Here's the thing about principles: If something is wrong on principle, its always wrong, no matter how you shuffle things around. Racial considerations in college scholarships, for example, are not permitted under Title VI because they are wrong in principle. It does not and should not matter in what direction the discrimination points; it's wrong.
That's what two Oklahoma nursing schools don't seem to understand. These two schools, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and Northeastern State University, are offering nursing scholarships that are limited to Native American applicants. That is discrimination based on race, and that is wrong on principle.
Two Oklahoma universities are facing a civil rights complaint from the medical advocacy group Do No Harm over their efforts to increase the number of Native American nurses.
This complaint alleges that Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and Northeastern State University “are unlawfully discriminating against white students and other races they disfavor” by administering a race-based scholarship.
The Northeast Oklahoma Recruitment and Advancement of American Indians into Nursing scholarship is available only to American Indian students, according to the program’s webpage.
The program also states that it aims to increase the number of Native American nurses and prepare them to serve in Indian health facilities following graduation.
You can view the complaint here. The complaint states in part:
Pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Do No Harm files this complaint against Northeastern State University (NSU) and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO)—two public institutions of higher learning in Oklahoma that administer the Northeast Oklahoma Recruitment and Advancement of American Indians into Nursing (NEORAAIN) program scholarship.1 Through the NEORAAIN scholarship program, these institutions are unlawfully discriminating against white students and other races they disfavor. As the schools candidly admit, this nursing scholarship is available only to “American Indian students.” Other races need not apply.
That blatant discrimination is illegal. Racial discrimination is “invidious in all contexts.” SFFA v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181, 214 (2023) (cleaned up). As public schools, NSU and NEO both accept federal funds. They are, therefore, subject to Title VI, which prohibits them from “us[ing] race as a factor” in their activities, including in awarding scholarship funds to students. Id. at 204 (cleaned up).
This seems like a pretty cut-and-dried case.
Here's the thing: one might say that the Native nations, if they prefer Native nurses in their clinics and facilities, may themselves want to underwrite nursing degrees for their people. Title VI states that discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or religion is barred; it's not clear if the various tribal organizations may run into any Title VI issues if they limited such scholarships to registered members of the tribes. That would seem to be a slightly higher bar for a challenge, at any rate. Even then, though, for such tribal membership, one generally has to have a certain percentage of Native ancestry, so that may even be a bit of a stretch, if the tribe in question accepts even a nickel of federal funding.
This program, though, limits the scholarship to Native Americans, and that would seem to land squarely at the feet of Title VI. As well it should. Which makes this response from one of the schools all the more puzzling:
However, Jonah Fabian, a spokesperson for NEO A&M, told The Fix that the college “does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by law.”
“Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College complies with all applicable federal and state laws,” Fabian said.
Uh, Native American denotes a racial classification. Discriminating for or against anyone by any racial classification falls afoul of Title VI. I'm not sure where Jonah Fabian is coming from with this statement, but it seems to be around a 90-degree corner from reality.
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