This morning I appeared on Varney & Co. on Fox Business, with guest host David Asman, to talk about the civil rights case the Equal Protection Project filed against Missouri State University.You may recall that we recently wrote how We are continuing to pursue Missouri State U discrimination: “It’s not enough, when caught, to say ‘oops, sorry.’”:
As previously covered here, the Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org) of Legal Insurrection Foundation asked the Missouri Attorney General to investigate a business boot camp at Missouri State University that discriminated against white males, and only white males.In reaction to substantial media coverage, MSU quickly told the media that it was changing the terms for future programs, and that future business boot camps would be open to everyone. We took that as a VICTORY – Missouri State U To Stop Discriminating Against White Males For ‘Business Boot Camp” After Equal Protection Project Complaint.But in those public statements, MSU was not contrite and accepted no responsibility. To the contrary, MSU President Clif Smart was quoted as saying:
“Frankly, I still don’t think we did anything wrong … given that we have multiple cohorts of this going on and this was just one cohort that was limited. We won’t do that. We’ll do a better job on the marketing and information (and) dissemination side and review the process to make sure that everyone has a chance to participate, but we’re not going to exclude people.”
That sounds like MSU was upset for being caught, not for discriminating. While we were happy that the discriminatory program was changed, what good is a promise from a university that violated its own (and federal and state) anti-discrimination rules, when caught said it did nothing wrong, and appears only to have succumbed due to media attention? What will happen when the media attention fades?….
So we have taken a next step to hold MSU responsible, by filing a Civil Rights Complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of The Department of Education.
Our filing has been covered by numerous outlets, including The Heartlander (MO), the Springfield News-Leader (MO), Fox News Digital, and multiple Missouri radio stations.
My Fox Business appearance touched on the theme we will continue to pursue, the troubling nature of comments by the MSU President that MSU did nothing wrong. The school needs to acknowlege that what it did was wrong.
(Transcript auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Asman (00:00):Next guest just filed a civil rights lawsuit against Missouri State University. William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, joins me now. Professor, good to see you. Thank you for being here. On what ground are you suing?WAJ (00:14):Well, thank you for having me on. We have filed a civil rights complaint with the US Department of Education challenging a program at Missouri State University, a so-called business boot camp that was only opened to non-whites and to females. So the people excluded from it were white males. That violates not only Missouri State’s own policies, but federal and state law. It’s abhorrent that they seem to feel that discriminating against white males is somehow okay. And so we have filed that challenge.Asman (00:46):Now, were they also discriminating against Asian males?WAJ (00:51):No, because the program was open to what they call BIPOC, which is Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and females. So the only ones excluded by this program were white males. And when we challenged that, they quickly said, oops, we didn’t mean to do that. But they also said, the president of Missouri State said publicly, that we do not think we did anything wrong, and that’s why we’re continuing to pursue this. Because if they think that was not wrong, then who knows what else is going on at Missouri State,Asman (01:22):The reason I ask you about Asian males is because there are, there are Asians who are suing big colleges like Harvard, et cetera, because they feel discriminated against because they do so well, generally speaking on, on a lot of different tests at the schools and, and feel discriminated against. So I was asking, but the, the whole question comes down to meritocracy, whether we’re gonna finally get beyond this issue of, of using race as, as a determinant of ability and whether or not this country would suffer as a result of getting rid of any idea of meritocracy in our school system or in our country generally.WAJ (02:00):That’s right. And that’s really, you’re seeing the destruction of our standards because we are using so-called equity instead of equality. Equality means each person gets judged based on their own merit without regard to race or ethnicity or gender. Equity is racial balancing. It is using the color of someone’s skin to justify giving them favor or disfavor. That’s the opposite of what the American Civil Rights Movement was about. So at Equal Protection Project, we stand side by side with the American Civil Rights movement, which did not do what Missouri State and other colleges are doing now, which is judge people based on the color of their skin.Asman (02:43):Very interesting case. Professor, thank you very much for explaining it. Appreciate it.
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