What ‘MERIT’ Actually Looks Like in AMERICA
The Education Department just launched a full-blown attack on more than 50 universities for supposedly engaging in “racial discrimination” because of their efforts to level the playing field for Black and Brown students. Let’s be clear: this is just another move in Trump’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion—policies that were put in place to counteract centuries of exclusion, not to give anyone an unfair advantage.
’Don’t Dare Consider Race’
The feds claim these programs are shutting out white and Asian students, and now they’re threatening to pull federal funding from any institution that dares to consider race in admissions, scholarships, or student life. “Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon proudly declared. But let’s talk about what “merit” actually looks like in America.
A minority female student recently made headlines after pulling off the near-impossible—a 4.1 GPA. “I was club president, in [National Honor Society], had my ‘trauma’ story, did nine AP classes, [and] did a NASA program,” she wrote. Those kind of stats that should have schools lining up. But instead, she got rejected all top universities she applied to. If merit really determined success, she’d be choosing between one of those top schools right now.
So, What’s Really Going On?
The Education Department is zeroing in on universities working with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps underrepresented students get business degrees to diversify an industry historically built for white men. Now, the government is claiming this effort is “race-exclusionary,” as if centuries of legacy admissions, donor preferences, and “good ol’ boy” networks weren’t designed to be just that—but for white students.
Among the schools under fire? Arizona State, Ohio State, Rutgers, Yale, Cornell, Duke, MIT—some of the biggest names in higher education. These institutions are now scrambling to prove they aren’t supporting diversity efforts that actually give Black and Brown students a shot at success.
Ohio State is already backpedaling, claiming, “our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants.” Meanwhile, Arizona State has completely cut ties with The PhD Project, banning faculty from even traveling to their conferences. Looks like universities are folding under pressure instead of standing up for what’s right.
And it’s not just PhD programs on the chopping block. Six other universities—including Grand Valley State, Ithaca College, and the University of Alabama—are being investigated for offering “impermissible race-based scholarships.” Because, apparently, providing financial support to marginalized students is a bigger crime than the generations of wealth-building advantages that white students have always had access to.
The University of Minnesota is also under investigation for allegedly running a program that “segregates students by race.” Meanwhile, America’s entire education system has been segregating by zip code, wealth, and opportunity for decades, but that’s just business as usual.
This whole crackdown stems from last year’s Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action in college admissions. That ruling originally focused on Harvard and UNC, but now, the Education Department is stretching it as far as they can to kill DEI initiatives in both K-12 and higher education.
According to Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, DEI programs have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline.” Translation: they don’t want to hear about racism, they don’t want to fix it, and they’ll punish anyone who tries.
Let’s Not Pretend This is About Fairness
But let’s not pretend this is about fairness. This is about erasing the little progress that’s been made so things can go back to the way they were—where whiteness is the default, Black and Brown students are “less qualified” no matter how hard they work, and merit is only real when it benefits the right people.
Because if merit really mattered, that 4.0, perfect-scoring Black student wouldn’t be holding 18 rejection letters.
