Affirmative ActionAffirmative Action
Your Watchdog at Work
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- Written by Roger Clegg
Every day we review the Federal Register—a daily publication of proposed rules, regulations, and the like from federal agencies—for items that violate principles of colorblind equal opportunity. It’s rare that we don’t find something that provides grist for our mills here, and here’s an example of a formal comment I sent this week on a recent doozy:
The Dubious Celebration of Corporate Diversity
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I frequently criticize the use of racial and ethnic preferences by universities and the government, but I should make clear that many corporations are just as bad. I’ve testified before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that such discrimination is widespread yet cannot be justified legally, empirically, or morally. You can read that testimony here , and an updated legal discussion here .
New and Un-Improved Justification for Affirmative Action
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The Chronicle of Higher Education recently had a piece by Professor Elizabeth Anderson titled “Affirmative Action Is about Helping All of Us,” in which she laments “the same tired arguments on the left” that are being used to defend affirmative action in higher education, and then proposes her own new and (supposedly) improved theory to be used in defending such discrimination from those attacks by “the right that reflect ignorance of the realities of race in America.”
Does Equal Protection Violate the Equal Protection Clause?
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A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit this month struck down Michigan’s ban on government discrimination and preference on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex because, it says, the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Colorado Civil Rights Initiative: Separating Fact from Fiction
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The Colorado Civil Rights Initiative: Separating Fact from Fiction
The High Costs (and Negligible Benefits) of Political Correctness
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- Written by Roger Clegg
First news item from last week: “The Justice Department today announced it has reached an agreement with officials of the Colorado Judicial Department to ensure that limited English proficient (LEP) individuals seeking services throughout Colorado’s state court system will have access to timely and competent language assistance,” according to the Civil Rights Division’s press release here .
CEO Releases New Studies Documenting Racial and Ethnic Preferences in U of A and ASU Admissions
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The study is based on data supplied by the universities themselves. The study was prepared by Dr. Althea Nagai, a resident fellow at CEO, and can be viewed on the organization’s website, www.ceousa.org . The executive summaries of the studies are attached.
CEO chairman Linda Chavez said: “Racial discrimination in university admissions is always appalling. But the degree of discrimination we have found here, at both schools but especially at Arizona State, is off the charts.” She noted that the odds ratio favoring African Americans over whites was 250 to 1 at the University of Arizona and 1115 to 1 at Arizona State. “As a result, nearly a thousand white students during the years we studied were denied admission even though they had higher undergraduate GPAs and LSATs than the average African American student who was admitted--and over a hundred Asian and Latino students were in the same boat with them.”
CEO president Roger Clegg agreed, and stressed that, not only was race weighed, but it was weighed much more heavily that residency status. “For instance, a white Arizonan in 2007 was about eight times less likely to be admitted to the University of Arizona than a black out-of-state applicant, and at Arizona State he would be twelve times less likely to be admitted.”
CEO also analyzed undergraduate and medical school admissions at the University of Arizona, but found less statistical evidence of discrimination there, based on the data provided by the university pursuant to an information request filed by CEO and the Arizona Association of Scholars (AAS also joined CEO in its request for data from the University of Arizona law school).
Arizona State UniversityCollege of Law |
University of ArizonaCollege of Law |
The Center for Equal Opportunity is a nonprofit research and educational organization that studies issues related to civil rights, bilingual education, and immigration and assimilation nationwide.
Back to the Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court may have an opportunity to do some good soon in the fight against preferential treatment based on race and ethnicity. That’s because last Friday the petition for rehearing en banc (that is, asking the full court of appeals to rehear the case after a panel decision) was denied in Fisher v. University of Texas.
Affirmative Action Watch
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Your Anti-Discrimination Hotline
In most instances, the use of preferences on the basis of race or ethnicity in education, employment, or government contracting violates federal law. This is true even in cases of "affirmative action" and "diversity" programs.
The Center for Equal Opportunity is interested in hearing about such discrimination. In many instances, we may be able to do something about it. This is especially true when the discrimination is openly stated--as is often the case, believe it or not. CEO will not serve as your attorney, but in many cases we will contact the alleged discriminator, and in other cases we may be able to help you find a lawyer.
Please reference the adjacent program types and fill the form linked to below to tell CEO about discrimination that you have witnessed.
Type A Programs
Select this if the discrimination you have witnessed is advertised or described as being open only to some racial or ethnic groups, or where it is advertised that members of certain racial or ethnic groups are preferred.
- Examples:
- Minority job fairs
- Minority-only or nonminority-only scholarships or financial aid
- Minority-only summer programs or internships
- Private or government (municipal, state, or federal) contract set-asides
- On-the-job training or mentoring programs open only to members of certain racial or ethnic groups.
TYPE B PROGRAMS
Select this if the discrimination you have witnessed comes about because of a desire to reach a predetermined racial or ethnic quota or goal. Describe the statement or announcement of the quota or goal, and a brief description of the discrimination that resulted from it.
TYPE C PROGRAMS
Select this if the discrimination you have witnessed involves racial preferences or quotas that you can describe but cannot be documented by a paper trail. Describe as specifically as possible the use of racial preferences or quotas that you have witnessed.
