"This vile racism carries a host of excuses..."

You know, sometimes I feel like I’m living in one of those silly reverse universe episodes of “Star Trek,” where everything up is down, and stuff that’s in, is out.

But at least on “Star Trek,” you know that foolishness will be interrupted by timely commercial breaks, and ultimately come to an end in 57 minutes. 

The disgraceful nonsense we’re all caught up in now, however, feels like it will last forever.

Take that incredible “vile racism” letter that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Dept. of Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent to an unsuspecting, so-called "woke" Duke University School of Medicine and Duke Health last month.

In case, you missed the story, or never read the explosive missive for yourself, here’s a sample of what must have rocked Duke University officials to their knees:

“Racial preferences in hiring, student admissions, governance, patient care, and other operations betray [your] mission [of health care and medical research] and endanger human lives. There is arguably no other area of our educational system where the rejection of merit is more dangerous than in medicine, where the competence of doctors means a difference between life and death for patients, and where scientific discovery  is the difference between life-saving uses and the ravages of disease.”

“This vile racism carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such “benefitted” races cannot compete under merit-based consideration. Like all racism, “affirmative action” undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws…”

Yes, this idiotically-written bullcrap goes on, but I think you have the idea.

Now this would be a stunning rebuke from the federal government if we were talking about traditionally fact-based findings of racial bias and racial discrimination from forty or fifty years ago at Duke Health. You know, the kind of insidious racism that unfortunately was, and still is in several cases, prevalent in many of our institutions, against people of color.

Even though our society has done a great deal to eradicate that kind of racial bias from schools, government and the professional ranks, there are still, unfortunately, documented areas of our society where that sort of tribal barbarism still exists.

Our public schools “…remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines (U.S Government Accountability Office - June, 2022)”; local governments continue to ignore the growing needs of the poor and low-wealth citizens they’re suppose to serve (US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development- May 2024); qualified professionals of color are still being passed over for well-earned job opportunities and promotions (Reuters - Sept. 2020), and access to needed capital or loans to grow small black businesses is still lacking (Forbes - May 2024, National Urban League - August 2025).

And don’t get me started on how law-abiding citizens of color are still, in this day and age, deliberately racially profiled and mistreated by law enforcement as they go about their constitutionally protected lives on the highways and streets of this nation everyday, years after the tragic police murder of George Floyd (NBC News - March 2023).

So let’s be clear. Just based on that handful of examples, backed up by the documented evidence I’ve provided here, racism against people of color in this country is still very much alive and well, ultimately meaning that, shamefully, we have yet to enjoy the full value of our American citizenship without civil rights protection.

TRANSLATION - I’m not aware of anyone flipping a social readjustment switch to make any of those injustices just go away. So as a society, we still have plenty of work to do.

But Kennedy and McMahon - two of Trump’s least qualified of his least qualified presidential Cabinet officers - weren’t referencing any of the pernicious incidents of racism that traditional civil rights laws were designed to combat. 

Hey, in fact, they didn’t reference any incidents, or evidence at all!

Instead, in their very polished, and certainly threatening accusation of “vile racism,” along with ruthless vow to freeze $108 million in federal government funding earmarked to go to Duke Health for scientific research, Kennedy and McMahon did make one thing perfectly clear - the “vile racism” they’re alleging is against white people, NOT people of color.

What was that wonderful line from their sinister letter of “vile racism” accusations again? “Like all racism,“affirmative action” undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws.”

Cruel irony of cruel ironies here - by what metric of so-called “merit-based justice” are Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Linda McMahon even qualified to serve as Cabinet secretaries in the first place, running huge federal agencies, but bitching about affirmative action?

Besides being white, and exceedingly loyal Trump sycophants!

Well, we all know what an “expert” HHS Sec. Kennedy is on vaccines, so much so that he literally fired a standing CDC panel of vaccine experts, replacing them with his own…you know…folks who, like Kennedy, don’t believe in vaccines in the first place, and then inexplicably canceling almost $500 million in important vaccine projects.

Guess the nation is in capable hands when the next pandemic comes around, eh?

And as for Linda McMahon, billionaire former president of the World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (a virtual spring of educational excellence and achievement if ever there was one), it's kind of embarrassing she’s Education secretary, yet shows up on Fox News not knowing what major programs her federal agency administers, or for a Congressional committee hearing, not knowing anything about the Tulsa race massacre or other chapters of American history she and her president ultimately don’t want white children to learn about.

In fact, Sec. McMahon was asked during that hearing by Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA) if teaching about the Tulsa race massacre in school would “constitute illegal DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)” history instruction?

Education Sec. McMahon’s response: 

“Could I get back to you on that?"

So here we have two white, ignorant top federal government officials, threatening to punish Duke Health for opening its doors to provide worthy students of all colors, backgrounds and ethnicities, an opportunity to learn and practice medicine, so that they can be of service to their communities, and mankind.

Has the severe lack of common sense here hit you yet?

Personally, I'm always gratified to see, and be attended to by a diverse cadre of qualified medical personnel when I go in for my monthly oncology examinations at another university hospital. Everyone is so friendly, capable and professional. I can only attribute that to their education and training, and that university's principled commitment to diversity. 

 If white people are being racially discriminated against there, I don't see or hear it. In fact, most times, I see white people there in charge. Fancy that.

But according to secretaries McMahon and Kennedy, the “vile racism” that they senselessly accuse Duke Health of committing “…carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such ‘benefitted’ races cannot compete under merit-based consideration.”

If that’s true, then what’s McMahon and Kennedy’s excuse for their "smug superiority" in landing the high positions they have that they’re clearly not qualified for? Being better than everybody else at kissing criminal Trump's ring? Is that all it took, besides being white? 

Hell, where’s the “merit” in that?

And from what I read, Duke Health isn’t the only institution of higher learning being challenged by the Trump Administration for opening its doors of opportunity and learning not only to African-Americans, but eager students from the world over who seek to learn, and be productive citizens.

Last Thursday, Trump signed a presidential memorandum “…requiring universities to submit admissions data, including race and sex demographics, to the federal government to ensure compliance with the 2023 Supreme Court decision that overturned affirmative action,” reported the Duke Chronicle last week.

“In March, McMahon placed Duke and 44 other schools under investigation for practicing race-based admissions policies in graduate schools…,” The Chronicle added. “One month later, the Trump administration issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. universities, including Duke, giving them a two-week deadline to terminate all diversity initiatives and stop using “racial preferences” in admissions, hiring, financial aid allocation and other practices or risk losing federal funding.” 

Columbia University has agreed to pay in excess of $200 million over three years to get reinstatement of its federal funding, and also to end its diversity initiatives.

Harvard University may also be on the hook for $500 million to get back into the good graces of Trump & Co., which likely also includes scrapping its DEI policies and programs.

Brown University reached an agreement with the Trump Administration that will unfreeze millions of federal dollars, and restore millions in unpaid federal grants and funding for medical and health sciences research. That agreement also requires Brown U to comply “…with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to prohibit consideration of race in university admissions [and] provide access to all relevant data and information to rigorously assess compliance with its commitment to merit-based admissions.”

 And UCLA is reportedly in negotiations with the Trump Admini after being hit with a $1 billion threat requiring the school "...to pay the federal government $1 billion over multiple installments, along with a $172 million claims fund for people impacted by violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin," reports CNN.

 N&O Associate Opinion Editor Ned Barnett appropriately hit the nail on the proverbial head here by stating in an excellent op-ed in Thursday’s edition that Kennedy and McMahon, on behalf of Trump, “…are trying to intimidate and gain control over universities it sees as bastions of liberal ideology.”

As always, Bro. Barnett is on point.

I have no doubt, given the Brown, Columbia, UCLA and Harvard examples, that Duke Health is going to try and settle their conundrum as bloodlessly as possible. But it would be a damn shame if they're forced to admit to something that really isn’t true.

Namely vile racism.

Let me be frank here. America is a greater nation when each and every citizen, regardless of race or gender, has, as former Pres. Barack Obama used to say, “a shot.”

When I moved here 44 years ago this week as a young, aspiring broadcaster from Brooklyn, NY, seeking fame and fleeting fortune, that’s what I was after - my shot at making a better life for myself.

Every citizen, especially young people of color, should have access to a good all-around education, and solid training in the specialized field of their choosing, be it medicine, scientific research, law, business, technology... you name it. Sharing those tremendous opportunities for knowledge is one of this country’s greatest attributes. Our nation grows stronger as our knowledge base expands. And most importantly, we fulfill one of Dr. King’s greatest dreams - we slowly but surely eradicate poverty by ensuring that every child is properly educated, and develops the power and ability to lift themselves and their community up out of poverty, and the darkness of despair.

That can help a nation that only fifty years ago, would routinely, legally and shamefully, deny opportunity to qualified citizens of color.

Surely today, there's enough opportunity for anyone and everyone who wants to learn and work hard for their piece of the American dream!

But instead, we have a racist president who is actively and deliberately pulling back in the opposite direction of that aspiring greatness.

Why?

Because he believes that most white Americans are white supremacists like he is, and his late Ku Klux Klan daddy, Fred Trump, was.

King Trump believes that most white Americans are so ignorant of this nation’s racial history, he can racially misrepresent anything, and they’re so socially and historically asleep, they'll fall for it.

In fact, Trump actually once said, "I love the poorly educated."

 Sadly, the numbers show he has lots to love.

According to a November 2022 poll by U.S News and World Reports and the Harris Poll, 47% of white Americans remain unconvinced that systematic racism exists against people of color in this country. “More than 80% of Black or African-American citizens believe that it does, as well as more than 70% of Asian or Pacific Islander respondents and nearly 70% of Hispanics do,” the 2022 poll revealed.

The Raleigh News and Observer has reported that some group that allegedly goes around suing and threatening to sue schools, corporations and governments over their DEI programs, may be the likely culprit behind inspiring the Kennedy/McMahon letter to Duke, which means this is all part of some orchestrated right-wing plot to eradicate DEI off the face of the planet.

So what’s their “cogent” argument? That students and people of color are being "given" opportunities that really belong to white people?

Looking at that argument more closely, these folks seem to be saying that you’re automatically “qualified” if you’re white, because it's then naturally assumed that you've earned the right to even be considered for such positions and opportunities.

And if you’re not an "approved minority,” like Asian, or FBI Director Kash Patel-like Indian, then you automatically couldn’t possibly have “earned” any position by merit or hard work.

I guess secretaries Kennedy and McMahon are the best examples of this so-called white “merit” philosophy.

Or Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth, who proudly posts videos of his “Christian” pastor extolling the virtues of denying American women the right to vote; vows to spend $10 million restoring a torn down Confederate memorial at Arlington; and sends secret attack plans to other top government officials via open commercial online chat rooms. Now there's a lily white example of "merit" to aspire to!

 Or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a former governor in charge of managing the nation's huge public safety apparatus, who was caught flatfooted during a congressional hearing not knowing what the definition of habeas corpus - a fundamental rule of law enforcement and the right of people to legally challenge their arrest, detention or imprisonment - is.

For a lady who has people grabbed off the street by masked ICE agents and either imprisoned without trial or shipped off to other countries, you’d think Sec. Noem would at least have a clue.

 Guess we can all count on Noem to do her job properly.

For the record, and I mean this, I personally know of no Black person who feels entitled to a job or position solely because of the color of their skin. Everyone I have ever known, myself included, has taken pride in being properly trained or qualified, and working hard for whatever opportunity that has come their way.

 More times than not, I've seen them get cheated or denied because they were not the right color, or not part of  "the club," NOT because they weren't qualified.

Can the underwhelming and unqualified members of Trump's Cabinet and administration say the same thing?

And for the record, I looked up the definition of "vile." It means "of little worth or value" and "morally bad or unpleasant."

Somehow, I see that term more descriptive of Kennedy and McMahon's convicted felon boss - you know, the new high sheriff fighting crime in Washington, D.C., who couldn’t so much as spell "National Guard" during the Jan 6th white riot at the U.S. Capitol - than anything DEI has ever done to our country. Just sayin'...

I could go on, but I think my point here is made. That so-called “vile racism" letter to Duke Health is a cruel joke, as are Trump's bootlicking MAGA sycophants and their cohorts.

The sad result, however, is that many a deserving young person of color is going to lose out on opportunities and doors opened for them because of this foolishness.

I salute the August 6th open letter from Duke’s faculty, staff and alumni to the university administration urging it to stand strong against “authoritarian intrusions,” charging that the Trump Administration “demeans, degrades, and attacks... [the] milestone efforts” of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and Duke’s own well-documented history “to create a diverse and more vibrant learning community of students and scholars more representative of our country.”

The Duke open letter continued that the Trump Administration has now “weaponized” the very laws meant to protect communities of color, “to dismantle our democracy and punish the higher education enterprise.”

“We feel it is better in the long term to stand up to Trump administration threats, both for our university and higher education nationally. Now is not the time for institutional neutrality.”

 Given this most worthy Duke open letter from faculty, staff and alumni, I eagerly await the university’s response.

Trust me, Trump’s MAGA war against so-called “wokeness” is NOT some courageous struggle to defend America’s right to fall asleep. Instead, it’s a cowardly right-wing attempt to ensure that this country never again wakes up to the true meaning of its founding creed - that ALL men and women, are trulycreated equal!

That means the true greatness of America is being held hostage by people who singularly and unscrupulously see white supremacy as the way forward. There can be no other reason for this ongoing and senseless social destruction.

As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to racism, there is nothing more vile than that!