fighting a losing battle against the racial spoils system, but I wish them the best in their efforts.

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