The Trump administration continues to do what it does best—anything designed to hurt minorities and people of color. This is being carried out in various ways throughout the administration but the Department of Justice, in particular, plays a unique role. Under Jeff Sessions’s tenure, the DOJ has accomplished some dangerous and frightening policy changes. He’s returned us back to mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, rescinded the DACA program, announced that it may not enforce consent decrees with local police departments and has set the stage for voter suppression by asking state officials to develop a process for purging voter rolls. It’s only October and he’s just getting started.
Next up is affirmative action. Back in August, the DOJ announced that it had set its sights on investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies. And as it turns out, they remained true to their word as they are currently looking into practices at Harvard University.
The Justice Department is probing affirmative action policies at Harvard University that allegedly stem from claims of discrimination while choosing which applicants to admit.
Not much is known about the investigation, aside from the fact that it is ongoing.
A watchdog group filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to learn more about what the DOJ is up to with these affirmative action cases. Their request was answered in the most vague terms possible.
In response [to their FOIA request], the group received a letter saying that the documents existed, but could not be handed over because they contain “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes and the release of which could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
The dismissal is known as the law enforcement exemption to the open-records law, called (b7), and is aimed at protecting active investigations.
Back in August when they announced this as a priority, Sessions and company talked about suing universities over these policies which equate to “intentional race-based discrimination.” Basically, they want to end anything that is perceived to give minority students an advantage over whites. This is yet another alternative fact. Research shows that it is actually rich, white students (like Jared Kushner) who have the most advantage in college admissions at elite schools. Data also shows that Asian-Americans have been disadvantaged in the admissions process and complaints have been filed against Harvard on this issue.
There was a federal complaint filed against Harvard by dozens of Asian-American groups in 2015, claiming that the school passed over elite students in favor of applicants of other races.
"Many Asian-American students who have almost perfect SAT scores, top 1 percent GPAs, plus significant awards or leadership positions in various extracurricular activities have been rejected by Harvard University and other Ivy League Colleges while similarly situated applicants of other races have been admitted,” read the May 2015 complaint.
The terrible irony here is that the DOJ will likely use the complaints of Asian-Americans as a justification to dismantle affirmative action in admissions. What they will do is make it seem as if this is a response to making things fairer and more equal for everyone—including minority students. What it will actually do is make more room at prestigious institutions for white rich legacy students while people of color and poor whites get displaced.
More than anyone in the administration, Jeff Sessions is determined to harm people of color and make America the country it was back in the 1950s. What’s really scary is that unlike everyone else in the administration or Republican Party, Sessions is actually really good at his job.
