Recently, a handful of top medical schools in New York have faced backlash for making it more difficult for white and Asian students to gain access to their courses. Six different medical schools in New York face civil rights complaints for allegedly making it easier for blacks to be admitted into introductory courses over their counterparts of other races.
The medical schools in question include Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and other prestigious medical schools. The nonprofit organization Equal Project Protection (EPP) filed a complaint against the institutions over concerns with New York’s Science and Technology Entry Programs (NY-STEP) based on its admission practices.
The program offers educational opportunities for youth to get involved in STEM-related fields. According to NYU’s website, “NYU’s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) prepares New York middle and high school students for academic and career success through immersive courses and workshops on a variety of STEM subjects.”
According to the New York State Education Department, the program is clearly designed to specifically benefit “underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students, ” a catchphrase that often entails woke, diversity-based admission. The NYSED’s website states the program’s purpose is “To increase the number of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students prepared to enter college, and improve their participation rate in mathematics, science, technology, health-related fields, and the licensed professions.”
Reportedly, the program’s criteria of “underrepresented” encompasses students who are Latina, black, or Native American, leaving white or Asian students to prove that they fall under the category of “economically disadvantaged” if they wish to participate in the program. Founder of EPP, William Jacobson, claimed the program’s criteria for white and Asian students is illegal.
“Erecting additional barriers for some races and ethnic groups in and of itself is unlawful discrimination,” Jacobson said. “Imagine if the roles were reversed, and these programs explicitly favored Asians and whites — there would be universal outrage and these medical schools would never accept such funding.”
Jacobson further explained that the criteria for this program assume that white and Asian students universally have greater access to these kinds of educational opportunities. “The eligibility guidelines engage in the types of crude stereotypes that presume students of certain racial and ethnic groups are disadvantaged and in need of preference,” Jacobson continued.
It has been known for years that many institutions within higher education offer biased admissions to certain racial groups through affirmative action. However, in recent years, our education system has been further infected with woke ideology under the guise of “equity.”
More recently, there have been cases where some high schools have sought to abolish advanced courses due to a lack of representation from minority groups. That logic entails that if woke administrators don’t see that they want exact distribution along racial lines, they will bring everyone down to the same level, creating equality in mediocrity.
It will be frightening to see the long-term effects of the progressive abandonment of meritocracy. Something tells me it’s not conducive to the continuity of societal function if engineers, pilots, and doctors aren’t evaluated solely on their competence.
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