The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) circulated a letter on June 23, declaring that it is illegal for colleges to offer residential arrangements aimed at grouping students by race and giving students the opportunity to live apart from people of other races. It was written by the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor. 

In recent years, this form of racial segregation has become known as “affinity housing.” 

In 2019, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) published an extensive study of “neo-segregation” in American higher education. We found that 42 percent of the 173 college campuses we surveyed offered segregated residences. None of these requires minority students to live in segregated dorms. It was an option, but an option that organizations of black students on campus usually extolled and that campus administrators praised as educationally and culturally commendable.

Colleges that offer this “affinity” housing often justify it by comparing the racially segregated residences to other arrangements that allow students who share academic interests, such as engineering, or social interests, such as environmentalism, to live together. The comparison treats “black identity” as the kind of shared interest that colleges should foster. Critics, including the NAS, point out that higher education ought to foster group identities that transcend racial categories and bring people of different races into easy, familiar contact. 

HUD’s statement opposing racially segregated resident halls is only a proposal at this stage, though it has already drawn criticism. Defenders of the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) agenda on campus generally regard racially exclusive housing as providing a psychological benefit to minority students by providing them with a way to escape some of the pressures of living in a racist society that imposes white social and cultural norms. 

Critics of DEI, including NAS, argue that such rationales actually feed racial stereotypes, exacerbate group tensions, and foster harmful insecurities among the self-segregated students. 

These differing views are likely to intensify if HUD formally adopts the guidance outlined in its “Dear Colleague” letter. NAS’s position is that this step is overdue. DEI in all its forms is a detriment to the education of all students of all races. 

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