Lexington’s student’s scholarship debacle shows this is no way to run a government | Opinion
Every day under Donald Trump’s administration is chaos and confusion lately, and this week was no exception.
Those of you following along at home may have seen my story on Monday about Anthony Jackson, Jr., who won a prestigious national scholarship from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a full ride at Kentucky State University.
Jackson, an exemplary student who wants to solve our food desert problems, found out last weekend that the scholarship, the 1890 National Scholars program award had been put on pause.
The reason? The 1890s Scholars program is aimed at getting students from underserved communities into agriculture jobs. It’s given to students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, some of whom are white.
But because it was aimed at correcting a historical wrong, it was a victim of an unelected South African billionaire’s slash and burn rampage through the federal government. It’s all a game to Elon Musk and Donald Trump, part of what looks like an attempt to purge women and people of color — and the programs that might help them — out of the government.
“Throughout history, African-Americans have been significantly cut out of agriculture,” Jackson said told me. “This program gives people who have equal qualifications this platform they need to be successful. I would say that I feel as if every single person who has the scholarship has qualified for the opportunity at hand.”
After people started to realize what had happened around the country, the uproar began. Then on Tuesday, the USDA posted a message that said the program had been reinstated. No reasons were given for the pause or the continuation.
Musk has said he would make mistakes, and he has. But more importantly, this is a terrible way to run a government, leaving nothing but uncertainty and fear in its wake.
It’s also terrible policy to go after programs like these that directly help students.
HBCUs were created as part of the Morrill Act of 1890 to force Southern states practicing Jim Crow segregation to offer educational opportunities to Black citizens, who in the post-Reconstruction South, were treated as second-class citizens.
Aaron Thompson, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, said it’s important to remember that over time, those schools have widely opened up to everyone, along with the 1890 Scholars.
“It’s a prestigious scholarship, and these young people are going into essential places that USDA felt were important to nation and the state,” Thompson said. “So those scholarships have helped tremendously to get more kids interested in agriculture, to be scientists and business leaders.”
The USDA website describes the program as being aimed at “increasing the number of students from rural and under-served communities who study food, agriculture, natural resource and other related sciences.
“Scholars attend one of the 1890 land-grant universities and pursue degrees in agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines. The scholarship may also include work experience at USDA.”
Chasing imaginary demons
The Kentucky General Assembly is still trying its own path of eliminating diversity, of course. So far, the bills that failed last year and are back again this session, are mostly aimed at organizational structures like DEI offices in public higher education.
But at the federal level, it appears that the DEI purge could be significantly more dire.
On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to get rid of any programs that even might be related to helping historically marginalized groups. The letter said “Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.”
Some have concluded these policies and practices could include Black fraternities and sororities, or an Asian club. Or they could start to come after curriculum, like classes in the history of the civil rights movement, which is, in fact, predicated on the very real premise of “system and structural racism.”
“We want all students to be able to come on our campuses and explore the opportunities we offer to see themselves belonging there,” Thompson said. “I would not want any law or bill to stop closing gaps, or stop us from the ability to move our state, and all of our students, forward as a whole.”
In a way, it’s brilliant. Take programs that were aimed at helping historically marginalized people and say instead the programs are discriminatory, not the world itself.
In Trump World, there’s only room for white men, men like Darren Beattie, a Trump hire in the State Department who wrote on X: “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.”
That’s why we end up with mediocre white men like Pete Hegseth, the least qualified Defense Secretary in U.S. history who just fired the Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Navy’s top officer, who is female.
But why stop there? If you want to go after expensive programs that get federal funds and help minorities, why wouldn’t you go after historically Black schools themselves?
It’s not hard to see what’s going on here.
As writer Adam Serwer noted in The Atlantic this week: “The nostalgia behind the slogan, ‘Make America Great Again,’ has always provoked the obvious questions of just when America was great, and for whom. Early in the second Trump administration, we are getting the answer.”
And the answer is that young people like Anthony Jackson, Jr. are going to pay the price for this cruel war on imaginary demons.
As he said, “DEI doesn’t hand out opportunities to the unqualified. It ensures that the qualified individuals, who have historically been excluded, get the recognition, access and opportunities they have rightfully earned.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
