Nearly 60 years after Congress outlawed housing discrimination, the federal government has had to remind America’s colleges and universities that racial segregation is still illegal. That fact alone should alarm every American.
In the letter, Trainor wrote: “The law is clear: When educational institutions permit the existence of racially segregated student housing—or openly encourage separation on the basis of race, color, or national origin, advertise a discriminatory preference, or have policies that discourage students from one race, ethnicity, or nationality from living with students who do not share those characteristics—they violate the Fair Housing Act.”
HUD’s guidance rightly reminds institutions that changing the terminology does not change the law. Calling segregated housing an “affinity residence” or a “safe space” does not erase the fact that educational institutions should not encourage or facilitate racial separation.
It is remarkable that such a reminder is necessary in the United States nearly 60 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act.
For generations, Americans worked to eliminate racial segregation from public life. The Civil Rights Movement challenged our nation to reject the idea that race should determine where people live, learn, or belong. It was not simply about ending legally mandated segregation, but about building a country where every individual is treated equally under the law.
Yet on many college campuses today, racial separation has quietly returned, and this time under different names.
Across the country, universities have established race-based residence halls, affinity housing, racially exclusive orientation programs, and separate graduation ceremonies. While often presented as voluntary opportunities to foster belonging or cultural identity, these initiatives revive a principle America once rejected: that students are best served when separated by race.
This issue extends well beyond university residence halls. Similar practices have become increasingly common in K-12 schools, where students have been sorted into affinity groups based on race and, in some cases, taught to view one another primarily through the lens of racial identity. Children have been labeled as either oppressed or oppressors based merely on the color of their skin.
Instead of emphasizing individual responsibility, equal opportunity, and our shared identity as Americans, many schools are teaching students that race defines them.
Yet instead of directing every available resource toward improving student achievement, too many schools have devoted time and energy to programs that divide students by race and reinforce identity politics.
This is one reason parents across the country have demanded change. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools were closed to in-person instruction, parents had a front-row seat in their children’s classrooms. They were alarmed not only by the decline in academic learning but also by the political agendas being introduced, including Critical Race Theory. When parents spoke up, in many cases their concerns were ignored and their voices silenced.
It is past time for schools funded with taxpayer dollars to return to their core mission of educating children in academics. Schools should focus on reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, and civics. Parents want their children prepared for postsecondary success, not taught to view their classmates primarily through the lens of race.
Students should learn about slavery, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. Those chapters of our history should be taught honestly and completely. But students should also understand the extraordinary progress our nation has made and the principles those movements advanced: equal treatment under the law, equal opportunity, and the belief that every individual possesses inherent dignity.
The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement is not fulfilled by finding new ways to separate students according to race. It is fulfilled by ensuring that every child is treated as an individual and given the opportunity to succeed. Sorting students by race and lowering expectations under the guise of so-called equity harms children.
Rather than investing time and resources in programs that divide students or reinforce identity politics, schools should focus on restoring academic excellence, strengthening character, expanding educational opportunity, and preparing young people to become informed citizens and productive contributors to their families, communities, and country.
America’s schools—K-12 and higher education alike—should be places where students, regardless of race, are held to high expectations, challenged to pursue excellence, and equipped to contribute to their families, communities, and country. That is the kind of education parents are asking for, and the kind of education America’s students deserve.
