The Michigan Daily reports today that the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, which “calls itself ‘a committed partner of the University’ in its mission statement,” by next fall “plans to hand out scholarships based on race and gender.”
Insofar as the alumni association is separate from the university, and the university plays no role in this scholarship program, these race- and gender-based scholarships might be legal. On the other hand, if the alumni association is entwined with the university closely enough, they might not.
I have discussed similar attempts to evade anti-discrimination requirements here and here.
As long as the source of the money is clearly not from state funds then there should not be a problem. Prop 2 does not prohibit people giving their own money to other people in any way – just as long as it is really their own money! It also does not prohibit racist and sexist discrimination when committed by individuals.
The organisation has clearly stated, that they are intent on not breaking the law implied by prop 2. If they keep their promise, then they can be as racist as they like. It is immoral but not illegal.
The only interesting point is (and stangely not adressed in the article) when companies spend money for racist and sexist scolarships who had previously reciedved state funds directly or inderectly. It ought to be made clear to them that they are possibly risking future subsidies and public contracts.
Perhaps they can be motivated to reveal their double standard thinking when some white-supremacist group also puts up a private funding program – I would love to see the comments on that one. Maybee they can then be convinced, that racism is not a good thing. Although I bet they would find some loophole to explain that only some racists are bad racists and that we ought to discriminate between good racists and bad racists…
Well, God bless the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.
–Cobra
Heh. Little Cobra is down with the Jim Crow crowd.
Maybe the government should take away the tax exempt status of the alumni association if they start discriminating.
Also, if they solicit and advertise the scholarship program, would the alumni association be consider a public accommodation and thus not permitted to discrimination?
And last, if any of the donations come from corporations, then the alumni association cannot be consider a “private” club and would also be subject to civil rights regulations. (Just ask Augusta National).
Yes, but given the enormous disparity in academic qualifications between blacks and hispanics and others, scholarships, while they may help attract a few “under-represented” minorities, and provide a nice optical touch for the school, won’t help U of M avoid Berkely like statistics – if U of M follows the law, that is. And the problem with the scholarships by race and gender is that the Alumni Association – who by and large should concerned with helping those with lesser economic means, will end up helping those that are middle class or higher – because those are the students that can gain admission. All in the name of diversity in pigmentation (U of M already has gender balance). What a thoughtless disaster this program will be.