"President Donald Trump has struck a different tone, suggesting that some of these workers "don't deserve" back pay and seizing the opportunity to fire others, particularly those who staff and run what he has called "Democrat agencies." One of these agencies is the Department of Education, whose Office for Civil Rights enforces laws such as Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act-which bars discrimination based on race, color, and national origin-in federally funded schools and colleges."
"On October 14th, more than two hundred and fifty O.C.R. investigators, mostly attorneys, were informed by e-mail that they were being laid off, the latest in a wave of dismissals that has decimated the agency since March. One senior manager, who described the e-mail as a "gut punch," said, "I am seeing the 1964 Civil Rights Act eviscerated right before my eyes.""
"To Trump, of course, gutting the Civil Rights Act is likely to be a point of pride, enabling the government to focus on more urgent matters, such as protecting white students from the purportedly harmful effects of diversity-equity-and-inclusion programs. The extraordinary lengths to which the Administration has gone to punish educational institutions for adopting such programs are familiar by now."
A recent government shutdown provided cover for political decisions that reduced civil-rights enforcement capacity at the Department of Education. President Trump criticized back pay and targeted employees in agencies he labeled "Democrat agencies," while hundreds of OCR investigators were laid off by e-mail on October 14th, part of a wave of dismissals since March. The Office for Civil Rights enforces Title VI, which bars discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in federally funded schools and colleges. A senior manager described the cuts as eviscerating the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Administration has also aggressively penalized schools over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Read at The New Yorker
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