July 3, 2018

Trump Officials Reverse Obama’s Policy on Affirmative Action in Schools

The Trump administration is reversing Obama administration policies that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses. School officials who keep their race-conscious admissions policies intact would do so knowing that they could face a Justice Department investigation or lawsuit, or lose funding from the Education Department.

HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO STRUCTURAL RACISM?

For decades, discriminatory housing policies have made our public schools racially segregated and unequal. Very little has been done to rectify government-sanctioned discrimination, which tied race to property values to the benefit of white individuals and majority white communities. And even less has been done to address the dangerous myth that more white students means higher quality schools; acceptance of this myth leads to white flight and ongoing discrimination against non-white students. Affirmative action policies in higher education serve as one of the few ways the government has tried to rectify its involvement in creating a separate and unequal school system. Without these policies, we should expect less diversity on college campuses.

To read more on President Trump's reversal see, “Trump Officials Reverse Obama’s Policy on Affirmative Action in Schools”