Test-Blind Admissions Promote Equity

False Assumption: Eliminating standardized testing in college admissions would promote racial equity without harming academic preparation.

Summaries Written by FARAgent (AI) on February 25, 2026 · Pending Verification

For years, the respectable view in admissions was that standardized tests were a barrier, not a safeguard. The SAT and ACT were said to be "biased," too tied to family income, coaching, and unequal schooling, while high school GPA was treated as a fuller and fairer measure of merit. That case had real force. Test scores do track privilege in part, and universities had long used them in ways that looked mechanical and exclusionary. By the late 2010s, and especially during COVID, "test-optional" and then "test-blind" spread under the banner of equity, with many administrators arguing that dropping the tests would widen opportunity for Black and Hispanic applicants without sacrificing student readiness.

What went wrong was not the moral aim but the confidence that the tests could be removed at little academic cost. During the pandemic and the racial reckoning years, grades became less reliable as schools relaxed standards and grade inflation worsened. At the same time, colleges lost one of the few common yardsticks that still predicted performance across very different high schools. Evidence from places that went furthest in this direction has fueled the backlash: reports of sharp declines in entering math, writing, and language skills, and admissions shifts that did not simply lift disadvantaged students but also admitted more applicants with weaker preparation. A growing body of researchers now argues that whatever the defects of standardized tests, treating them as dispensable turned out to be a larger gamble than advertised.

The debate is still live, but it has changed tone. After the Supreme Court's 2023 affirmative action ruling, many colleges leaned even harder on test-blind or test-optional policies as a race-neutral way to preserve diversity. Yet increasingly, critics from inside academia and policy circles have warned that this substitutes opacity for fairness and may set up some students for mismatch rather than success. Growing evidence suggests the old promise, more equity with no real tradeoff in preparation, was too neat for the facts.

Status: A small but growing and influential group of experts think this was false

People Involved

President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 13985 on his first day in office in January 2021, directing every federal agency to produce equity action plans that treated racial and ethnic identity as the basis for steering contracts, grants, and benefits. He framed the order as a straightforward correction for systemic barriers facing underserved communities, and his administration praised the resulting 25 plans as a major step toward embedding racial justice in government operations. The plans spread through agencies with little public debate until later legal and political pushback. Biden's approach built on decades of similar assumptions about equity through differential treatment. ^[12]
Steven Moffat, as showrunner for the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, initially operated under the belief that open casting based on talent would naturally produce diverse leads. By the mid-2010s he publicly declared that the production must do better on diversity and shifted to deliberate policies favoring non-white companions and considering non-white Doctors. His statements in Doctor Who Magazine helped normalize the view that merit-based casting had failed to deliver representation. The policy change reflected broader institutional pressure in entertainment. ^[15]
Larry Summers served as president of Harvard University when he offered mainstream scientific observations about sex differences in aptitude during a 2005 conference. Female faculty members, led by biologist Nancy Hopkins, responded with emotional outrage and a no-confidence vote that forced his resignation. Summers' ouster illustrated how feminized institutional dynamics prioritized consensus and feelings over open debate. The episode became a template for later cancellations. ^[17]
Edward Blum founded Students for Fair Admissions and led the litigation that reached the Supreme Court in 2023, challenging race-conscious admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. He argued that such policies violated the Equal Protection Clause and disadvantaged Asian applicants. The Court's 6-3 ruling struck down the programs and exposed the limits of earlier precedents. Blum's work shifted policy at selective universities nationwide. ^[23][28]
Christopher Rufo exposed Texas A&M University's plan to sponsor travel to the race-exclusive PhD Project conference through public emails and commentary in 2023. Governor Greg Abbott then threatened to fire university president Mark A. Welsh III, who had approved the trip believing it aligned with state law. The episode forced cancellation and highlighted enforcement of anti-DEI statutes. Rufo's activism accelerated scrutiny of similar programs. ^[33]

▶ Supporting Quotes (42)

“the EEOC tacitly sponsored a lawsuit and filed it under the name of a Mexican-American plaintiff who had failed the test, Angel Luevano.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“a working paper coauthored in 2023 by Ackman professor of public economics Raj Chetty... found standardized tests are a useful means of identifying promising students at less well-resourced high schools.”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“Another is the mandatory diversity statements for job applicants, which purge the next generation of scholars of anyone who isn’t a woke ideologue or a skilled liar.”— Feedback on DEI Plans at My University

“Luke argued that SPSP is a two-headed beast. One head is strong science, objectivity, and rigor. The other is politics, especially the type of radical politics that makes claims such as “the scientific method is White supremacy,” a claim that has been endorsed and advanced in some official SPSP sources.”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“The centerpiece of Nate’s analysis was a large language model content analysis of the political valence and activist orientation of 26 years of abstracts of presentations at SPSP.”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“I focused exclusively on ways SPSP has gone wrong, all of which stemmed from its overt embrace of political ax-grinding. I argued that it promotes: Attributions of “White supremacy” to innocuous behaviors Demonization rhetoric Racial/ethnic/national discrimination Progressive virtue signaling Denunciations & censorship”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“the first thing President Joe Biden signed after taking office.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“which was the first thing President Joe Biden signed after taking office.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“"Instead, the effective purpose of diversity, equity and inclusion is to create a political orthodoxy and enforce that political orthodoxy, which fundamentally distorts the intellectual and political life on campus," Greene told Fox News.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Greene and James Paul, director of research at the Educational Freedom Institute, co-authored a comprehensive study of DEI bureaucracies in higher education.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“"What's happened over the last five to 10 years is its spread out in decentralized ways," Perry told Fox News.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Robert Sellers, Michigan's vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, is also the highest-paid DEI official from the top 15 colleges on their list, a Fox News review of pay at the universities found.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

““I had this baffling idea that if we just threw open each part to everybody, it would all work out in the end. I put my faith, inexplicably, in the free market. It doesn’t work.””— Moffat on Diversity in Doctor Who: “We must do better”

“Harry Stille Ph. D., author of “Louisiana: Public Institutions,” believes loose admission standards contribute to an estimated $440 million annual waste – an “enormous cost for little results.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

““When he started talking about innate differences in aptitude between men and women, I just couldn’t breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill,” said Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at MIT.”— The Great Feminization

“On January 14, 2005, at a conference on “Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce,” Larry Summers gave a talk that was supposed to be off the record. In it, he said that female underrepresentation in hard sciences was partly due to “different availability of aptitude at the high end” as well as taste differences between men and women “not attributable to socialization.””— The Great Feminization

“When the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions in 2023, experts practically heralded the resurrection of Jim Crow. It would be “catastrophic for the presence of marginalized racial groups on the nation’s leading campuses,” one Yale Law professor hyperventilated in The New York Times.”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“Richard Kahlenberg, an education expert who supports racial diversity on campus, wrote about “the dirty little secret” of American education in his book “Class Matters... “The framework of race-based preferences disproportionately aided upper-middle-class students of color and sustained a system of favoritism for children of alumni, wealthy donors and the offspring of faculty.””— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“The author is Ron Unz, a Harvardian 20 years ago, now a California political activist and entrepreneur, who led the successful state initiative to abolish bilingual education.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“Eleven years after the court’s decision in Grutter, a group called Students for Fair Admissions filed the North Carolina and Harvard cases in federal court. The group was founded by Edward Blum, a conservative activist who had also spearheaded a challenge to the admissions policy at the University of Texas at Austin as well as to Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 case that narrowed the Voting Rights Act.”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that college admissions programs can consider race merely to allow an applicant to explain how their race influenced their character in a way that would have a concrete effect on the university.”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Justice Sonia Sotomayor – a graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School who once called herself “the perfect affirmative action baby” – dissented, in an opinion that was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Thomas, who in his memoir discussed the “stigmatizing effects of racial preference” that he felt after he was admitted to Yale Law School in the 1970s under a race-conscious admissions program, was also sharply critical of the UNC and Harvard programs from a practical perspective.”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

““educational benefits that flow from an ethnically diverse student body.””— Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions

“"We fight DEI because we see it as a mortal threat to the American way of life," Claremont Institute president Ryan P. Williams and state coalitions senior director Scott Yenor recently wrote on the think tank's website.”— Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021

“The goal of the process, according to Harvard's director of admissions, is ensuring there is no “dramatic drop-off” in minority admissions from the prior class.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“The Project on Fair Representation’s director is Ed Blum, a Texas-based activist behind a landmark lawsuit accusing Harvard of discrimination against Asian students.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“The group’s lawyer is Boyden Gray, the White House counsel to former president George H.W. Bush, who now leads a litigation boutique involved in conservative causes.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“"Well I don't think it's racist," Cox began. "I think it's in response to unfortunately some very racist injustices that have happened for a long time... looking for ways to lift communities that have been historically and disproportionately impacted isn't racist at all. In fact it's a great way to overcome racist [sic]."”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“The program was announced in January by Ryan Smith, the new owner of the Jazz, on a podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN. The initiative, Smith said, was to award "someone from an underrepresented or minority community in Utah every time the team won a game."”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“As physicians and leaders in medicine, we cannot advance our mission—promoting the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health—without prioritizing equity.”— 2024-2025 AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity

““While the proper process for reviewing and approving attendance at such events was followed, I don’t believe we fully considered the spirit of our state law in making the initial decision to participate . . . This particular conference’s limitations on the acceptable race of attendees is not in line with the intent of SB-17, and, as a result, we will not be sending anyone to participate in this conference.””— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

““Hell, no. It’s against Texas law and violates the US Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.””— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

“Rufo also shared an email from a Texas A&M official offering a chance to “faculty or advanced PhD students” to attend the conference.”— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

““The class is, as always, outstanding across multiple dimensions,” Sally Kornbluth, president of M.I.T., said in the announcement, adding, “What it does not bring, as a consequence of last year’s Supreme Court decision, is the same degree of broad racial and ethnic diversity that the M.I.T. community has worked together to achieve over the past several decades.””— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

“Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that successfully sued to end race-conscious admissions, welcomed the decision as proof that the Supreme Court ruling was having a positive effect.”— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

““JCCC’s discriminatory curriculum has led to increased racial animosity toward Caucasian teachers and students,” reported Eric Early, a Republican candidate for California attorney general.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“In her opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor concluded that affirmative action in college admissions is justifiable, but not in perpetuity: “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest [in student body diversity] approved today.””— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“Marc Lipsitch DPhil1”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“At his bedside at the La Guardia Hospital in Queens, Mayor John Lindsay expressed his regrets. "Unbelievably outrageous," His Honor announced...”— Race War In High School

“Leslie Campbell, a teacher at Junior High School 271 in the Ocean Hill District, an ATA vice president, and a notorious provocateur of student violence, had helped in the organization and indoctrination of Lane's impressionable black students.”— Race War In High School

“The former Stanford admissions officer in question is Alix Coupet, who also worked at the top-tier University of Chicago, and who is “a current lead counselor at college counseling firm Empowerly[.]””— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

Organizations Involved

The University of California regents voted in November 2021 to make all UC campuses test-blind, eliminating SAT and ACT scores despite advice from the faculty senate against the move. The decision was justified as advancing racial equity after the Racial Reckoning following George Floyd's death. At UC San Diego the policy led to a 215 percent increase in admits from heavily Hispanic downscale high schools and a corresponding drop from upscale Asian-majority schools between 2020 and 2022. A November 2025 faculty senate report documented the resulting academic decline. The regents' institutional power enforced the assumption at scale across the system. ^[1]

The Carter administration's EEOC and Justice Department sponsored and settled the Luevano lawsuit in 1981, declaring the validated PACE exam biased against minorities and entering a consent decree that banned written cognitive tests for many federal civil service jobs. Subsequent administrations from Reagan through Biden continued enforcing the decree even after failing to develop a replacement test that was both valid and free of adverse impact. The decree bound the Office of Personnel Management for more than four decades and forced agencies to rely on subjective methods. This use of federal authority spread the assumption that valid tests could be discarded for equity reasons. ^[2][6]

Harvard University adopted test-optional admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic and extended the policy through the class of 2030 citing equity concerns. The policy admitted students lacking basic algebra and geometry, prompting the mathematics department to create a remedial course offered five days a week. Harvard's role as an elite pacesetter encouraged similar policies at other selective institutions. The approach relied on high school GPAs that had become less reliable due to grade inflation. ^[7]

The Society for Personality and Social Psychology promoted the assumption through official website resources and conference materials that described the scientific method as a form of White supremacy and treated social justice ideology as central to the discipline. The organization required DEI statements for editorial fellowships and other opportunities, discriminating on racial and ethnic grounds. A 2026 conference panel attended by two hundred members, including leaders, exposed the extent of politicization through analysis of twenty-six years of abstracts showing a sharp rise in progressive framing. The society's institutional influence shaped academic norms in psychology. ^[9]

The American Medical Association issued its 2024-2025 Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity, declaring racism a public health crisis and embedding equity goals throughout medical education and advocacy. The plan used an Anti-Racist Results-Based Accountability framework and prioritized changing race-based clinical algorithms. It spread the assumption that systemic oppression explained medical disparities more than biological or behavioral factors. The AMA's role as a professional gatekeeper gave the policy wide reach. ^[32]

▶ Supporting Quotes (58)

“in November 2021, the politically appointed regents of the giant University of California system rejected the advice of the faculty senate’s task force experts [in the STTF report] and banned college entrance exams. In the name of racial equity, the ten UC campuses (including Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego) weren’t just going “test optional””— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“UC San Diego really wanted to qualify for extra federal funds as a “Hispanic-Serving Institution” by making the feds’ racial quota for being 25% Hispanic.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“The faculty senate of the University of California at San Diego... published a report last week, written in conjunction with its reluctant staff, confirming much of what I wrote...”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“Perhaps the most egregious action of the Carter Administration was deep-sixing the federal civil service hiring exam in January 1981 by surrendering to friendly plaintiffs in the Luevano discrimination case by declaring that the 7 year old, highly scientific PACE test was fatally biased against blacks and Latinos”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“Not surprisingly, the Reagan Administration failed to do so, as did the Clinton, Obama, and Biden Administrations, along with everybody else.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“Here we analyze 685,709 first-year college applications submitted by 292,795 Asian American and white students to the “Ivy-11”, an 11-college subset of 13 highly selective colleges often included among the “Ivy-Plus”.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“For students admitted in the 2018–2019 admissions cycle, both these 13 “Ivy-Plus” colleges and the “Ivy-11” colleges we consider have yield rates between 54 and 82%, and acceptance rates between 4.2 and 10.6%.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“At least, when the Coleman Report was commissioned in 1964, the assumption was that results would support raising taxes to spend more on blacks which would Narrow the Gap.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“Washington DC runs the country’s only public boarding school. The teachers report that they make a lot of progress with their students from Monday through Friday. But then they go home to their families for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and return to boarding school on Monday morning just as ghetto as on every Monday morning.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“Over the last three years, the College Board has “recalibrated” nine of its most popular AP Exams so that approximately 500,000 more AP exams will earn a 3+ score this year than they would have without recalibration.”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“For two years the Carter administration quietly conspired with liberal public interest law firms, the purported opponents in the suit. And as it was packing up, the Carter Justice Department signed a consent decree, approved by a picked judge, junking the civil service examination.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“More than forty years later, the Luevano Consent Decree still binds OPM [Office of Personnel Management] and every other executive branch agency.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“Harvard switched to test-optional admissions during covid. And then, Harvard insisted on keeping test scores optional due to the Racial Reckoning through at least 2026.”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“SPSP, like so much of academia, is infatuated (and that is putting it kindly) with “social justice.” ... “the scientific method is White supremacy,” a claim that has been endorsed and advanced in some official SPSP sources.”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

““Biden’s action plan is a major win for the organizations like Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation who have been working with the White House to help develop it since the end of 2020,” said the organization the day after the plans were announced by the White House.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“the administration’s 25 plans will implement discrimination as the official policy of the executive branch”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“A memo from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Tuesday evening called for all federal DEI employees to be placed on leave by Wednesday evening.”— Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave

“the administration is doubling down on the color-conscious policies that were the hallmark of its first year in office through a series of “action plans,” which it released through every executive bureaucracy last month.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“Michigan, for instance, devoted $85 million in 2016 to diversity initiatives over a five-year period, the Detroit Free Press reported.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Georgina Dodge, the vice president at the office of diversity and inclusion at the University of Maryland, which employs 71 DEI personnel, makes $358,000 a year.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Menah Pratt-Clarke, vice provost for inclusion and diversity at Virginia Tech, which has 83 DEI personnel, earns over $351,000 annually.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Kevin McDonald, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Virginia, which has 94 employees devoted to DEI, makes $340,000 a year.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Sean C. Garrick, vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Illinois, which has 71 DEI employees, earns nearly $330,000 annually.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

““We decided that the new companion was going to be non-white, and that was an absolute decision, because we need to do better on that.””— Moffat on Diversity in Doctor Who: “We must do better”

“these public [four-year] institutions are the most wasteful agency in any state’s government process”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

““At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for example,” says Greene, “the number of full-time administrators per ??100 students grew by 44% between 1993 and 2007, while full-time employees engaged in ?instruction, research, and service grew by only 9%.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“The ensuing scandal led to a no-confidence vote by the Harvard faculty and, eventually, Summers’s resignation.”— The Great Feminization

“The New York Times staff became majority female in 2018 and today the female share is 55 percent.”— The Great Feminization

“The report, from the nonprofit advocacy group Class Action”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“nearly 20 percent of the Harvard College student body is Asian-American, and 25 percent to 33 percent is Jewish, though Asian-Americans make up only 3 percent of the U.S. population and Jewish-Americans even less than 3 percent.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“The same situation, says Unz, exists at other elite schools like Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Berkeley and Stanford”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“A college or university may create space to celebrate the graduation of Asian American, Black, Latino, Native American, or disabled students, or those who are the first in their family to graduate college, women, Jewish, former foster youth, or identified with any other community.”— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“The programs, schools, and centers of concern include but are not limited to the Divinity School, Graduate School of Education, School of Public Health”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“the admissions programs used by the University of North Carolina and Harvard College violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“After the lower courts upheld both North Carolina’s and Harvard’s admissions policies, the Blum’s group came to the Supreme Court”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Powell highlighted Harvard’s holistic admission process as the model”— Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions

“Conservative think tanks such as the Claremont Institute have given templates for anti-DEI bills to lawmakers, lobbyists, activists and others, the New York Times has reported.”— Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021

“Readers are required to consider the applicant's race as a factor in their review. Readers then make a written recommendation on each assigned application, and they may provide an applicant a substantial “plus” depending on the applicant's race.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher changed the eligibility criteria for its diversity scholarships, becoming at least the second major law firm to take the step as rivals face lawsuits targeting similar programs.”— Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suits

“The internship is open only to "Black, Hispanic, Native American, and/or LGBTQ+ freshman undergraduate student[s]," according to Morgan Stanley’s website.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“Princeton has allegedly encouraged its students to apply for the program, according to the letter.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“A Washington Free Beacon review found that elite universities besides Princeton encouraged their students to pursue the program. Harvard’s office of career services encouraged students to apply to the program.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“The Utah Jazz is excluding white children from consideration for their scholarship program... The scholarship program, implemented by the basketball this year, promised a college scholarship to a student of color for every win the franchise earned.”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“The AMA declared racism a public health crisis and pronounced “police brutality must stop” after the public murder of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor and so many others.”— 2024-2025 AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity

“Texas A&M University recently canceled a planned upcoming trip to a conference that excludes participants of certain races after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to kick out the school’s president.”— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

“The event in question is the PhD Project’s Annual Conference, set to take place March 20-21, which excludes white and Asian participants from joining, as revealed by anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) activist Christopher Rufo.”— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

“compared with a baseline of about 25 percent of undergraduate students in recent years”— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

“Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that successfully sued to end race-conscious admissions”— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

“A recent and jarring anti-white incident involved the curriculum imposed on students by the Santa Barbara Unified School District. As if public education is not sufficiently corrupt, “educators” now contract out to an educational black op. These tax-paid mercenaries come to schools as social levelers to put your kids through an indoctrination boot camp.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

““Just Communities Central Coast” (JCCC) is such an “educational” black op.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“At Harvard, each application for admission is initially screened by a “first reader,” who assigns a numerical score in each of six categories: academic, extracurricular, athletic, school support, personal, and overall. For the “overall” category—a composite of the five other ratings—a first reader can and does consider the applicant’s race. Harvard’s admissions subcommittees then review all applications from a particular geographic area. These regional subcommittees make recommendations to the full admissions committee, and they take an applicant’s race into account. ... In the Harvard admissions process, “race is a determinative tip for” a significant percentage “of all admitted African American and Hispanic applicants.””— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“UNC has a similar admissions process. Every application is reviewed first by an admissions office reader, who assigns a numerical rating to each of several categories. Readers are required to consider the applicant’s race as a factor in their review. Readers then make a written recommendation on each assigned application, and they may provide an applicant a substantial “plus” depending on the applicant’s race.”— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“As was his custom, the school head never responded to the UFT protest, preferring to sidestep an issue that could conceivably force him to make a decision that would be unpopular to the militants.”— Race War In High School

“The ATA gave over a portion of its office space in Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant ghetto to its youth corps, the Afro-American Students Association (ASA). From the overworked mimeograph machines at 1064 Fulton Street came a steady stream of diatribe against the union...”— Race War In High School

“who is “a current lead counselor at college counseling firm Empowerly[.]””— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

The Foundation

Proponents of test-blind admissions argued that standardized tests were biased against minorities and lower-income students, that high school GPAs offered a fairer measure of potential, and that removing test scores would increase representation of Black and Hispanic applicants without lowering academic standards at selective colleges. They pointed to persistent racial gaps on tests as evidence of unfairness rather than differences in preparation, and they cited early studies from test-optional liberal arts colleges suggesting diversity could be maintained through holistic review. The assumption contained a kernel of truth in that tests can reflect unequal K-12 opportunities, yet it extended this observation into the claim that tests could be eliminated while preserving readiness for rigorous college work. A reasonable observer in the early 2020s, seeing grade inflation during the pandemic and the Racial Reckoning, might have concluded that de-emphasizing tests was a low-risk way to pursue equity. ^[1][7][35]

The belief that racial achievement gaps stemmed primarily from insufficient spending on Black schools gained strength after the Coleman Report of 1966 yet persisted despite its own finding that family background mattered more than school resources. Federal and local governments responded by directing more money to Black students than to White students in many jurisdictions, including proposals for boarding schools in Washington, DC, to remove children from family influences. Sixty years of elevated spending produced no replicable narrowing of gaps that could be attributed to the interventions. The Coleman Report itself had exposed the flaw by documenting persistent differences even in Northern districts with equal funding. ^[4]

Standardized tests were widely viewed as unnecessary or culturally biased even though multiple studies showed they predicted college performance better than GPAs for all groups, including non-White students. High school GPAs became even less reliable after No Child Left Behind and during COVID-era grading leniency, yet they were elevated over tests in admissions. The College Board responded to equity pressures by recalibrating AP exams starting in 2022, increasing the number of 3+ scores by roughly 500,000 per year while continuing to lobby states to grant college credit for the inflated results. A score of 3 was still presented as evidence of college-level proficiency equivalent to a C. ^[1][5][7]

The assumption that legacy preferences and geographic factors in Ivy-Plus admissions were minor or neutral was challenged by data showing they disproportionately benefited White applicants over Asians with comparable qualifications. A 2024 peer-reviewed analysis of 685,000 applications confirmed that these non-academic preferences explained much of the Asian-White disparity in elite admissions. Proponents had framed any gaps as reflecting only differences in academics and extracurriculars. The data revealed otherwise. ^[3]

▶ Supporting Quotes (58)

“grade inflation During covid and the racial reckoning, high schools tended to ease grading standards. So high school GPA’s predictive validity predictably worsened.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“Remarkably, test scores turned out to be an even more accurate predictor of college grade point average than is high school GPA. And, contrary to conventional wisdom, the accuracy of the SAT at predicting graduation rates and final college grades was even better for nonwhites than for whites.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“declaring that the 7 year old, highly scientific PACE test was fatally biased against blacks and Latinos, and the incoming Reagan Administration could no doubt concoct a predictively valid test on which the Carter Administration’s favored minorities would perform just as well as whites and Asians.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“We estimate that Asian American applicants had 28% lower odds of ultimately attending an Ivy-11 school than white applicants with similar academic and extracurricular qualifications. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds).”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“In particular, we offer evidence that this pattern stems from two factors. First, many selective colleges give preference to the children of alumni in admissions. We find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants. Second, we identify geographic disparities potentially reflective of admissions policies that disadvantage students from certain regions of the United States.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“Everybody in The Great Society believed blacks scored worse on school achievement tests because less money was being spent on black schools in the South.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“True, but it turned out that in the North that spending on black students was the same as on white students and Coleman still found sizable gaps in achievement.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“Like other measures, student performance on AP® Exams also reveals gaps by race and ethnicity. Average scores (on the 1-5 AP scale) across all 2022 AP Exams, for example, are lower among Black (2.1) and Hispanic students (2.4) than among White students (3.0) and Asian students (3.4).”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“scored from one to five with a five representing an A on an introductory course at a routine college, a 4 a B, a 3 a C, a 2 a D, and a 1 an F.”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“By the late 1970s, the federal government had a superb test, the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, which had been validated for 118 different positions. Of course, blacks and Hispanics did less well on this test than whites and Asians.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“The MSPB supported the use of the ACWA written examination because it was “better at predicting future job performance” than the “temporary hiring authorities established under Luevano.” But the ACWA written test did not last long either and was rarely used after the mid-1990s. Again, agencies found, among other problems, that the new test caused an “adverse impact” under the Decree.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“The tests were thought to disadvantage lower-income students and those from under-resourced high schools.”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“high school GPAs are pretty worthless lately because grading became much easier in recent years, as the Education Reform delusion (exemplified by George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy crafting the No Child Left Behind act in 2002... faded away”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“Many have pointed out that this functions as a political litmus test, and that it selects for people committed to one very specific, contested brand of progressive politics - or people willing and able to feign such a commitment.”— Feedback on DEI Plans at My University

“radical politics that makes claims such as “the scientific method is White supremacy,” a claim that has been endorsed and advanced in some official SPSP sources.”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“The federal government, for example, defines the term “underserved communities” as “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, as exemplified by the list in the preceding definition of ‘equity.’"”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“The word “equity” has come to mean the opposite of such equal treatment. In the hands of the Biden administration, and movement allies such as BLM, equity means that the government will treat Americans differently based not on need, but on race, membership in an ethnic category the government may have created for them in the first place, or on a predetermined victimhood status.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“while the "ostensible objective" of DEI is to make college campuses more welcoming and inclusive, he doesn't believe that is the purpose of the initiatives.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

““I don’t mean that we’ve done terribly – our guest casts are among the most diverse on television, but I feel as though I could have done better overall.””— Moffat on Diversity in Doctor Who: “We must do better”

“Twenty-nine percent of Louisiana’s freshmen come from the bottom half of their high school class, and Stille believes that these unprepared students account for the state’s embarrassingly low graduation rates.”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“the funding mechanism has incentivized poor results, focusing on the “numbers of students on campus… instead of academic quality in admissions.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“Experts chimed in to declare that everything Summers had said about sex differences was within the scientific mainstream. These rational appeals had no effect on the mob hysteria.”— The Great Feminization

“One survey, for example, found that 71 percent of men said protecting free speech was more important than preserving a cohesive society, and 59 percent of women said the opposite.”— The Great Feminization

“This was marrow-deep mush, starting with the fact that “leading campuses” have limited space for students of any color. If equality depends on the so-called Top 50 schools, we’re doomed. This entrenched elitistism fogs critics’ vision: When you’re an Ivy professor, only an Ivy education looks “leading.””— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“racial preferences worsen this exact problem... Affirmative action produced racial diversity that made it seem as if the admissions system was fair.”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“What began as a push for broader inclusion morphed into quota-driven mandates, demographic scorecards and internal political signaling exercises that often had little to do with business performance.”— Corporate America has decided that DEI needs to DIE

“Hispanic and black enrollment has reached 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, slightly less than the 10 percent and 12 percent of the U.S. population that is Hispanic and black. This has been a cause of protests at Harvard, as Hispanics and African-Americans insist on more proportional representation.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“Participation is open to all students who choose to take part in an affinity graduation. While it would be unlawful to deny students the opportunity to participate or attend an affinity graduation (or any school event) based on their race, color, national origin, sex, or disability, federal civil rights laws allow for cultural celebrations and observances.”— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“For a significant time in our nation’s history, people of color, women, and some people of faith were systematically excluded from achieving a higher education. Civil rights leaders, such as James Howard Meredith, dreamed and fought fiercely for the inclusion and belonging of all people in higher education.”— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“The University must immediately shutter all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices, committees, positions, and initiatives, under whatever name, and stop all DEI-based policies”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin throughout its hiring, promotion, compensation, and related practices”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“The majority effectively, though not explicitly, overruled its 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, in which the court upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s consideration of race “as one factor among many, in an effort to assemble a student body that is diverse in ways broader than race.””— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Both programs, Roberts began, consider race as part of their admissions program for commendable goals, such as “training future leaders in the public and private sector” and “promoting the robust exchange of ideas.” But those goals are too vague for courts to measure”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

““This kind of program treats each applicant as an individual in the admissions process,” Powell declared.”— Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions

“That led schools, governments, corporations and others to create diversity initiatives that typically focus on racial sensitivity — and the nation's history of overlooking many of the stories of non-white Americans. The backlash that followed focused largely on conservatives' claims that DEI programs undermine traditional teachings of American history — and often had the effect of making white students feel guilty.”— Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021

“After separate bench trials, both admissions programs were found permissible under the Equal Protection Clause and this Court's precedents.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“which is a change from “students who identify with an underrepresented group,” according to the archival Wayback Machine website.”— Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suits

“The program keeps with the uptick in race-based benefits in recent years. Following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, gig economy behemoths like Uber and Postmates waived delivery fees for black-owned restaurants.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“"I think it's in response to unfortunately some very racist injustices that have happened for a long time... a history of racial injustice, a history where, where, where. Of course, slavery being the most severe and awful example of that. But that stuff just doesn't go away overnight... we're working very hard on, on equity, making sure that every kid in our state has the same opportunities as others."”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“Recognizing that many, if not most, practicing physicians did not have the opportunity to learn about health equity—including how racism and other systems of oppression manifest in medicine—while in medical school or training”— 2024-2025 AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity

“It is M.I.T.’s first undergraduate class to be admitted since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year banning affirmative action”— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

“Schools are dropping standardized tests to buck the decision and allow minority students in who are academically unqualified, an expert said.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears

“American kids can barely read properly or speak and write grammatically. They’ll never know the wonders of the Western literary canon (banished because produced by the pale patriarchy). But they’ve committed to consciousness ugly, nonsensical, stupid, decontextualized grids that tabulate the ways of white oppression.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“Our projections extrapolate past trends on two important margins: Gaps between the economic resources of black and white students’ families, and narrowing of test score gaps between black and white students with similar family incomes.”— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“Our analysis proceeds from the assumption that the most likely future course will resemble past trends. Substantial changes in educational policy, in school effectiveness, and in income inequality would all have important effects on black test score distributions and on the admissions landscape.”— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“Even school-issued laptops often allow access to YouTube and streaming (like Netflix, Disney+, and Peacock), allowing students to sit in the back of class and watch endless hours of entertainment. Others play games. Personal smartphones are also a huge distraction: A recent analysis found that American teens spend more than an hour using their phones during the school day, and almost none of that time is spent on educational activities.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“Thus, teens are spending about 20% of their time at school not focusing on schoolwork or talking to their peers. That may be one reason why standardized test scores in math, reading, and science have declined since 2012 and why students have increasingly reported feeling lonely at school.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“Acceptance of race-based state action is rare for a reason: ... which asks first whether the racial classification is used to “further compelling governmental interests,” Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 306, 326, and second whether the government’s use of race is “narrowly tailored,” i.e., “necessary,” to achieve that interest”— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“Compared to White individuals, the age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rate is 1·7-fold higher among Black individuals (241/100,000), 1·9-fold higher among Indigenous individuals (263/100,000), 2·0-fold higher among Hispanic individuals (287/100,000) and 2·2-fold higher among Pacific Islander individuals (312 / 100,000).”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“The risk of death given infection (infection fatality rate) rises sharply with age. By one estimate, this increase is exponential, about 10-fold for each 19-year increase in age.”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“older individuals, who in the US are disproportionately Non-Hispanic White.”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“From George Wallace's Alabama to Nelson Rockefeller's New York... Americans are torn between Supreme Court rulings legitimizing the forced busing of children and presidential edicts that would forbid the use of federal funds to carry it out.”— Race War In High School

“while it has produced certain consistent patterns that kids from some races outperform kids from other races, on average, this is in and of itself (obviously) not racist”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“the SAT is about the best single tool we have for predicting a high school student’s future college performance, and certainly better than high school GPA”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“The idea that in-the-moment discrimination drives inequality is a major cop-out that keeps privileged people comfortable”— If You Believe In Structural Racism, You Believe In Pipeline Problems

““Former Stanford admissions officer: ‘Well-rounded is not enough’—here’s how to really stand out.””— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

How It Spread

The assumption gained momentum after George Floyd's death in 2020 when the Racial Reckoning prompted elites in academia, media, and government to view standardized tests as tools of systemic discrimination. Test-optional policies that began as temporary COVID accommodations became permanent at many institutions because equity arguments made reversal politically difficult. Media outlets such as CBS and Inside Higher Ed amplified the narrative that colleges were abandoning tests due to bias concerns. The post-2020 environment supercharged a campaign against standardized testing that had simmered for decades. ^[1][7][45]

Federal equity action plans released in May 2022 used euphemisms such as underserved, marginalized, and disadvantaged to conceal racial targeting while steering hundreds of billions in contracts and grants. The Biden administration and Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation praised the plans as a major victory for racial justice. The New York Times reported the shift to softer language after explicit racial preferences drew legal risks. This linguistic strategy allowed the assumption to spread through bureaucracy without immediate challenge. ^[12]

Universities justified large DEI staffs and high salaries by citing the seniority of chief diversity officers and their broad responsibilities beyond race, yet studies of sixty-five power-conference schools found no measurable improvement in campus climate despite average staffing of forty-five DEI employees per institution. The assumption spread through required DEI statements for hiring and promotion, which Steven Pinker warned functioned as political litmus tests. Public universities in states such as Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia maintained dozens of DEI personnel each with salaries exceeding three hundred thousand dollars for top officers. ^[8][14]

The assumption propagated through judicial precedents such as Grutter v. Bollinger, which permitted race as a plus factor in admissions with the expectation that preferences would no longer be needed in twenty-five years. Lower courts upheld Harvard and UNC programs until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise in 2023. Elite institutions shaped the legal and cultural consensus by describing diversity as essential to breaking stereotypes and enriching education. The narrative persisted in media warnings of catastrophe at top schools even as most students attended public universities. ^[23][37]

▶ Supporting Quotes (43)

“Meanwhile, George Floyd’s death had driven elites insane.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“deep-sixing the federal civil service hiring exam in January 1981 by surrendering to friendly plaintiffs in the Luevano discrimination case”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“There is debate over whether Asian American students face additional barriers, relative to white students, when applying to selective colleges.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“The Nice White Liberals who run social and educational policy in America have been obsessed with Closing the Gap for 60 years.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“Not surprisingly, the College Board has been doing just that during the Racial Reckoning, starting with the AP English Literature test in 2022”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“The pretext was a consent decree throwing the derisory Luevano suit against the Carter Administration that had been rigged up by Carter’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and its allies on the left.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“Test-optional policies were widely adopted during the pandemic, when it was difficult to sit for standardized tests, and many remained in place even as the threat of illness faded.”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“Another proposal is to use DEI contributions in promotion decisions.”— Feedback on DEI Plans at My University

“Maybe they will remove the ridiculous Okun White Supremacy “resource” from their website.”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

““Worried that using race to identify and help disadvantaged communities could trigger legal challenges that would stymie their efforts, administration officials said they were designing a system to help communities of color even without defining them as such,””— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“The New York Times first reported on this con game on Feb. 15, when Lisa Friedman wrote that the administration was using a new tactic.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“"We believe Rob Sellers' pay is appropriate for the executive-level position he fills at U-M and it is in line with the salary of others with similar responsibilities," Rick Fitzgerald, the associate vice president for public affairs at Michigan, told Fox News.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Speaking in the latest issue of DWM, he says:”— Moffat on Diversity in Doctor Who: “We must do better”

“he “wonders how the political leadership of [Louisiana] can support such a system with these poor results.” Without performance oversight since the G.I. Bill in the late 1940s”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“When we think about women in the legal profession, for example, we think of the first woman to attend law school (1869), the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court (1880), or the first female Supreme Court Justice (1981). A much more important tipping point is when law schools became majority female, which occurred in 2016.”— The Great Feminization

“Other writers who have proposed their own versions of the Great Feminization thesis, such as Noah Carl or Bo Winegard and Cory Clark, who looked at feminization’s effects on academia, offer survey data showing sex differences in political values.”— The Great Feminization

“experts practically heralded the resurrection of Jim Crow... This good news hasn’t been celebrated in broad media coverage, because many elites define “equality” as access to a few select brand names.”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“Retailers such as Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Ulta and Sephora signed the "Fifteen Percent Pledge," committing to reserve 15% of shelf space exclusively for Black-owned brands. More than seventy major corporations — including competitors like Nike, Levi Strauss, Ralph Lauren and American Eagle — signed the "Count Us In" pledge”— Corporate America has decided that DEI needs to DIE

“Buried in the editorial page of the Nov. 16 Wall Street Journal was a remarkable essay, which exposes the true, and hidden, story of who is really “underrepresented” in our elite schools”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“This has been a cause of protests at Harvard, as Hispanics and African-Americans insist on more proportional representation.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“At some institutions, affinity graduations are a long-standing tradition that have opened the doors for students of color to honor their heritage and cultures. These ceremonies bring together families, community members, faculty, staff, student groups, businesses, and policymakers committed to celebrating diversity and equity in higher education.”— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“reducing the power held by students and untenured faculty; reducing the power held by faculty (whether tenured or untenured) and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“both admissions programs were found permissible under the Equal Protection Clause and this Court's precedents.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“becoming at least the second major law firm to take the step”— Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suits

“Guidance on Harvard’s website notes that the program is only open to gay and minority freshmen. Bates College’s Center for Purposeful Work flagged the program in a seven-page diversity internship handout.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“Utah Governor Cox takes question about whether the "Utah Jazz excluding white children from consideration for their scholarship program" "is racist."... Tune in to “Let Me Speak to the Governor” now at https://t.co/EuR9GW0YAF... The program was announced in January by Ryan Smith... on a podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN.”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“Strengthen efforts to assess AMA Federation and House of Delegates’ awareness and utilization of equity products and overall engagement with equity initiatives”— 2024-2025 AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity

“Colleges and universities across the country are evading a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies in higher education”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears

““Just Communities Central Coast” (JCCC) is such an “educational” black op. The reported outcomes of the “Just Communities” initiative tell us a lot about the impetus behind the course.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“In her opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor concluded that affirmative action in college admissions is justifiable, but not in perpetuity”— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“Electronic devices are both distracting in the classroom and isolating in the lunchroom.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“After separate bench trials, both admissions programs were found permissible under the Equal Protection Clause and this Court’s precedents. In the Harvard case, the First Circuit affirmed”— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“An alternative strategy, that of prioritizing essential or front-line workers, has been discussed as a way to provide more vaccine doses to those racial/ethnic groups that are hardest hit by COVID-19, because essential workers are younger and disproportionately include members of these groups.”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“These disparities have led some to suggest that higher equity could be attained by vaccinating front-line workers before vaccinating older individuals, who in the US are disproportionately Non-Hispanic White.”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“Don't enforce the rules where black students are concerned, they were continually advised. Let the blacks "do their own thing!" Don't compel them to produce identification cards! Don't require them to stand for the morning pledge of allegiance exercise even though it is required by state law!”— Race War In High School

“implementing a test-blind policy encouraged more first-generation and underrepresented high school students to apply”— Diversifying College Admissions: Why Test-Optional Is Not as Effective

“By October 2020, CBS was reporting that “A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities are abandoning ACT and SAT scores as part of their admissions process,” and attributing this decision to the fact that the virus led to widespread cancellation of these tests.”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“Both the post–George-Floyd’s-death reckoning and the coronavirus helped supercharge a long-running effort to raise awareness about the supposedly discriminatory nature of this type of standardized testing.”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“The Wokeness Wars are flaring up again, largely, I think, as a result of last week’s election results and the decision of seemingly every progressive blue check to simultaneously opine this week”— If You Believe In Structural Racism, You Believe In Pipeline Problems

“CNBC posted an article last week headlined “Former Stanford admissions officer: ‘Well-rounded is not enough’—here’s how to really stand out.””— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

Resulting Policies

The University of California regents enacted a test-blind policy for all campuses in November 2021, rejecting faculty advice and shifting admissions at places such as UC San Diego toward applicants from heavily Hispanic downscale high schools. The change was presented as necessary for racial equity and access. It produced measurable declines in academic preparation among entering students. Similar policies spread to more than eighty percent of four-year colleges by 2023. ^[1][45]

The Luevano consent decree signed in January 1981 banned written exams for many federal civil service positions after the Carter administration declared the validated PACE test biased. The decree required any replacement to show no adverse impact, a standard no subsequent test met. It bound the Office of Personnel Management and executive agencies for more than forty years, forcing reliance on resumes, interviews, and subjective biodata. The Trump administration moved to vacate the decree in 2025. ^[2][6]

Harvard University maintained race-conscious admissions in which first readers assigned overall scores considering race, subcommittees and the full committee reviewed racial composition to avoid dramatic drop-offs in minority enrollment, and the final lop stage used race as a determinative tip for many Black and Hispanic applicants. The policy was justified under the diversity rationale upheld in Grutter. The Supreme Court struck it down in 2023 for failing strict scrutiny. Elite institutions continued test-optional practices afterward as a workaround. ^[28][39]

The American Medical Association adopted enterprise-wide health equity goals that declared racism a root cause of disparities and transformed medical education to address social drivers of health. The plan prioritized advocacy on race-based clinical algorithms and gender-affirming care. It reflected the institutional view that systemic oppression explained outcome gaps more than other factors. Similar equity frameworks appeared in federal vaccine prioritization debates that weighed front-line workers against older age groups. ^[32][40]

▶ Supporting Quotes (54)

“the politically appointed regents... banned college entrance exams... the ten UC campuses... weren’t just going “test optional”... they were permanently banning all applicants from sending in test scores.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“UC San Diego (traditionally, the third most prestigious UC school) clearly switched from spring 2020 to spring 2022 to placing a big thumb on the scale to benefit applicants from heavily Hispanic schools and discriminating against kids from heavily Asian schools.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“the Trump Administration has cut the Gordian knot by junking the Luevano consent decree last week”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“many selective colleges give preference to the children of alumni in admissions. We find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“we identify geographic disparities potentially reflective of admissions policies that disadvantage students from certain regions of the United States.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“And over the last 60 years, we’ve experimented a lot with spending more on black students than on white students without too much in the way of positive results after two generations.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“College Board has spent a lot of money lobbying state legislatures to pass laws requiring public universities grant credit for AP exams (usually a 3 or above).”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“the outgoing Carter Justice officials declared that no exam could replace PACE until a valid one without adverse impact on blacks and Hispanics could be devised. In the 34 years since, this has proven impossible.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“Until today’s decision, the College had a test-optional policy in place for applicants through the class of 2030.”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“the requirement in some U.S. universities to provide DEI statements in job applications.”— Feedback on DEI Plans at My University

“Maybe they will revise their Editorial Fellowship policies so they appear less discriminatory (but still implement discrimination in practice).”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“The equity plans therefore call for steering contracts and other kinds of federal procurement toward the administration’s favored identity groups.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“They also rescind numerous previous executive orders and actions from past administrations that aimed to promote diversity throughout the federal government.”— Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave

“Agencies must also "take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) of DEIA offices," cancel upcoming DEI trainings and terminate contracts with DEI-related contractors by the same time Wednesday.”— Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave

“Tuesday's order also goes beyond just federal agencies, and directs the attorney general within 120 days to submit "recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI."”— Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave

“One of these victimhood umbrellas is the LGTBQ category, which means that special consideration for federal contracts, grants, and other benefits will be awarded to individuals based on their sexual preferences.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“He said the university injects $15 million in total compensation to DEI bureaucrats, including $11.8 million for payroll and $3.8 million in benefits.”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

““We decided that the new companion was going to be non-white, and that was an absolute decision... Absolutely it would [be refreshing if the next Doctor wasn’t white].””— Moffat on Diversity in Doctor Who: “We must do better”

“funding for the state’s higher education, from all sources, has already declined by 4 percent.* However, that came after a 23 percent increase”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“the Louisiana Board of Regents is planning for slightly higher admissions requirements, although they will not begin until fall 2012, and not completely until 2014.”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“These proceedings were governed by written rules and so technically could be said to operate under the rule of law. But they lacked many of the safeguards that our legal system holds sacred, such as the right to confront your accuser, the right to know what crime you are accused of.”— The Great Feminization

“Today women are 33 percent of the judges in America and 63 percent of the judges appointed by President Joe Biden.”— The Great Feminization

“When the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions in 2023”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“the recent lawsuit against Starbucks, where Missouri’s attorney general alleged "systemic discrimination" in hiring and promotion practices tied to DEI goals.”— Corporate America has decided that DEI needs to DIE

“Since affirmative action was instituted, conservatives have battled for the idea that character, ability and excellence should be the criteria for advancement, not gender, race or ethnicity.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“Colleges that create space for meaningful affinity graduations and take into account students’ full life experiences, including their race and ethnicity, offer their campus community an experience that will be cherished for a lifetime.”— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“Merit-Based Hiring Reform. By August 2025, the University must adopt and implement merit-based hiring policies, and cease all preferences based on race”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“Harvard must end support and recognition of those student groups or clubs that engaged in anti-Semitic activity since October 7th, 2023”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“the Harvard and UNC programs lacked the “logical end point” suggested by Grutter: Both Harvard and UNC acknowledged that their programs do not have a “sunset” date.”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“CEO statistical research (logistic regression analyses) showed that underrepresented minorities (URMs) received significant preference”— Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions

“At least nine states have passed legislation to limit DEI programs or 'divisive concepts' on college campuses... The laws include bans on funding for campus activities or offices that promote diversity.”— Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021

“The goal of the process, according to Harvard's director of admissions, is ensuring there is no “dramatic drop-off” in minority admissions from the prior class. ... Applicants that Harvard considers cutting at this stage are placed on the “lop list,” which contains only four pieces of information: legacy status, recruited athlete status, financial aid eligibility, and race.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“In the Harvard admissions process, “race is a determinative tip for” a significant percentage “of all admitted African American and Hispanic applicants.” UNC has a similar admissions process.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“The firm’s $50,000 diversity and inclusion scholarship goes to students “who have demonstrated resilience and excellence on their path toward a career in law,” under the new language”— Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suits

“The Freshman Enhancement Program is billed as a four-week program to help rising sophomores better understand Morgan Stanley’s operations.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“The criteria for an award are that the student must be a person of color, a graduate of a Utah school, and enrolling as a freshmen during the specified semester.”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“Transform medical education at all levels to focus on preparing physicians to track, monitor, and address social drivers of health as a key part of patient care”— 2024-2025 AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equity

“Gov. Abbott signed SB 17 into law in the summer of 2023. The legislation cracks down on DEI in the state’s public institutions of higher education.”— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

“The percentage of Black students enrolled dropped to 5 percent from 15 percent, and the percentage of Hispanic and Latino students dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent.”— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

“At the same time, the schools are backing away from standardized testing in order to admit academically unqualified minority applicants, a legal expert told The Epoch Times.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears

“the curriculum imposed on students by the Santa Barbara Unified School District.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“If the Supreme Court follows through with O’Connor’s stated intention to ban affirmative action in 25 years, and if colleges do not adjust in other ways (such as reducing the importance of numerical qualifications to admissions), we project substantial declines”— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“Sometimes that’s for truly educational purposes — they’re working on an essay for English class, reading a science textbook in an online library, or taking notes in class. But not always. Even school-issued laptops often allow access to YouTube and streaming (like Netflix, Disney+, and Peacock).”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“Sticking with the status quo means lower test scores and more lonely students — not the outcome any of us want.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“When the 40-member full admissions committee begins its deliberations, it discusses the relative breakdown of applicants by race. The goal of the process, according to Harvard’s director of admissions, is ensuring there is no “dramatic drop-off” in minority admissions from the prior class. ... Applicants that Harvard considers cutting at this stage are placed on the “lop list,” which contains only four pieces of information: legacy status, recruited athlete status, financial aid eligibility, and race.”— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“Readers are required to consider the applicant’s race as a factor in their review. Readers then make a written recommendation on each assigned application, and they may provide an applicant a substantial “plus” depending on the applicant’s race. At this stage, most recommendations are provisionally final. A committee of experienced staff members then conducts a “school group review” of every initial decision made by a reader and either approves or rejects the recommendation. In making those decisions, the committee may consider the applicant’s race.”— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“comparing two groups that have been widely discussed for prioritization below long-term care residents and health care workers and those 75 and older, but above other members of the population: i) individuals 65-74 not in long-term care or nursing homes, and ii) front-line (non health care) workers.”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“At any given time there were more than twenty of them cooling their heels at board headquarters after having been "promoted" to a desk job at 110 Livingston Street as a result of pressure from black militants.”— Race War In High School

“Student demonstrators had been roaming the city streets all week... calling on students to join with them in protesting the make-up time which they felt was discriminatory against them.”— Race War In High School

“Early research from liberal arts colleges that adopted test-optional policies showed they didn't increase racial and economic diversity in the student body”— Test-Optional Admissions Yields Benefits

“By January 2023, Inside Higher Ed, among other outlets, was reporting that more than 80% of four-year higher-ed institutions were now at least test-optional.”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“If You Believe In Structural Racism, You Believe In Pipeline Problems”— If You Believe In Structural Racism, You Believe In Pipeline Problems

“The former Stanford admissions officer in question is Alix Coupet, who also worked at the top-tier University of Chicago”— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

Harm Caused

At UC San Diego the proportion of entering freshmen with math skills below middle-school level rose nearly thirtyfold to one in eight students between 2020 and 2025 after test-blind admissions and expanded access from under-resourced high schools. Writing and language skills declined as well. The university accepted 215 percent more students from downscale schools and twenty-four percent fewer from upscale ones. Harvard launched a remedial math course because freshmen lacked basic algebra and geometry. ^[1][7]

The Luevano decree prevented merit-based federal hiring for more than four decades, leading to inferior selections through subjective methods and reducing government capacity. Federal agencies abandoned cognitive tests in favor of resumes and interviews that are weaker predictors of performance. Attempts to develop valid replacements failed because of the adverse-impact requirement. The result was a less competent civil service. ^[2][6]

Asian American applicants faced twenty-eight to forty-nine percent lower odds of admission to Ivy-Plus colleges despite comparable qualifications, limiting their access to elite networks that dominate leadership positions. Non-Jewish White applicants from seventy-five percent of the population received only twenty-five percent of slots at Harvard and similar shares at peer institutions. The policies displaced higher-scoring students in zero-sum competitions. ^[3][20]

Louisiana's enrollment-based funding and loose admissions produced a statewide graduation rate of thirty-nine percent against a national fifty-four percent, with Southern University at New Orleans at eight percent. The state wasted four hundred forty million dollars annually on non-graduates and maintained thirty-nine percent more administrators per student than faculty. Grade inflation masked literacy declines. ^[16]

Mismatched students at selective colleges experienced higher STEM dropout rates, longer time to graduation, grade shock, alienation, and dissatisfaction. Campus-wide unhappiness increased with greater diversity achieved through preferences. The assumption also contributed to violence after forced integration in New York City schools, including assaults on teachers and students and the burning of teacher Frank Siracusa in 1969. ^[24][41]

▶ Supporting Quotes (53)

“Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students -- particularly in mathematics... the number of students whose math skills fall below middle-school level increased nearly thirtyfold, reaching roughly one in eight members of the entering cohort.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“Overall, in the spring of 2020, 2,878 students from majority Asian and white L.A. County public schools were accepted by UCSD. This dropped to 2,199 in 2022 (down 24 percent). In contrast, 1,601 applicants from majority black and Hispanic schools were accepted in 2020, but that exploded to 5,130 last spring (up 215 percent).”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students -- particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

““For over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division.”— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“Asian American applicants had 28% lower odds of ultimately attending an Ivy-11 school than white applicants with similar academic and extracurricular qualifications. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds).”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“Identifying potential disparate impacts of “Ivy-Plus” admissions policies is of particular importance, as alumni of “Ivy-Plus” schools are disproportionately represented in positions of power.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“So far, they keep running into the Missing Malleability problem: they can’t come up with replicable ways to raise black test scores relative to white and Asian test scores.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“decades ago a distant kinsman of mine aced his AP tests and hence tested out of his entire U. of Illinois freshman year classes. But the U. of I. is a tough college: So he then flunked most of his sophomore-level first year courses”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“Do the changes in performance mean that students are more qualified, or that the tests are easier? And in some subjects, does giving credit for some courses actually set students up for failure in subsequent classes?”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“Very few agencies use job knowledge or cognitive ability tests. … As might be expected with a decree that was entered more than four decades ago, the Luevano Consent Decree directly conflicts with multiple Supreme Court decisions from the intervening decades.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“Otherwise, agencies largely … act on their own, employing a tapestry of different assessment tools for various positions. … The most used assessment is a simple resume. Other common assessments include interviews and biographical questionnaires.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students... foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning."”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“The last two years, we saw students who were in Math MA and faced a challenge that was unreasonable given the supports we had in the course."”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“making universities even more politically homogeneous than they already were; reducing public trust in universities”— Feedback on DEI Plans at My University

“SPSP has gone wrong, all of which stemmed from its overt embrace of political ax-grinding. I argued that it promotes: Attributions of “White supremacy” to innocuous behaviors Demonization rhetoric Racial/ethnic/national discrimination Progressive virtue signaling Denunciations & censorship”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“award contracts to uncompetitive bidders, thereby wasting taxpayer money, impair national defense, and further hamper the drive for excellence—or even adequacy—in the nation’s schools.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“In the context of hundreds of billions of dollars in annual federal contracting and procurement activity, this contact-steering could damage or benefit countless businesses based on the immutable characteristics of owners and employees, as well as personal sexual identifications and/or orientation.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“As we explain in a new report, the administration’s 25 plans will implement discrimination as the official policy of the executive branch; make the government much less efficient; award contracts to uncompetitive bidders, thereby wasting taxpayer money, impair national defense, and further hamper the drive for excellence—or even adequacy—in the nation’s schools.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“"It's become a very expensive part of the university's bureaucracy," he continued. "Faculty have been concerned for a long time about administrative bloat in higher education. When you look at the cost of college over the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years, college tuition fees have gone up more than any other consumer product, good or service."”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“loose admission standards contribute to an estimated $440 million annual waste – an “enormous cost for little results.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“Eight percent of freshmen at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) complete their degree within six years, and the average across the state’s university system is 39 percent. That compares to 54 percent nationally”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“even it accepts 17 percent of its freshmen from the bottom half of their high school class. Stille... describes this as a “travesty for a research institution,” and a “disservice to the better academically prepared students.””— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“All of us depend on a functioning legal system, and, to be blunt, the rule of law will not survive the legal profession becoming majority female.”— The Great Feminization

“You might not be a journalist, but you live in a country where what gets written in The New York Times determines what is publicly accepted as the truth.”— The Great Feminization

“Elite colleges are first and foremost the playgrounds of the wealthy... The University of North Carolina “had 16 times as many wealthy students as it did students from low-income backgrounds.””— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“Worries persist about what’s known as the “cascade” effect... this collapses the numbers of Black and brown students at the schools that boast the highest graduation rates and post-grad incomes.”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“Nike is currently facing a federal investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations that certain DEI-related employment practices may have resulted in race-based discrimination against White employees... the recent lawsuit against Starbucks, where Missouri’s attorney general alleged "systemic discrimination" in hiring and promotion practices tied to DEI goals.”— Corporate America has decided that DEI needs to DIE

“the white Christian middle class is being dispossessed. If elite colleges and grad schools enroll 75 percent of their students from the small Democratic minorities while white Christians and Catholics, who make up 75 percent of the population, are relegated to 25 percent of the seats, there is no doubt who is going to run America in the 21st century.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“it is clear Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Mormons and Muslims are the victims of a bigotry so embedded Harvard cannot see it right in front of its eyes. As for the ethnic identity of Harvard’s rejects, it must include many kids of Scots-Irish, Irish, Welsh, German, Italian, Greek, Polish”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“As opponents of racial equity in higher education seek to divide us, affinity graduations bring us together.”— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“both of which are antithetical to ideological capture... audit those programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

““college admissions are zero-sum. A benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter.””— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Such programs, he argued, “do nothing to increase the overall number of blacks and Hispanics able to access a college education” but instead “simply redistribute individuals” among colleges and universities, “placing some into more competitive institutions than they otherwise would have attended” – and where they may be less likely to succeed academically.”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“Mismatched students disproportionately drop out of STEM, change to non-STEM majors, transfer to other schools, and take longer to graduate.”— Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions

“Some college administrations and boards may not wait for state laws to eradicate DEI programs in schools, and could defund them under pressure. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for example, is proposing to eliminate positions and restructure its DEI office.”— Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021

“In the Harvard admissions process, “race is a determinative tip for” a significant percentage “of all admitted African American and Hispanic applicants.””— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“as rivals face lawsuits targeting similar programs.”— Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suits

“Based on Morgan Stanley’s description, it appears that white and Asian applicants who are heterosexual are categorically ineligible for the program.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“The caller, announced as David from Highland, asked "The Utah Jazz is excluding white children from consideration for their scholarship program. Do you think this is racist?"... Highland, where the caller was from, has a median annual income that is a little more than $130,000.”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

““It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone,’ Abbott wrote on X.”— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

“the percentage of Asian American students in the class jumped to 47 percent from 40 percent.”— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

““JCCC’s discriminatory curriculum has led to increased racial animosity toward Caucasian teachers and students,” ... American kids can barely read properly or speak and write grammatically.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“we project substantial declines in the representation of African Americans among admitted students at selective institutions.”— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“In countries where students spent a lot of time using devices for leisure during the school day, test scores plummeted between 2012 and 2022. In countries where they spent less time, test scores merely slid. ... In countries where students spend more time using devices for leisure during the school day, the percentage of students who agreed “I often feel lonely at school” rose steeply.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“A school where students are talking to each other is less lonely. I recently visited a Milwaukee school with a bell-to-bell no phones policy, and students are now talking, playing cards, and “bedazzling” (had to look that up!) with each other instead of being endlessly absorbed in their phones.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“There had been fifteen separate incidents of assault against white teachers by black students, and an even larger number of vicious and sadistic attacks by blacks against white students.”— Race War In High School

“Suddenly, he felt a thunderous blow crashing into his spine. As he dropped to the ground... he sensed the burning flames from his overcoat which had been set afire by his assailants...”— Race War In High School

“only 16% reporting no barriers to taking standardized tests compared to 49% of their peers”— Diversifying College Admissions: Why Test-Optional Is Not as Effective

“the downsides to deweighting the SAT, and as a result, more heavily weighting other aspects of the admissions packet, are blazingly obvious and likely to hit poor kids the hardest”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“one of those downsides is that standardized tests offer kids from poorer, less “traditional” backgrounds the chance to demonstrate their potential via a widely disseminated and traditionally respected test.”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“The idea that in-the-moment discrimination drives inequality is a major cop-out that keeps privileged people comfortable”— If You Believe In Structural Racism, You Believe In Pipeline Problems

“Rich parents for 'equity'!”— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

Downfall

The assumption began to unravel when UC San Diego's faculty senate issued a report on November 6, 2025, directly blaming test elimination, grade inflation, and expanded admissions from under-resourced schools for the sharp decline in student preparation. A sample remedial math test revealed students unable to solve simple equations such as 7 + 2 = ? + 6. Harvard reinstated mandatory standardized testing for the class of 2029 after data showed tests predicted success better than inflated GPAs. ^[1][7]

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 29, 2023, that Harvard's and UNC's race-conscious admissions programs violated the Equal Protection Clause because they lacked measurable goals, used race in a negative zero-sum manner, and had no logical endpoint. The decision effectively overruled Grutter v. Bollinger. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it. Edward Blum's Students for Fair Admissions had brought the cases. ^[23][28][39]

The Trump administration moved to vacate the Luevano consent decree, arguing that it relied on unconstitutional racial classifications to achieve parity. Psychometric evidence confirmed that valid cognitive tests inevitably show group differences, making the decree's demand for impact-free tests impossible. Federal agencies had relied on weaker predictors for forty-four years. ^[2][6]

A 2024 peer-reviewed study of 685,000 applications exposed legacy and geographic preferences as the main drivers of Asian-White admission disparities at Ivy-Plus schools. Studies of sixty-five universities found no evidence that large DEI bureaucracies improved inclusion despite massive investment. Congressional hearings documented how test-blind policies served as a workaround to hide racial preferences after the 2023 ruling. Growing evidence suggests the original assumption was flawed, though debate continues on the best path forward. ^[3][14][35]

▶ Supporting Quotes (41)

“Why this fiasco? This deterioration coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on education, the elimination of standardized testing, grade inflation and the expansion of admissions from under-resourced high schools.”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

“In the appendix, there are sample questions from a test given to the remedial Math 2 students, along with what percentage got them right... “7 + 2 = ? + 6"”— UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Foot

““Today, the Justice Department removed that barrier and reopened federal employment opportunities based on merit—not race.””— Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decree

“Given the high yield rates and competitive financial aid policies of the schools we consider, the disparity in attendance rates is likely driven, at least in part, by admissions decisions.”— Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?

“it turned out that in the North that spending on black students was the same as on white students and Coleman still found sizable gaps in achievement.”— What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?

“Those days are gone. The transparency The College Board touts as a value seems to have its limits, and I understand this to some extent: Racists loved to twist the data using single-factor analysis”— Why are AP tests being made easier?

“The Luevano Consent Decree certainly fails the strict scrutiny test. … The stated goal of the Luevano Consent Decree was to “eliminate the underrepresentation of minorities in the Federal work force.” Under current law, this is discrimination on the basis of race.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“That’s pretty much the fundamental law of psychometrics: you can have a valid test or you can have a test on which the races score equally, but you can’t have both.”— Trump Administration does something smart

“Harvard announced today that the College will reinstitute mandatory submission of standardized test scores for applicants, beginning with students applying for fall 2025 admission (the class of 2029).”— Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions flopped

“Four of us went to the conference hosted by what I am pretty sure is the largest social psychology organization in the world — the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (hence, “SPSP”) — to tell warn them that the politicization of the society is either a disaster area (me), not yet a disaster area but at risk for becoming one (Luke, Nate), or not really even close to being a disaster area but if they want to prevent it from becoming one they might want to take these criticisms seriously (Anne).”— The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beard

“such racially discriminatory policies violate the Constitution and are illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These types of racial quotas are not only forbidden by law, but they are reprehensible and overwhelmingly opposed by the public.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“President Trump signed executive orders Monday and Tuesday that aim to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government.”— Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave

“A number of major U.S. employers including Meta, McDonald's and Walmart have wound down their diversity programs following a 2023 Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in college admissions, and under pressure from conservative political activists.”— Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leave

“These types of racial quotas are not only forbidden by law, but they are reprehensible and overwhelmingly opposed by the public.”— Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils System

“Greene said it's "shocking," given the large scale of investments, that there is "no evidence to show it's achieving its ostensible purposes of helping improve racial climate, tolerance and welfare of students."”— Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives

“Louisiana comes in at 39th in terms of admissions standards and 49th in on a broader scale, which also includes rates of completion, affordability, and student preparedness.”— Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Grade

“One book that helped me put the pieces together was Warriors and Worriers: The Survival of the Sexes by psychology professor Joyce Benenson.”— The Great Feminization

“This cancellation was feminine, the essay argued, because all cancellations are feminine. Cancel culture is simply what women do whenever there are enough of them in a given organization or field.”— The Great Feminization

“A recent study, one of the first to look at the impact of the Supreme Court case across a wide range of colleges and not just the Top 50... found that while Black and Latino enrollments indeed slumped at selective schools... public universities picked up some of the slack.”— Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globe

“A new report from the far-left Human Rights Campaign shows a remarkable shift: a 65% drop in Fortune 500 companies publicly communicating commitments to diversity and inclusion initiatives... The Federal Trade Commission reportedly sent letters to 42 of the largest and most profitable law firms”— Corporate America has decided that DEI needs to DIE

“non-Jewish whites — 75 percent of the U.S. population — get just 25 percent of the slots. Talk about underrepresentation! Now we know who really gets the shaft at Harvard — white Christians.”— The Dispossession of Christian Americans

“Did the SFFA decisions say anything about affinity graduations? No... On February 14, 2025, the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education published a “Dear Colleague letter” about race in education... there are specific references in both that document and a subsequent FAQ... to “segregation by race at graduation ceremonies.””— Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievement

“this letter incorporates and supersedes the terms of the federal government’s prior letter of April 3, 2025... during the period in which reforms are being implemented, which shall be at least until the end of 2028”— Letter Sent to Harvard 2025 04 11

“In a historic decision, the Supreme Court severely limited, if not effectively ended, the use of affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday. By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the admissions programs used by the University of North Carolina and Harvard College violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause”— Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions

“The Supreme Court's rejection of affirmative action in college admissions last year also emboldened DEI opponents.”— Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021

“Held: Harvard's and UNC's admissions programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”— Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher changed the eligibility criteria for its diversity scholarships”— Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suits

“"It is difficult to understand how these programs passed internal legal review in light of the clear statutory prohibitions discussed above," the letter reads.”— Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Program

“Cox may be clear on his points, as may be many of his constituents, but for others, whether they be David from Highland or casual onlookers from Twitter, it could be a hard sell to exclude children from academic and financial benefits on the basis of their skin color alone.”— WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarships

“University President Mark A. Welsh III later made a statement that was shared with Fox News Digital in which he announced that Texas A&M will no longer sponsor travel to the conference”— Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university president

““What it does not bring, as a consequence of last year’s Supreme Court decision, is the same degree of broad racial and ethnic diversity that the M.I.T. community has worked together to achieve over the past several decades.””— At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Ban

“Colleges and universities across the country are evading a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies in higher education, a congressional panel heard.”— Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hears

“the litigant, a Republican candidate for California attorney general, had a hard time coming out with it.”— It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCER

“We conclude that under reasonable assumptions, African American students will continue to be substantially underrepresented among the most qualified college applicants for the foreseeable future.”— Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Years

“In a recent paper, my students and I looked into these issues in the PISA dataset of 15- and 16-year-olds around the world. ... These results show the twin impacts of the leisure use of devices during the school day: declines in test scores and increases in feelings of loneliness at school.”— Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

“Held: Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”— Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College

“We show that prioritizing COVID-19 vaccines for 65-74-year-olds saves both more lives and more years of life than attributing vaccines front-line workers in each racial/ethnic group, in the United States as a whole and in nearly every state.”— Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?

“would see his picture on the front page of newspapers across the country and would raise serious doubts about integration in the nation's public schools... 'Disruption is positively related to integration. We found that much of the physical fighting, the extortion, the bullying in and around schools had a clear racial basis...'”— Race War In High School

“but that’s a ridiculous critique because what tool is perfect or profoundly powerful?”— Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recently

“It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores”— It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scores

Sources

[1]
UC San Diego Shoots Itself in the Footopinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer · 2025-11-12
[2]
Trump Trashes Carter's Infamous Luevano Decreeopinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer · 2025-08-03
[3]
Whom Do Colleges Discriminate Against Most?opinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer · 2025-07-19
[4]
What's the government to do about Missing Heritability?opinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer Substack · 2025-07-05
[5]
Why are AP tests being made easier?opinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer · 2025-04-09
[6]
Trump Administration does something smartopinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer Substack · 2025-04-09
[7]
Who could have guessed? Harvard's test-optional admissions floppedopinion
Steve Sailer · Steve Sailer · 2025-03-20
[8]
Feedback on DEI Plans at My Universityopinion
Steve Stewart-Williams · Steve Stewart-Williams Substack · 2025-06-25
[9]
The Singeing of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Beardopinion
Lee Jussim · Unsafe Science · 2026-03-07
[12]
Biden Administration Implements a Racial Spoils Systemopinion
David Ditch, Mike Gonzalez, Hans A. von Spakovsky, Erin Dwinell · Heritage Foundation · 2022-06-01
[13]
Trump signs orders ending diversity programs; federal DEI staffers being placed on leavereputable_journalism
CBS News · 2025-01-21
[14]
Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiativesreputable_journalism
Joe Schoffstall · Fox News · 2024-09-15
[15]
Moffat on Diversity in Doctor Who: “We must do better”reputable_journalism
Doctor Who TV · 2016-05-30
[16]
Louisiana’s Higher Education System Not Making the Gradereputable_journalism
Fergus Hodgson · Pelican Institute for Public Policy · 2010-12-06
[17]
The Great Feminizationopinion
Compact Mag
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Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it - The Boston Globereputable_journalism
Rich Barlow · The Boston Globe · 2026-02-26
[19]
Corporate America has decided that DEI needs to DIEopinion
Anson Frericks · Fox News · 2024-12-01
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The Dispossession of Christian Americansopinion
Patrick J. Buchanan · buchanan.org · 1998-11-27
[21]
Affinity Graduations: A Mosaic of Educational Achievementopinion
civilrights.org · 2025-03-28
[22]
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2025-04-11
[23]
Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissionsreputable_journalism
Amy Howe · SCOTUSblog · 2023-06-29
[24]
Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissionsopinion
Althea Nagai, Ph.D. · Center for Equal Opportunity · 2021-01-27
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U.S. Supreme Court · Supreme Court of the United States · 1978-06-28
[26]
Grutter v. Bollingerprimary_source
U.S. Supreme Court · Supreme Court of the United States · 2003-06-23
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Anti-DEI bills targeting colleges have surged since 2021reputable_journalism
Russell Contreras · Axios · 2024-01-31
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Supreme Court of the United States · Supreme Court Opinion · 2023-06-29
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Gibson Dunn Changes Diversity Award Criteria as Firms Face Suitsreputable_journalism
Bloomberg Law
[30]
Morgan Stanley Under Fire for Minority-Only Intern Programreputable_journalism
Kevin Daley · Washington Free Beacon · 2022-02-15
[31]
WATCH: Utah Gov. claims it’s not racist for white children to be excluded from Jazz-funded college scholarshipsreputable_journalism
The Post Millennial · 2021-04-16
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2024-2025 AMA Organizational Strategic Plan to Advance Health Equityprimary_source
American Medical Association · American Medical Association · 2024
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Texas A&M axes trip to race-exclusionary event after Gov. Abbott threatens to fire university presidentreputable_journalism
Elad Vaida · Campus Reform · 2025-01-16
[34]
At M.I.T., Black and Latino Enrollment Drops Sharply After Affirmative Action Banreputable_journalism
New York Times · 2024-08-21
[35]
Universities Are Evading Supreme Court’s Anti-Affirmative Action Ruling, Congress Hearsreputable_journalism
Matthew Vadum · The Epoch Times · 2023-09-28
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It’s Not ‘Identity Politics,’ It’s Anti-White Politics - ILANA MERCERopinion
Ilana Mercer · IlanaMercer.com · 2019-02-28
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Was Justice O’Connor Right? Race and Highly Selective College Admissions in 25 Yearspeer_reviewed
Jesse Rothstein with Alan Krueger and Sarah Turner · College Access: Opportunity or Privilege, Michael McPherson and Morton Schapiro, eds, New York: The College Board · 2006
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Phones at School: Less Learning, More Lonelinessreputable_journalism
Jean M. Twenge · After Babel · 2026-03-17
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Syllabus, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard Collegeprimary_source
Supreme Court of the United States · Supreme Court of the United States · 2023-06-29
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Equitable COVID-19 vaccine prioritization: front-line workers or 65-74 year olds?unverified
Eva Rumpler, Justin M. Feldman, Mary T. Bassett, Marc Lipsitch · medRxiv · 2022-02-04
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Race War In High Schoolprimary_source
Harold Saltzman · Arlington House · 1972
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Diversifying College Admissions: Why Test-Optional Is Not as Effectivereputable_journalism
SSP International · 2024-01-01
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Test-Optional Admissions Yields Benefitsreputable_journalism
Inside Higher Ed · 2021-04-19
[44]
University Readiness Assessments and Equity in College Admissionspeer_reviewed
SREE · 2023-01-01
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Let's Discuss One Of The Worst Ideas Influential Public Intellectuals Have Embraced Recentlyopinion
Jesse Singal · Substack · 2024-02-28
[46]
If You Believe In Structural Racism, You Believe In Pipeline Problemsopinion
Jesse Singal · Substack · 2021-11-12
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It Probably Makes More Sense To Banish College Admissions Essays Than To Banish SAT Scoresopinion
Jesse Singal · Substack · 2021-10-25

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ID: FA-20260225-7825449c · Created: 2026-02-25T21:34:26.929910 · Schema v3