'As a woman': Duke Law quietly pushes insane diversity statements for law journal applicants



Duke Law at Duke University distributed an information packet that puts bizarre diversity sentiments front and center for possible applicants.

More than two years after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, some major schools are still in the weeds regarding preferential treatment of candidates based on skin color or ethnicity.

This week, Duke Law's very own publication meant to produce "scholarship by premier legal thinkers" was exposed for heavily encouraging students to include diversity statements in their applications to work for the journal.

'To combat the lack of diversity in legal academia, I plan to use my voice ...'

Duke Law Journal has been around since 1951, but likely did not advise students to write about their Asian-American "privilege" or experience as a "Middle Eastern Jewish woman" in order to work for the publication more than 70 years ago.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, those types of topics are precisely what Duke Law Journal suggests second-year students write about in their application to become staff editors.

The Free Beacon acquired a 2024 information packet sent to Duke Law's affinity groups, in which the journal gave advice on, and provided examples of, personal statements that could help students land a position. The packet was distributed only to the affinity groups, according to the outlet's sources.

Under possible topics, the first suggestion given in the packet is "your upbringing or personal identity and how it has shaped your perspectives and experiences."

Then, when describing how the personal statements are graded, the first point asks students how a person's perspective could contribute to Duke Law Journal's goals of "promoting diverse perspectives in legal academia."

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The notes specifically mention being a member of an "underrepresented or marginalized group" or a "non-traditional student" as being worth mentioning.

The packet then suggests students write about ways in which they have "meaningfully advanced the interests of diverse communities."

These suggestions are immediately followed by personal statement examples, which journalist Aaron Sibarium included in a series of posts on X. The samples included redacted portions, signaling that they were from real applicants.

The first example began, "To combat the lack of diversity in legal academia, I plan to use my voice at Duke Law Journals, through article selection, critiques, and writing my note on pertinent legal issues that affect the Asian-American community."

The statement sample continued, saying that the student wanted to ensure diversity in the legal academic profession, while advocating for "institutional and issue-area diversity."

The second sample personal statement explained how the student's experience could "be useful in promoting diversity," adding that "Asian-Americans" need to have community leaders who "understand and reflect our experiences."

Yet another Asian applicant wrote, "As an Asian-American woman and a daughter of immigrants, I am afforded with different perspectives, experiences, and privileges."

Another applicant broke the trend, though, and instead claimed that her "unique perspective as a Middle Eastern Jewish woman" could "prove useful" as she explores her "intersectional identity in both academic and professional settings."

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Duke Law Journal's application process appears to reflect a current, disturbing trend of circumventing bans against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at once-prestigious institutions.

Harvard's law journal was also exposed recently for allegedly picking articles "on the basis of race," in such a way that the race of the legal scholar is "as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission," the Civil Rights Office wrote.

Duke Law Journal applicants, if they can make it through the process, can look forward to writing on an array of progressive topics. Under "articles you might work on," the journal included sample titles like, "Abortion Disorientation," "Reparations for Project One Hundred Thousand," and "Lutie Lytle Black Women's Scholarship Workshop."

Neither Duke's general counsel nor Duke University's media relations team responded to Blaze News' request for comment.

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Trump deep-sixed DEI — but is it undead at major federal contractors like Lockheed Martin?



President Donald Trump has endeavored to ram a stake through the heart of the federal DEI regime.

He kicked off his second term by requiring that the head of every federal agency, department, or commission see to the elimination of all DEI offices, positions, initiatives, programs, contracts, and performance requirements; ordering the government to eliminate DEI discrimination in the federal workforce as well as in federal contracting and spending; tasking his inbound attorney general with preparing a civil rights-focused pressure campaign against DEI practitioners in the private sector; and rescinding numerous race- and identity-centered executive orders issued by Democrat presidents.

While Trump has since enjoyed tremendous success in eliminating various DEI initiatives across the government, it appears that there is still much work to be done.

The 1792 Exchange, a corporate bias watchdog seeking to restore political neutrality in the boardroom and to educate lawmakers about the dangers of woke corporate policies, recently released an analysis of the top 100 federal contractors by dollars obligated in fiscal year 2023.

The report highlights the apparent ideological capture and woke policies of a number of corporate juggernauts on the list, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon.

"The American people have the right to know if our hard-earned money is subsidizing any corporation's subversive ideological programs," 1792 Exchange CEO Daniel Cameron said in a statement.

"President Trump has taken bold action to remove DEI programming from federal institutions, including government contractors," continued Cameron. "This report empowers government agencies and legislators to align procurement decisions with that vision of neutrality and excellence."

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 Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Of the 100 contractors that the 1792 Exchange analyzed, 36 were characterized as "high risk," 16 as "medium risk," and 46 as "lower risk," on the basis of "publicly documented alignment with DEI-driven policies and practices."

The watchdog noted that high-risk companies "have demonstrated a pattern of engaging in DEI practices that prioritize ideological conformity over merit-based considerations."

Examples of such practices include recruitment, hiring, and promotion on the basis of immutable characteristics and sexual preference; requiring employees to suffer through training sessions on gender ideology and critical race theory; and corporate alignment on philanthropy and marketing strategies with "progressive social agendas."

While some big organizations appear to have read the writing on the wall and reversed course on DEI — 1792 indicated that Accenture, AT&T, IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, and IBM have rolled back at least some of their most divisive DEI policies — others have dug in their feet.

Seven out of the top 10 recipients of federal dollars on the 1792 Exchange's list of U.S. government contractors were labeled "high risk." They were, in order from biggest to smallest recipients of federal dollars obligated: Lockheed Martin, the RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon), the Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman, Optum360, Leidos, and McKesson.

'Compliance with the CEI naturally leads to ceding nearly all facets of corporate governance to the HRC's influence.'

BAE Systems and Honeywell, though farther down the list, similarly appear to be big offenders in terms of DEI initiatives.

Lockheed Martin, at the top of the list, "yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders"; "implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes"; and "embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues," according to the 1792 Exchange.

Part of what gave the company away was its perfect score on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index from the non-straight activist organization Human Rights Campaign, as well as its receipt of the "Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality" distinction from the activist group.

Many of the scoring criteria for both the 2025 CEI and the so-called equality award appear to require corporate violations of federal policy.

While the watchdog outfit did not go out of its way to put CEI scores as a top consideration when assessing risk, Dustin DeVito, the 1792 Exchange's director of corporate research, told Blaze News that "compliance with the CEI naturally leads to ceding nearly all facets of corporate governance to the HRC's influence."

"1792 Exchange's company ratings center around six criteria: ideologically driven cancellation, charitable work, employment policies, reputation, funding, and political action," continued DeVito. "The CEI touches on all of these."

When pressed for comment, Lockheed Martin referred Blaze News to its Jan. 23 statement, which claimed:

Merit-based talent management programs and compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, contracts, and directives have always been central to this mission. We are taking immediate action to ensure continued compliance and full alignment with President Trump’s recent executive order. We will not have goals or incentives based on demographic representation or affirmative action plans. Additionally, our training offerings are compliant with Executive Order 13950 from President Trump's first administration.

The RTX Corporation was slapped with the same broad critiques as Lockheed Martin. A closer look revealed precisely why.

The company similarly rated high on the 2025 CEI partly because the company apparently "will not donate to non-religious charities unless they embrace controversial sexual identity policies"; requires employees to attend "multiple, controversial trainings on gender identity, sexual orientation, transgender issues, and divisive racial ideology"; covers medical transvestism costs for employees and their children; and publicly advocates for "controversial sex and gender ideology through local, state, or federal legislation or initiatives."

When pressed for comment, RTX directed Blaze News to a Jan. 24 company statement that said, "RTX is taking the necessary actions to comply with the presidential executive orders."

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Both Boeing — whose executive compensation plan the 1792 Exchange claimed "devalued the weight of product and employee safety in its operational performance metrics, in order to include diversity, equity, and inclusion as a consideration" in recent years — and Northrop Grumman also scored 100% on the 2025 CEI, meaning that it likely jumped through many of the same hoops as other "high-risk" organizations.

Blaze News reached out to Boeing and Northrop Grumman as well as to top "high-risk" companies McKesson, Honeywell, Leidos, Optum360, and BAE Systems for comment.

Northrop Grumman directed Blaze News to another months-old statement indicating that work was under way to ensure the company was in compliance with the president's executive orders.

"We are actively reviewing our policies and processes and taking the necessary steps to ensure compliance with the presidential executive orders for the work entrusted to us," said the Northrop Grumman statement. "Underpinned by our values, we hire, promote, and pay based on merit and performance, resulting in the best team to deliver for our customers."

A company spokesperson for BAE Systems told Blaze News, "As a federal contractor, we continuously evaluate our policies and programs to ensure continued compliance with all applicable legal requirements, including executive orders, and we will continue to hire, promote, and compensate based on merit."

The other companies did not respond by publication time.

The 1792 Exchange has invited any companies on its list to submit corrections to the data if they have taken meaningful steps to comply with Trump's executive orders.

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The Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 that the University of North Carolina's race-based admissions processes could not be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Between the time of the high court's decision and the Trump administration's clampdown on federally funded schools with racist policies and programs, the UNC System has taken a number of actions to dismantle its DEI regime.

For instance, the UNC System's board of governors voted in May 2024 to repeal and replace its policy requiring DEI at all public universities in the state; the university system eliminated scores of DEI-related jobs in September; and the system took further action to eliminate vestigial elements of its DEI regime to comply with the Trump administration's requirements.

The dean of students at UNC Asheville recently revealed to an undercover journalist that despite the appearance of compliance, DEI still haunts the institution. Megan Pugh, co-author of chapters in the book "The Black Professional Guide to College Student Affairs" was, however, swiftly terminated following her admission.

'So we've renamed, we've reorganized, we've recalibrated.'

In the footage captured by the conservative watchdog outfit Accuracy in Media, the undercover journalist tells Pugh, "I'm so glad that you guys are still doing equity work."

"I mean, we probably still do anyway, but you know ... gotta keep it quiet," responded Pugh. "I love breaking rules."

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Pugh, who claims in her LinkedIn bio to "center the teachings of black, queer, feminist scholars as well as other BIPOC thought leaders in my leadership, advocacy, and student engagement practices," appears to suggest that the elimination of the DEI office on campus made it "easier to maintain" and that they will continue until "they get mad at us — but they haven't done it yet."

When asked whether the school is supportive of her efforts, Pugh answered in the affirmative.

Pugh suggested that while they have not engaged in implicit bias training since the spring, her "hope and intention is that we can still incorporate those things, like, even sort of under a broader banner of, like, I don't know. I guess we'll see where it fits, but I try to include those things wherever I can."

Last month, Accuracy in Media published additional undercover footage that shows University of North Carolina at Charlotte assistant director of leadership and community engagement Janique Sanders — who received a certification in "anti-racism" from the school — similarly suggest that DEI activities were alive and well at UNC.

In the video, the undercover journalist asks Sanders whether "equity work is still happening." Sanders responds, "So we've renamed, we've reorganized, we've recalibrated, so to speak ... because language changes, right? But the people who have to be in the presence of, and in the space, don't change."

"I think that the guise that we're using in some regard is like leadership — in order to lead diverse groups of people, you have to know about diverse groups of people," continued Sanders. "We don't have to call them 'diverse groups of people.' We can just say that everybody has different stocks of knowledge."

"If you're looking for, like, a outward DEI position, not going to happen," said Sanders. "But if you are interested in doing work that is covert, there are opportunities."

'It's time to clean house at the university level.'

The university has cut ties with both Sanders and Pugh.

UNC Asheville spokesman Brian Hart said in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer that the university is "aware of a video in which an employee makes comments implying that the University does not comply with UNC System policies or legal requirements and supports employees disregarding such obligations."

"These remarks do not represent the practices of UNC Asheville," continued Hart. "The University remains firmly committed to upholding all UNC System policies as well as federal and state laws, both in principle and in practice."

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Hart noted further that "following a prompt review of the matter," Pugh "is no longer employed by the university."

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) told Fox News Digital, "The UNC System has made a good faith effort to get rid of DEI, but obviously the word has not reached the ears of UNC Asheville’s administration."

"Dean Pugh is a picture-perfect example of how entrenched this caustic ideology really is within postsecondary education. It's time to clean house at the university level and cast out personnel who believe they can act with blatant impunity," added Foxx.

The efforts to preserve DEI on campus are not subversive only because of their ban by the UNC System but because they are, in practice, divisive and counterproductive.

A study published in November by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University concluded that "while purporting to combat bias, some anti-oppressive DEI narratives can engender a hostile attribution bias and heighten racial suspicion, prejudicial attitudes, authoritarian policing, and support for punitive behaviors in the absence of evidence for a transgression deserving punishment."

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