The message from Housing Secretary Scott Turner couldn’t be clearer: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. This week, according to a HUD press release, the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched a civil rights investigation into Washington State’s “Covenant Homeownership Program” — a race-based scheme that doles out up to $150,000 in zero-interest loans to homebuyers based entirely on their ancestry. If you’re Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, or Indian, congratulations, the state has a check waiting for you; but if you’re white, Japanese, Arab, or Jewish, you’re paying full price like a sucker.
“DEI is dead at HUD,” Turner declared in the same press release. “Those who ignore the law and violate the rights of Americans for political purposes will not continue.” It’s about time someone said it. For years, progressive states have been operating as if the Civil Rights Act was merely a suggestion — using taxpayer money to engineer racial outcomes while pretending it’s somehow justice. Washington’s program, established in 2023 as per state records, was explicitly designed to benefit “people of color and other historically marginalized communities.”
The income ceiling is set at 120% of the area median income, meaning this isn’t even targeted at the genuinely poor — it’s a handout to the professional class based on skin color. The mechanics are almost comical in their brazenness: to apply, you call a hotline and speak to a “Commission-trained lender” who determines whether your ancestry qualifies you for the program. That’s it; no means testing beyond income and no verification of actual hardship, just a racial purity test administered by a government bureaucrat with a checklist. Washington Democrats like Jamila Taylor, who helped introduce the bill according to legislative documents, framed it as addressing “generations of systemic, racist, and discriminatory policies.”
They cite racially restrictive covenants that were voided by the Supreme Court in 1948 and eliminated entirely in 1969. Here’s the thing though: using racial discrimination to remedy past racial discrimination isn’t justice; it’s just more discrimination with better PR. The Fair Housing Act doesn’t have an asterisk that says “except for programs progressives really like.” It guarantees equal treatment under the law — period. When a state creates a program that explicitly excludes applicants based on European, Japanese, Arab, or Jewish ancestry, that’s not a gray area; that’s a civil rights violation dressed up in social justice language.
Turner isn’t having it, as he stated in the HUD press release: “I will not stand for illegal racial and ethnic preferences that deny Americans their right to equal protection under the law.” “Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will vigorously enforce the Fair Housing Act and ensure all Americans have an equal shot at the American Dream.” This investigation sends a signal that extends far beyond Washington State. Minneapolis is already under a similar probe, per HUD announcements, and New York has been warned about its race-based college programs. The message is clear: the era of racial bean-counting as official government policy is ending.
The law applies to everyone, including progressive state governments that thought they could discriminate with impunity as long as they targeted the “right” groups. The Washington State Housing Finance Commission will now have to explain why excluding Jewish, Arab, Japanese, and white applicants from a taxpayer-funded program somehow constitutes fair housing. The Civil Rights Act doesn’t care about your intentions, your historical grievances, or your diversity metrics; it cares about whether you’re treating people equally under the law. For decades, conservatives have watched as progressive jurisdictions implemented increasingly brazen racial preferences while federal agencies looked the other way.
That era is over. The Trump administration is treating civil rights law as something that protects all Americans, not just the groups currently favored by progressive ideology. Secretary Turner’s investigation is more than a bureaucratic enforcement action — it’s a declaration of principle. In America, your race doesn’t determine your rights; your ancestry doesn’t entitle you to special treatment funded by your neighbors’ tax dollars. And government discrimination doesn’t become acceptable just because you call it equity.
DEI is dead at HUD. And based on this week’s actions, it’s not looking too healthy anywhere else in the federal government either. Providence watches over the bold.
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