Discriminations

Last September, based on reporting by Peter Schmidt of the Chronicle of Higher Education, I discussed (here) the lawsuit by the Center for Individual Rights against the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and Virginia Commonwealth University for running a racially exclusive summer journalism internship program.

Today CIR announced that it has dismissed its case.

Today the Dow Jones News Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University and Media General Corp. agreed to drop all racial restrictions on participants in the Urban Journalism Workshop summer program that they jointly co-sponsored. The summer program provides two weeks of hands-on journalism training for high school students....

The VCU program is one of dozens of identical programs funded by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, a non-profit foundation affiliated with Dow Jones, Inc. and named as a defendant in CIR's suit. Since the first such program in the late 1960’s, Dow Jones has funded urban journalism workshops exclusively for minority students.

Pursuant to today's settlement, Dow Jones agreed to operate all of its summer journalism workshops without regard to the race. The agreement covers selection of participants, faculty and staff and the use of publicizing material. For the next three years, program materials will conspicuously include a statement to the effect that the program has been changed to eliminate any racial preference.

The original suit was filed on behalf of Emily Smith, a 15 year old white journalism student who was denied entry into the program. Thanks to CIR, Ms. Smith will be an intern this summer.

UPDATE

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s report of this important civil rights victory is here.

UPDATE II

And at InsideHigherEd, the always predictable Scott Jaschik describes the civil rights victory in a headline as a “Defeat For Affirmative Action.”

Curiously, Jaschik writes:

Under the agreement, all 27 programs — which in the past have focused on minority students — will be opened to white students.

“Focused on minority students”? Most of these programs, including the one at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond that was a party to the suit, excluded non-minorities.

Most of Jaschik’s article, however, is not about the settlement. It is a compilation of the laments of preferentialists who resent it. My favorite was the concluding paragraph, quoting University of Virginia “diversity” czar and newly elected president of the new National Association of Diversity Officers, William Harvey:

“I think it’s very disturbing. The misnamed Center for Individual Rights has a perspective and approach that is entirely in error and that is that everyone has an equal opportunity for advancement today.”

CIR, of course, does not believe that “everyone has an equal opportunity for advancement today,” but it, unlike Mr. Harvey et. al., does believe that everyone should, regardless of race, creed, or color.

Of course, if people believe that an organization (such as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) that supports eliminating preferences based on race is not a civil rights organization, why should we expect them to believe that an organization (such as the Center for Individual Rights) that supports an individual’s right to be free from racial discrimination believes in individual rights?