This video that resurfaced after US President-elect Donald Trump declared victory in the 5 November election shows him announcing universities would be fined and their endowments taxed for deploying Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) measures.
Trump said some of the revenue generated would go toward compensating students who do not receive the same treatment.
Many are wondering if Trump was suggesting reparations for white people. That would be ironic, given the US has yet to pay reparations to Africans in the United States for slavery, discrimination and human-rights violations they have experienced for more than four centuries in the US. Our people’s forced labour created the economic foundation of the country.
It reminds many that since the US Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964 to prohibit discrimination, both Republican and Democrat presidents have refused to implement and protect wide-ranging policies that raise the quality of life for Black, Latino, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Indigenous people, leaving the most marginalised groups in the United States under-resourced. High-ranking universities have said Affirmative Action ensures that a student body does not remain majority white and Asian.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against Affirmative Action at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, saying race-based admissions violate the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. Of the six judges who ruled in the majority, Trump’s three appointees swayed the court’s decision.
Video credit: @Forbes (X)
Sources:
https://x.com/keithboykin/status/1856396150011768837
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/29/affirmative-action-supreme-court-ruling
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/civil-rights-center/statutes/civil-rights-act-of-1964
https://wrrv.com/trump-checks-new-yorkers/
https://www.instagram.com/vanlathan/reel/DCR3svqyZ4S/
https://x.com/feelmyhelpcomin/status/1856324921082728873
https://www.investopedia.com/supreme-court-affirmative-action-decision-2023-7555848