We recently posted about the cease-and-desist letter that the Equal Protection Project sent to the Albany Public Library in response to a paid summer fellowship at two of the library’s branches that is being offered only to black graduates of library-science degree programs.
Our letter – and the library’s discriminatory fellowship – was picked up by the Albany Times Union newspaper, which reported on the story this week.
The foundation, a nonprofit based in Rhode Island, has filed complaints and threatened litigation in many cases, most recently objecting to “racially preferential” practices at colleges and universities.
“Our guiding principle is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism. The remedy for racism never is more racism,” the foundation says on its website.The Albany Public Library cannot legally exclude every non-Black candidate from an internship, said Ameer Benno, the director of litigation at the Legal Insurrection Foundation.“As the program is racially exclusionary – only black students and black recent graduates are eligible to apply to and participate in it – it is our belief that the program violates a variety of state and federal civil rights laws, as well state and federal constitutional prohibitions on race-based discrimination,” Benno said in an email.Equal Protection Project’s founder and president Bill Jacobson also issued a statement.”Put yourself in the shoes of an Asian or white librarian who is excluded from this program merely because of their skin color and ancestry. It’s wrong, it’s illegal, and the Library needs to correct what it has done,” he said.
The newspaper reached out to the Albany Public Library’s executive director, Andrea Nicolay, who commented that the library is “taking the letter seriously” and consulting with its lawyers about whether the “internship is something [it] can continue to support without violating the law.” While that sounds promising, Nicolay nevertheless appeared to double down on the race-based program, telling the Times Union that the program serves the purpose of “diversity,” and that “[t]he library programs and its collections benefit when an array of viewpoints are included in the decision-making.”
The story also was picked up by Fox News Digital, which ran its own article about the library fellowship:
The Equal Protection Project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation is calling for the public library to change its application process.
“Can you imagine somebody posting for a fellowship at a public library and saying it’s only open to Whites? Nobody would do that,” Bill Jacobson, president of the Equal Protection Project (EPP), told Fox News Digital. “So why do they think it’s okay to open up such a public fellowship only to Blacks? It’s discrimination.”What the message they’re sending is that discrimination is okay, depending on who you’re doing it against. And that’s not the law,” Jacobson added. “That’s not what our society is supposed to stand for.” …”We sent in the letter in the hope that they would voluntarily correct their actions,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital….acobson said that the Albany Public Library and the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights have not replied to the EPP’s March 20 letter. The group noted it will take legal action if the program continues.
Because the Library still had not responded, yesterday we sent a follow up letter:
… In our letter, we asked that the APL immediately cease and desist from basing a candidate’s eligibility for the TLIF on skin color and that it open the program to all otherwise eligible applicants without regard to race. Although we had hoped that, upon receipt of our letter, the APL would modify its program to comply with all applicable civil rights laws, it has not done so. In fact, the description of the fellowship on the APL’s website1 and the online application for it2 remain unchanged despite the fact that the application period is still open.The description of the fellowship on the APL’s website continues to explicitly limit eligibility to “recent Black graduates of library school programs.” ….The Albany Times Union recently reported on the fellowship.3 In the article, the APL’s executive director, Andrea Nicolay, appears to defend the program. She is reported as stating that the blacks-only fellowship serves the purpose of “diversity,” and that “[t]he library programs and its collections benefit when an array of viewpoints are included in the decision-making.” As pointed out in our original letter, such justifications for racial discrimination are not legally sufficient.We therefore again call upon the APL to immediately cease and desist from basing eligibility for the TLEF on unconstitutional and invidiously discriminatory criteria. The APL must open the TLEF to all otherwise eligible applicants without regard to race and identify the steps that it is taking to remedy the current application, evaluation and award process.Please let us know whether the APL will voluntarily come into compliance or if legal action will be needed to achieve that result.
We also sent a demand letter to the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, an original partner and continued promoter of the discriminatory fellowship:
…. It is our understanding that UAlbany was deeply involved in the creation of this unconstitutional and blatantly discriminatory program. According to the UAlbany’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s webpage, the TLEF was created in 2020 out of a “partnership” between UAlbany and the APL, and was designed to offer a fellowship limited to “students of color” in UAlbany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity.”1 A search of UAlbany’s website reveals numerous promotions of the Touhey Fellowship.2 ….As recently as February 23 and March 29, 2023, respectively, UAlbany was actively advertising and promoting this racially discriminatory fellowship on its Career and Professional Development webpage, as is evident from these Google search result screenshots:6 ….As the TLEF is racially exclusionary, we write to put you on notice that this program violates a variety of federal, state and local civil rights laws, as well state and federal constitutional prohibitions on race-based discrimination, as set forth in the attached letter sent to the APL. The actions also appear to violate UAlbany’s own anti-discrimination rules.7 By affirmatively advancing a deliberately racially-restrictive program, UAlbany could be held liable for all such violations.We call upon UAlbany to immediately cease and desist from participating in, supporting or promoting the TLEF in any way as long as eligibility in the program and selection of participants is based on unconstitutional and invidiously discriminatory racial criteria.
The story has been picked up by The NY Post, SUNY Albany accused of racial discrimination for black-only intern program
The Equal Protection Project sent a “cease and desist” letter to SUNY that claimed their paid summer internship at two City of Albany public library branches violated federal civil rights laws.“As the [Touhey Library Equity Fellowship] is racially exclusionary, we write to put you on notice that this program violates a variety of federal, state and local civil rights laws, as well state and federal constitutional prohibitions on race-based discrimination,” said William Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor and president of the group….This program discriminates on the basis of race. There is no good form of racism, supporting one racial group over another,” Jacobson told The Post Thursday.“Why does SUNY think it’s OK to discriminate on the basis of race and ethnicity? This fellowship program is only open to members of a single race. That’s clearly unconstitutional. This is exactly what you’re not supposed to do.”Jacobson said his group will take legal action unless the applications for the library internship program become open to all students.It’s just the latest diversity controversy at SUNY, which beginning in the fall will require incoming freshmen at all of its 64 public colleges to take and pass a new diversity-themed class to earn a diploma.
(added) The NY Post article got a good placement on Page 6 of the print version on April 14, 2023:
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