The University of Alabama (UA) was at the receiving end of a Friday civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for allegedly offering a race-based scholarship program.
The lawsuit stems from UA’s “Norton-Textra Endowed Scholarship for Minority Students in English,” which is awarded to “full-time African-American students pursuing degrees in English in the College of Arts and Sciences.”
According to the Equal Protection Project (EPP), this scholarship violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Regardless of UA’s reasons for offering, promoting, and administering such a discriminatory scholarship, UA is violating Title VI by doing so,” the complaint reads. “It does not matter if the recipient of federal funding discriminates in order to advance a benign ‘intention’ or ‘motivation.'”
It continues, “Because the discrimination outlined above is presumptively illegal, and since UA cannot show any compelling government justification for it, the fact that it conditions eligibility for a scholarship on race, color, and national origin violates federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees.”
According to its website, EPP is “devoted to the fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity. Our guiding principle is that there is no ‘good’ form of racism. The remedy for racism never is more racism.”
In March, the OCR initially stated it was investigating UA for “alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation.” However, it later changed its release, stating that it was, in fact, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Now, according to EPP, the OCR is investigating the complaint against UA.
SEE: Federal investigation targets UAB for ‘impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation’ after U.S. Department of Education mix-up
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