Victory: U. Minnesota Drops Race Requirements Excluding Whites From Summer Program After Equal Protection Project Complaint
Sometime earlier today, after EPP’s complaint went viral over the weekend, U. Minnesota dropped the requirement that applicants to the summer internship program were limited to students of color or Native Americans. But there is more to be done beyond dropping the racist advertising and program requirements, the university needs to make amends to the white students denied this educational opportunity.
(Original Post, updated at bottom)
On Sunday night, May 21, 2023, I wrote about the Civil Rights Complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project of Legal Insurrection Foundation regarding a summer researh internship program at the University of Minnesota that excluded white students, Non-Whites Only U. Minnesota Summer Research Program Challenged By Equal Protection Project.
As mentioned in the post, the story was picked up by Fox News digital and was one of the top trending stories all day, now with almost 9000 comments.
This morning I appeared on Fox and Friends to talk about U. Minnesota’s misconduct:
(partial transcript, auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Steve Doocy (00:46): Bill, let’s start with you. This sounds like flat out discrimination.
WAJ (00:51): Well, it is. It’s open. They’re not hiding it. They limit who can apply to this summer program based on skin color. That’s illegal. It’s immoral. It stands against the progress we thought we’ve made in this country. And it’s counterproductive because it just reinforces stereotypes. It reinforces negative feelings. It is not what the University of Minnesota says it stands for. It should stop.
Doocy (01:19): They should, it’s flat out discrimination. But you say when the discrimination is against white students by the university itself, you write, it is met with the shrug of the shoulders and ignored, Bill.
WAJ (01:31): That’s right. If you were to reverse the roles here, and if the University of Minnesota were to have a scholarship, summer program open only to whites, we all would condemn that, it would be universally condemned. So why is it not condemned this way? Why did they feel that they are free to do something like this? To have a program that only excludes whites?
What we need in this country is equal protection. It’s equal treatment of everybody without regard to race. That’s the answer. The answer to past racism or even current racism is never more racism.
* * *
Doocy (03:29): Well, as it turns out, I understand, the people who are awarded this particular program get paid, I think $6,000 for the summer, Bill. We’re almost to the summer, [Memorial] Day’s at the end of this week. Is there any chance they’re gonna turn this around?
WAJ (03:47): Well, that’s up to the University of Minnesota. Whether they want to do the right thing or not, the burden’s on them to make this right and to undo the damage that they’ve done. How can they say they stand for inclusiveness when they’re excluding? You can’t be inclusive by excluding.
The story also has been picked up by over a dozen outlets, including the NY Post which ran a featured news story, University of Minnesota ‘evaluating’ program that bans white students after discrimination complaint:
The University of Minnesota is re-evaluating its controversial summer internship program that excludes white students, the school said Monday — after an Ivy League professor filed a discrimination complaint….
“There is an increasing trend where people think it’s OK to discriminate on the basis of race as long as the discrimination is against whites or Asians or others, and we don’t accept that,” Jacobson, 64, told The Post.
The prof said the publicly funded University of Minnesota has no legal right to implement “regressive” policies that he says are “undoing civil-rights progress” and taking the US “back to the 1940s and 1950s.”
A university rep said in a statement to The Post on Monday that it “regularly revisits the selection criteria across thousands of different grants, scholarships and other financial awards provided to our students each year” and would be “evaluating the criteria for this student support program as part of this routine process and make any appropriate updates” in light of the administrative complaint.
While the EPP is seeking a “remedy” and not damages from the university, Jacobson said he would be willing to file a lawsuit on behalf of a student who could not get into the program because of their race or ethnicity.
He noted there were other ways to attract students of color to the Office of Undergraduate Studies program, such as expanding the pool of applicants or doing community outreach to make minorities more aware of the opportunity.
“What you can’t do is set up categorical racial barriers to participation, which is what they’ve done,” he explained.
Jacobson also accused the university of playing “word games” after it denied to The Post that the internship was paid. He said a $6,000 stipend is a clear form of payment.
The NY Post, which also covered EPP’s challenge to a discriminatory fellowship program at the Albany (NY) Public Library, highlighted the work EPP has been doing battling the widespread problem of DEI discrimination:
Since its recent inception, the EPP has taken legal action to halt a student loan forgiveness program for non-white teachers in Providence, RI, shut down a Missouri state business boot camp that excluded white males and stopped an Albany, NY, library internship that was only for blacks, Jacobson said.
“It’s frightening how pervasive this DEI [Diversity, Equity & Inclusion] discrimination is in society — it’s in almost every institution in varying degrees,” the self-described “conservative” said, while chiding district attorneys and politicians who remain mum on the issue.
“If this was a program that restricted participation to whites, there would be an absolute uproar, and we would be part of that uproar.”
The story continues to grow. I’ll be on Greg Kelly’s show on Newxmax tonight in the 10 O’clock hour, and have several Minnesota radio appearances in the next two days. U. Minnesota needs to understand that this is not going away until they do the right thing and make amends.
We are a small organization going up against powerful and wealthy government and private institutions devoted to DEI discrimination. Donations are greatly needed and appreciated.
UPDATE:
(10:30 p.m. Eastern, 5-22-2023)
The Daily Mail, which is covering the story late tonight (Eastern time) after this post went live, reports:
According to a previous listing on the University of Minnesota’s website, the Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program is ‘an intensive 10-week summer program in which undergraduate students of color work full-time with a faculty mentor on a research project.’
The application for the program requires students to fill out demographic information.
After attention was drawn to the program, it appears the university has removed the eligibility requirement that a candidate must be Native American or a person of color. Now, the requirements only say participants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
We have confirmed that since Sunday night, when the story went viral, U. Minnesota has changed the name of the program and no longer describes it as a “Multicultural” program for “students of color”:
Before
After
The Eligibility Requirements no longer require that a person identify as a student of color or Native American.
Before
After
The entire landing page of for the MSROP program has been revised.
Before
After
The Application Process subsection in the dropdown menu, however, still requires that demographic information be provided. It’s unclear if that means the discrimination will continue under cover, or someone just failed to update that section.
Clearly, U. Minnesota has retreated from its open promotion of a racist program. We await formal confirmation that U. Minnesota has changed not only the website. This change that doesn’t end the problem, because there are students who have been denied an educational opportunity by the university on the basis of skin color. Will U. Minnesota reopen the application process? Will it add opportunities for those students who lost out? There is more to be done beyond dropping the racist advertising and program requirements.
We will continue to pursue this matter, but for now, we’ll take the victory for equality and equal protection.
[The headlines to this story were changed after the Update]
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Comments
Re-evaluating. Gee, that’s nice.
If you or I egregiously and aggressively deprived another person their civil rights, the state AG or federal DOJ would see us in prison, or personally fined into bankruptcy.
So, who will go to prison for this egregious and aggressive violation of Title VI of the civil rights act of 1964? Who? And when?
Until there is punishment and pain for these crimes, it’s all just **clown world**
Re-evaluating? I wonder how they’re going to do that? Take a peice of paper and list the pros and cons of breaking the law?
You think they would have a person or two with enough unbiased common sense to know that racism is bad.
I guess they were overridden by DIE concerns.
The professors will be paid, the students will get credits for learning nothing of value.
Good work. Now watch them closely just in case.
Where’s the “You’re right; our bad. Thanks for pointing that out?”
They mention only, that they got caught, that it might get noticed, and might be beieved due to the crecentialed standing of who’s speaking up.
Their response is only in terms of pure power politics in the propaganda domain. Good to know. So, “punch back twice as hard”, as a famous Nobel Peace Prize winner said. Conveniently, like in the move you do not talk about they are already punching themselves in the face, pretending it’s someone else.
These people hate you.
They really, really, really hate you.
Where there is DEI, there is envy. And hatred.
And rage.
The envy fuels the hatred.
The hatred fuels the rage.
And the rage fuels the Organized Shakedowns — at the Louis Vuitton stores, or at the local pharmacies, or like the one highlighted in this article at University of Minnesota.
This cannot end well.
I think it’s time for Americans Who Are Hated by the DEI-era to accept reality and get out of the U.S.A.
DEI-ers
(Not DEI-era)
To where?
Idk, I’m not suggesting there’s no price to be paid. But if you found yourself sinking aboard the Titanic , your primary concern would not be which shoes to wear during your next stroll upon terra firma.
I understand where you are coming from but I am of the American stock that says ‘we go’? NO, they go, we stay. They go no matter how it looks or what happens to them. They go. Period.
We’re all Americans, and this is our country. They are the ones who hate America and everything we stand for, so if anyone goes, it’s them. Not us.
Minnesota, previously the land of the Norwegians
Now crazy a$$ Somalian Muslims
I cannot thank LI and the EPP for all the great work they’ve done righting the wrongs of discrimination against whites.
America is now put on notice that the EPP will file complaints if race infractions are made.
Thank you William Jacobson.
The Golden Gophers progressives and the embedded DEI administrators in the Admissions Office are card-carrying Socialists. They will view the decision as a setback but they will do what they want to do during the selection process. Watch how white applicants are denied or wait listed.
M A R X O C R A T S
Professor Jacobson and his team are doing truly righteous, morally upright and laudable work, here, combating the brazen and pernicious racism, inequity and unconstitutionality of these vindictive and corrosive “DEI” and “equity” initiatives. Thank you.
Good work, Professor!
Great win for EPP, but they’d have to force me at gun point to attend such a baldface, racist gathering like that now.
Perhaps we can help the cause in a small way by refusing to accept the left’s terms. Excepting quotes there is no reason to use “persons of color” rather than “colored people.” The same information is conveyed and there is nothing pejorative about the simpler and more natural locution. All of these small concessions we make accumulate to a big problem. One should be champing at the bit to challenge a lefty who expresses offense to this wording to justify his reasoning.
Professor J vs. The DEI Industrial Complex.
My money is on Professor J.
I can’t imagine how anyone could be surprised by this. ANYONE who supports the published (and unpublished) policies of the DNC is, by definition, a rabid racist.
When did registration close for this program? I’ve never seen a college summer program that hadn’t selected the participants long before May 22, so I expect this was only a symbolic victory.
It is getting widespread attention, so other universities will not be so fast to enact similarly unconstitutional programs. That’s a win.
Plus, from the OP: “Jacobson said he would be willing to file a lawsuit on behalf of a student who could not get into the program because of their race or ethnicity.”
I certainly appreciate your efforts Professor but I really doubt that applicants not of the preferred skin color will be given fair consideration/treatment by the university at any stage of this program, no matter what they say officially.