More evidence of the law of unintended consequences

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Princeton University is facing a Department of Education investigation into the college’s “embedded” racism. One would not be wrong to jump to conclusions that this would be in relation to racist admissions systems like at Harvard that these wealthy schools and the left in this country fight tooth and nail to maintain. It is not the case here. The investigation has been opened because the president of the university, Christopher Eisgruber, published an open letter earlier this month in which he called his own school racist.

President Christopher Eisgruber published an open letter earlier this month claiming that “racism and the damage it does to people of color persist at Princeton” and that “racist assumptions” are “embedded in structures of the University itself.”

The good president, in his efforts to virtue signal, appear to have set a rather large target on the Ivy League institution. His letter is an admission of intentional violation of federal civil rights law.

According to a letter the Department of Education sent to Princeton that was obtained by the Washington Examiner, such an admission from Eisgruber raises concerns that Princeton has been receiving tens of millions of dollars of federal funds in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which declares that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

…

Now, the Education Department has sent a formal records request as it pursues its investigation. Its main point of contention is whether Princeton has lied to the public with its marketing and to the department in its promise not to uphold racist standards, in accordance with receiving federal funds.

“Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) is concerned Princeton’s nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances in its Program Participation Agreements from at least 2013 to the present may have been false,” the letter reads. “The Department is further concerned Princeton perhaps knew, or should have known, these assurances were false at the time they were made. Finally, the Department is further concerned Princeton’s many nondiscrimination and equal opportunity claims to students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates may have been false, misleading, and actionable substantial misrepresentations in violation of 20 U.S.C. § 1094(c)(3)(B) and 34 CFR 668.71(c). Therefore, the Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education, in consultation with the Department’s Office of the General Counsel, is opening this investigation.”

Read the DOE’s letter here. I bet when Eisgruber wrote that letter he was expect plaudits from the woke mob about acknowledging his role in “systemic racism.” Instead, his letter serves as a reminder that having a degree from Princeton, being a Rhodes Scholar, a lawyer by education and trade, and being a president of an Ivy League school (which costs students more than $50k a semester to attend and has a $26 billion endowment) doesn’t mean you’re smart.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", BLM