University of Nebraska-Lincoln accused of racial discrimination for program focused on Black filmmakers

The Equal Protection Project, which was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case challenging Harvard University’s race-conscious admission policies, filed the complaint dated Sunday against UNL with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

In its complaint, the Equal Protection Project alleges a partnership between UNL’s Johnny Carson School of Emerging Media Arts and the New York City-based nonprofit Black Public Media violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act.

The Black Public Media Residency program between the two entities was a partnership to serve "Black filmmakers, artists and creative technologists" by offering them access to and training on emerging technology equipment and software.

The residency program, which ran for several weeks in July in both 2022 and 2023, "seeks to develop the talent of producers of color," specifically projects where "a person of African descent is in a key creative position" such as writer, director or producer.

William Jacobson, a Cornell University professor and the founder of conservative blog Legal Insurrection, which launched the Equal Protection Project in February, said requiring at least one person on the team of creatives to be Black diminished the opportunities for others.

"The racial discrimination of the (UNL) program is particularly pernicious because it requires that student teams organize themselves around race, with one team member required to be Black," Jacobson said in a statement. "This puts students in the position of choosing among their peers focused on race. Making students complicit in the discrimination is offensive and troubling."

Three filmmakers and artists — Eboni Zamani of Philadelphia, J. Bird Lathon of Clarksville, Tennessee, and Conrad Burgos of Buffalo, New York — were selected for the second year of the residency program funded through a $40,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which ran between July 10-21.

Because UNL receives federal funding, it is required to follow Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning discrimination on the basis of race, the complaint states, even if the discrimination advances "a benign 'intention' or 'motivation.'"

"Thus, regardless of UNL’s reasons for creating, sponsoring and promoting the BPMR, it violated Title VI by doing so," the complaint states. "And, because UNL is a public institution, its creation, sponsorship and promotion of the BPMR also violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."

The complaint also refers to the Students for Fair Admissions case decided in June by the Supreme Court, which found that racial categories were often overly broad and did not further the educational goals of an institution.

The Equal Protection Project asks the Office of Civil Rights to "investigate the blatantly discriminatory" program and implement penalties, including "imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue federal financial assistance."

Jacobson also said the NU system should "appoint a special investigator" to look for other programs that provide preferential treatment on the basis of race.

In a statement Monday afternoon, a university spokeswoman said NU has not received a copy of the complaint from the Office for Civil Rights.

"When we do, we will respond appropriately," the university said in its statement.

According to the Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights will review the complaint to determine whether it has legal authority to investigate or if the allegations raised have been resolved.

If investigators determine there are grounds to proceed, investigators can review documentary evidence, interview the parties involved or conduct a site visit to evaluate the allegations.

The office will then decide whether there is a preponderance of evidence to support a conclusion that UNL violated the law, or if there is insufficient evidence to support that finding.

The action against UNL is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Equal Protection Project this summer against colleges and universities that offer residencies, internships or other programs that give preference to racial minorities or other underrepresented groups.

The EPP filed a civil rights complaint against the State University of New York at Buffalo’s School of Law for its Discover Law Undergraduate Scholars Program, a four-week residential program for 20 high-performing students that gives preference to students of color and first-generation students.

In early June, the organization also targeted an internship program offered by the University of Minnesota for Black and Native students that has been in place since the 1980s, the MinnPost reported.

The University of Minnesota quickly renamed and relaunched the program, eliminating the preferences for students from minority groups, but that didn’t assuage EPP or state lawmakers who criticized the program as discriminatory.

The Equal Protection Project also filed a complaint against Missouri State University earlier this year, alleging the small business boot camp for women and people of color was discriminatory against white males.