How Does CUNY Not Know That the ‘Black Male Initiative’ is Illegal?

All government laws and policies must be race neutral.

Organizations like Legal Insurrection use their resources to challenge laws and policies that discriminate against individuals on the basis of immutable characteristics like race and sex.

The City University of New York (CUNY) system, a taxpayer-supported institution, created the Black Male Initiative (BMI). The school and the city government operate the program.

According to CUNY, BMI provides school and city resources to “increase, encourage, and support the inclusion and educational success of students from groups that are severely underrepresented in higher education, in particular African, African American/Black, Caribbean and Latino/Hispanic males.”

This program excludes white men — textbook racial discrimination, no matter how “noble” the cause.

Legal Insurrection’s Equal Protection Project (EPP) filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“If CUNY had a ‘White Male Initiative’ structured similarly to BMI such race-based recruiting would not be tolerated much less funded and promoted. It is up to DOJ to ensure that the civil rights laws are enforced in a race-neutral manner,” EPP stated in the complaint. Other items from the complaint:

• Whites are a minority in the CUNY system.
• The city of New York is a full participant in BMI.
• The Obama administration approved BMI.
• BMI’s web site disclaimer about being open to all without regard to race does not get CUNY off the hook from the other exclusive language and practice.

The program is blatantly and embarrassingly discriminatory. It is regressive and must be opened to all students, or dismantled.

Photo credit: By Su & Soe – Own work, CC BY 3.0, link