FAIRFAX, Va.—Giving in to white supremacist grievances, the Department of Justice opened an investigation into the hiring practices of George Mason University over perceived “preferential treatment” when it comes to non-white applicants. The DOJ’s allegation parrots many MAGA claims about “DEI,” claims that white people are being robbed of positions in favor of those from marginalized backgrounds.
Such accusations aren’t new, and their existence stretches back to the victories of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s and ’70s. Only recently, however, have they been given the official patina of a full-on federal investigation. In a dark bit of irony, a DOJ statement on the investigation invoked Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which guaranteed protection against discriminatory hiring practices.
The Civil Rights Act was the pinnacle of legislative liberalism and a victory for people of color. However, parts of the act are vague enough that enemies of civil rights could co-opt the text as a tool of reaction.
The DOJ-led initiative against George Mason University is only one weapon in the arsenal of Trump and the GOP’s war on “inclusivity and diversity”—which many observers have branded a war on minorities, be they African Americans, immigrants, or LGBTQ people.
In the face of this raging torrent from the Trump administration, with a costly probe underway, the Board of Visitors at the university decided to give its president, Gregory Washington, a raise. The pay hike will bump Washington’s salary to $453,000. The move runs contrary to what many expected the Board to do, given that Trump’s DOJ was banging on their door and looking for someone to pay a price.
Washington became GMU’s president in the midst of both the pandemic and the nationwide protests against the killing of George Floyd. The latter seemed destined to spark a reckoning not only with discriminatory policing practices but with the U.S.’ whole racist past. Initiatives aimed at making space for a wider range of voices to be heard and faces to be seen—diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI policies—were implemented on Washington’s watch.
Washington has said that he was simply following a Virginia law established after the Floyd protests which required DEI in almost every facet of the university’s policy and functioning, and therefore, a DOJ investigation is unmerited.
But in 2025, politics have changed in the state. Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glen Yougkin has proclaimed that DEI is dead and buried and is running a state-level version of the whitewashing campaign the Trump administration has undertaken federally. Women and people of color who made history are being erased from government websites, and books about marginalized peoples are banned from school libraries for fear of angering bigoted parents and the wider forces of reaction.
For his part, Washington rejected the claims of reverse discrimination and refused to apologize for what Republicans are now trying brand “unlawful DEI policies.” In a letter to the Board, Washington’s lawyer, Douglas F. Gansler, wrote that “No job applicant has been discriminated against by GMU.” Gansler also called the charges “legal fiction.”
Beyond the letter and Washington’s own refusal to apologize, it isn’t clear whether or not there will be any formal challenge to the DOJ’s investigation or if GMU will just let the GOP outrage machine run its course.
If the university is found “guilty,” for lack of a better word, the Trump administration could and probably will use the results to push for funding cuts, which he has already done for Harvard University. With the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk becoming the justification for fresh Trump and MAGA attacks on the “left,” it is likely the war on universities such as GMU will slow down anytime soon.
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