Vice President JD Vance says universities are racially discriminating against whites and Asians
Vance's claims about racial “discrimination” on college campuses come as the Trump administration escalates its political battles with universities over DEI and other policy issues.
Vice President JD Vance accused American universities of racially discriminating against whites and Asians and echoed calls from the Trump administration for campuses to eliminate DEI policies and so-called liberal bias.
“Our universities could see the policies of the Trump administration as a necessary corrective to these problems, change their policies, and work with the administration to reform,” Vance wrote in a post on X on Saturday, adding, “Or, they could yell ‘fascism’ at basic democratic accountability and drift further into irrelevance.”
The vice president called out the issue of race on college campuses, a major focal point connected to the Trump administration’s broader hostility toward diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Many universities explicitly engage in racial discrimination (mostly against whites and asians) that violates the civil rights laws of this country,” wrote the vice president, who argued that university professors are “so one-sided that they look like the election results of North Korea.”
Vice President Vance’s comments about so-called racial discrimination on college campuses come as the Trump administration escalates its political battles with universities, particularly elite ones like Harvard University. On Monday, reports indicated that the administration is set to cancel all of Harvard’s federal contracts totaling an estimated $100 million.
In addition to pressuring the university to end its DEI hiring practices, the White House accused Harvard of continuing to use racial considerations in its student admissions despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions. Trump has pointed to the Supreme Court ruling as a legal argument for his executive order to eliminate all DEI programs in the federal government, and he has also pressured the private sector to do the same.
However, civil rights groups and legal advocates point out that the Supreme Court’s ruling on race-based college admissions–coincidentally, a case involving Harvard–does not extend to broader DEI programs.
“There haven’t been any decisions or anything ruled illegal concerning diversity, equity and inclusion, beyond a very narrow decision about the admissions program at Harvard,” Eric Duncan, director of K-12 policy at EdTrust, previously told theGrio. Duncan noted that the high court’s ruling also allowed for other considerations for the racial backgrounds of student applicants in their college essays.
Duncan added, “That rhetoric is just really narrative to sort of scare people into complying with whatever their sort of values are around diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling was swift. Black student enrollment at Harvard dropped from 18% to 14%, according to the university. However, enrollment of Hispanic students increased from 14% to 16%.
Harvard University has resisted the Trump administration and filed a lawsuit over the removal of billion-dollar federal grants. The Ivy League filed another suit after the Trump administration revoked its ability to admit international students.
More About:Politics
