Racial Preferences
November 22, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this month, I wrote about “Pete Buttigieg’s slush fund” — billions of dollars appropriated by the infrastructure bill that, as John Fund reported, allows the Secretary of Transportation to direct funds to combat climate change and “inequities caused by past transportation projects.” I argued that the goal of combatting past transportation inequities — of which, to be sure, there have been some — is a pretext for favoring Democratic
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November 9, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Some of the $1.2 trillion to be spent pursuant to the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be devoted to true infrastructure. That portion of the money presumably would have been appropriated had Donald Trump ever gotten around to presenting, and been able to enact, an infrastructure bill. But a goodly portion of the $1.2 trillion is pork. That money will be directed to groups favored by Democrats and in many cases
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October 14, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The American Civil Rights Project (ACR Project), on whose board I serve, is investigating whether the officers and directors of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. have breached their fiduciary duties by violating civil rights laws that protect against racial and other forms of discrimination. The ACR Project has issued this Shareholder Alert explaining the situation and inviting interested shareholders who have held Lowe’s stock since before July 13, 2021 to contact the
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July 26, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The following passage is from a letter that reportedly was circulated by an outfit called Dallas Justice Now (DJN), a “racial equity group.” The letter reads like a parody, but apparently it is not: We are writing to you because we understand you are white and live within the Highland Park Independent School District and thus benefit from enormous privileges taken at the expense of communities of color. You live
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July 21, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The youth of America may not be as clueless as the more pessimistic among us suppose. According to a new survey by College Pulse, 67 percent of college students strongly support “race blind” admissions. Another 18 percent “somewhat support” such admissions. This leaves only 15 percent who oppose race blind admissions. Of that group, only 5 percent strongly oppose them. The survey defines race blind admissions as meaning that “colleges
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June 29, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Manhattan Institute’s invaluable Heather Mac Donald wrote “The revolution comes Juilliard” for MI’s City Journal last month. The story Heather tells is a tale of our time from the ever larger land beyond satire. Racial hysteria and opposition to Western civilization are among its themes. Heather’s column concludes: A leader in the arts world, told of Juilliard’s travails, observes: “This is a crucial time to stand up and call
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June 24, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Business Law Section of the Florida Bar adopted a policy regulating the composition of faculty at section-sponsored continuing legal education programs. Subject to certain exceptions, the policy imposed quotas requiring a minimum number of “diverse” faculty, depending on the number of faculty teaching the course. The policy defined diversity in terms of membership in “groups based upon race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and multiculturalism.” I’m happy
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June 17, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In January 2021, the general counsel of Coca-Cola sent a letter to the law firms that represent it. The letter demanded, among other things, that these firms “commit that at least 30% of each of billed associate and partner time will be from diverse attorneys, and of such amounts at least half will be from Black attorneys.” In response to this outrageous policy, the American Civil Rights Project (of which
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June 14, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Alice Chen specializes in helping excellent students get into top-ranked colleges and universities. Her bio is here. In this blogpost, Chen discusses what it takes to gain admission to an elite institution if you’re Asian or White: Grades: Basically perfect Test Scores: SAT: 1500+ SAT Subject Tests: 750+ APs: Many 5s Extracurriculars: Extraordinary – here are profiles of some of my students – they’ve been generalized to protect student identities
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June 14, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Instead of granting the petition to hear Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard, the Supreme Court has asked the U.S. Solicitor General (in this case, the acting one) for her views on the matter. There’s no doubt as to what the Biden Justice Department thinks about Harvard’s policy of granting extreme race-based preferences to Blacks and Latinos at the expense of Asian-Americans and Whites. Nor is there any doubt as
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June 6, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S. Supreme Court has before it a petition for certiorari in the race discrimination suit brought by Asian-American students against Harvard. I hope the Court agrees to hear the case. If the Court doesn’t, it will be a while before another opportunity arises to review the issue of race-based preferences in college admissions. By that time, the Court’s composition might not be as conservative as it is now. In
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June 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden traveled to Tulsa to deliver a speech on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. I can’t find an official White House version of the speech President Biden delivered in Tulsa yesterday. Rev has posted an unofficial transcript here. I have embedded the Guardian News video at the bottom. The speech mixed its memorial purpose with low Democratic politics while giving no hint of remarkable progress made
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June 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
I want to second Steve’s praise for A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education, the fine new essay collection edited by Gail Heriot and Maimon Schwarzschild. The contributors include the two editors, Heather Mac Donald, Peter Kirsanow, and Peter Wood. Gail’s chapter on the impacts of race preferences on their intended direct beneficiaries is must reading, in my opinion. Wouldn’t it be great if the chapter were read
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May 30, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Using race-based preferences to admit students with qualifications vastly inferior to those admitted without the need for such preferences creates all sorts of problems and dislocations. One of them is the erosion of standards within various departments, especially ones that teach hard stuff. I wrote about one example — eliminating econometrics as a required course for graduating from a major school of public policy — here. Now comes word, via
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May 28, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Stuffed animals seem to play an important part in the lives of a surprisingly large number of left-wing students. Apparently, they make these students feel safe. As safe as Play Doh does, maybe even safer. According to this report, a stuffed animal even helped a black teenager gain admission to Princeton: An inspiring essay about his childhood stuffed animal helped a New Jersey high school senior get into 20 colleges,
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May 28, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Most Americans naively believe that the 14th Amendment precludes our governments from discriminating on the basis of race. Sadly, that isn’t how the courts see it. Nevertheless, race discrimination is at least sometimes illegal, as a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday. The case relates to Joe Biden’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund, the terms of which are discriminatory. Hans Bader has the story: On Thursday, a federal
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May 28, 2021 — Steven Hayward
While we await word as to whether the Supreme Court will take up appeal of the case of Harvard’s blatant discrimination against Asians, we note the publication this week of A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education, a fine essay collection edited by Gail Heriot and Maimon Schwarzchild of the University of San Diego, and published by our friends at Encounter Books. The title of the book—”a dubious
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