Segregation for me, but not for thee, seems to be the theme of this headline, “With Affirmative Action Program Under Scrutiny, UNC Backs Racially Exclusionary Scholarships“, published on Friday, January 6th., by The Washington Free Beacon.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is facing a discrimination complaint over several racially exclusionary initiatives, just weeks after it was hit with a separate complaint over a minorities-only fellowship program.
The initiatives include three scholarships that are available only to black students, as well as a “Well-Being Initiative for Women Faculty of Color” available only to “BIPOC” women, per the program’s website. In August 2022, the university also hosted a “BIPOC New Student Meet and Greet” at its school of public health, which touted the event as an example of “inclusive excellence.”
The complaint, filed late last month by the economist Mark Perry with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, argues that these programs violate Title VI and Title IX, the laws that prohibit race- and sex-based discrimination at federally funded institutions. It could spell additional legal headaches for the embattled university, which is awaiting a verdict from the Supreme Court on its affirmative action program.
The scholarship programs may prove a particular liability. Though private donors can offer scholarships based on race, courts have struck down these programs when they are administered by public schools. In a 1994 case, Podberesky v. Kirwan, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a black-only scholarship at the University of Maryland was unconstitutional. That precedent is binding on UNC Chapel Hill, which is also in the Fourth Circuit.
The National Director of the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Harrison, Arkansas, Thomas Robb said, “Why is segregation only racist if White people want it? This isn’t the first instance I’ve seen within the last couple of years of schools and Universities segregating the children by color, by grading, and here, by Academic Awards. The thing is, it’s not White people initiating it, it’s blacks. When we had segregation in America, we were told that it was a bad thing. The only way that blacks can have equality, is among their own people. They’re all on the ‘same page’ so to say. The reason it’s bad for White people to initiate segregation is because we want total segregration. We want blacks to be taking care of themselves among their own people. Now when blacks initiate segregation, they do it halfway. They want segregated from Whites as much as Whites want segregated from blacks. We as whites don’t need them, but blacks can’t say that. Without White people carrying the load for blacks, they would still be living in mud huts, drinking out of mud puddles, and spearing their next meal. They know this. That’s why segregation has two different responses when it’s brought up. It’s bad for Whites to want it, yet blacks can segregate a ‘little’, just not enough enough to bite the hand that feeds.”