The Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Latino promised Tuesday that it would not use racial preferences in one of its internship programs to settle a lawsuit brought by the American Alliance For Equal Rights (AAER).
The National Museum of the American Latino, which says its internship is designed for “Latina, Latino, and Latinx-identifying undergraduate students,” clarified as part of a settlement Tuesday that the internship would be “equally open to students of all races and ethnicities” and “does not use racial or ethnic classifications or preferences in selecting awardees.” The organization, founded by Edward Blum, the activist behind the cases that led to the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action, brought its lawsuit in February to challenge the program’s “illegal” race-based “quota.”
“Every student who is interested in this area of museum studies should have the opportunity to compete for an internship without their race being a factor,” Blum said in a statement.
“We do not discriminate,” Smithsonian Institution chief spokesperson Linda St.Thomas told the Daily Caller News Foundation, noting that the statement added to the website reflects “what had been our practice already.”
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 13: People cross country ski in front of the Smithsonian building February 13, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The lawsuit alleged that the museum never hired a non-Latino intern during the program’s two-year existence. It stated that the internship “impermissibly stereotypes.” (RELATED: University Faces Federal Civil Rights Investigation For Race-Based Fellowship Program)
“This type of race essentialism—assuming a South Dakotan with one Latino grandparent knows more about Latino history than an African American who grew up in Honduras—flouts strict scrutiny,” the lawsuit stated.
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