To start off, you might remember Colin Wright, the Evolutionary Biologist who has been a frequent flier on this site in the best way, taking apart transgender ideology with science. Mr. Wright is now suing Cornell University, alleging that he faced discrimination when it sought to hire a tenured professor in their Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Legal Insurrection has the story, as well as a link to the suit:
White Biologist @SwipeWright has Accused Cornell of Using Race-Based Hiring Practices https://t.co/JKK8A1df3F
— Mary Elizabeth (@marychastain) January 29, 2026
We will be honest with you. When we heard he was suing Cornell for employment discrimination, our devil’s advocate side came out and wondered out loud: ‘Couldn’t they say that they were refusing to hire him for opposing this transgender madness?’ In other words, they could plead political rather than racial discrimination and maybe even dress it up as ‘he engages in bad science because he doesn’t believe a man can become a woman!’ Of course, to most readers on this site, that is good science, but you have to remember that this case would be tried in New York City, so the courts there might accept that argument. Sigh.
But those concerns were misplaced. According to the lawsuit, they didn’t give him enough of a chance to be rejected for his ‘controversial’ belief that a girl can’t magically become a boy. What the lawsuit alleges is that they ran a secret hiring process—contrary to university policy—and basically refused to even consider hiring a white person. So, Wright allegedly didn’t even know to apply, in order to be rejected based on anything but his race. Indeed, according to the complaint, they also didn’t like most Asians:
48. Fourteen of the 25 candidates are listed as ‘Black.’ One is listed as ‘Black, Disability.’ One is listed as ‘Black, Latina.’ One is listed as ‘Latina Black.’ Five of the 25 candidates are listed as ‘Latina.’ One is listed as ‘Latina, American Indian.’ One is listed as ‘Latina LGBTQ.’ And one is listed as ‘Southeast Asian.’
…
108. Thus, Cornell intentionally discriminated against Dr. Wright and other whites and most Asians based on their race, color, and national origin. Cornell University openly referred to those it wanted to hire as members of ‘underrepresented racial/ethnic groups,’ explicitly communicating that the individual would be hired based on his or her status as a minority race and/or ethnicity.
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We previously covered how the Supreme Court made it very difficult for colleges to practice affirmative action in college admissions. It doesn’t necessarily follow that the Supreme Court will take an equally dim view in college employment. But we are struck by the fact that once again, affirmative action is allegedly working against many kinds of Asians—and we think that was crucial in turning the courts further against affirmative action, because it exposed affirmative action as the grubby race-based spoils system that it was.
More basically, if the allegations are true, this is the kind of affirmative action program that wouldn’t pass muster even under the views of most liberal Supreme Court justices in the past. They often say that this cannot be a crude quota—that it can only be at most a preference. Refusing to even consider white candidates—and allegedly, certain kinds of Asian candidates—is functionally a quota of zero from those groups.
Of course, that is all based on the assumption that every allegation in the complaint is true. You should never make that assumption. We have seen cases where the complaint filed in a lawsuit contained one damning allegation after another, and then it all turned out to be false—often reversing who is right and who is wrong. So, take what is said in any complaint with a grin of salt. But if Wright and his lawyers can prove what they are alleging, Cornell is in serious trouble.
And for the record, white people can win racial discrimination cases. On its face, federal civil rights law protects white people equally. For instance, in blue, blue New Jersey a white Starbucks manager won over $25 million dollars in damages when a jury found that they discriminated against her by race following a high profile racial controversy.
In any case, here is Mr. Wright announcing the lawsuit:
🚨ANNOUNCEMENT: I’ve taken legal action against Cornell University for racial discrimination.
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) July 30, 2025
Represented by @A1Policy, I’ve filed an EEOC complaint after leaked internal emails revealed Cornell secretly ran a faculty search in my exact field (evolutionary biology) specifically… pic.twitter.com/kGwF0U8So2
The cut off text:
Represented by @A1Policy, I’ve filed an EEOC complaint after leaked internal emails revealed Cornell secretly ran a faculty search in my exact field (evolutionary biology) specifically to make a ‘diversity hire.’
The committee privately reached out to pre-selected ‘diverse’ candidates, one at a time, to bypass open competition. Qualified white applicants like myself were excluded from even applying.
This is a direct and egregious violation of my civil rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Imagine if the races were reversed:
- A secret search designed to hire only white candidates
- Qualified Black applicants deliberately excluded
- Internal emails spelling it all out
It would be a national scandal. That’s exactly what happened—except I’m white.
I spent 12+ years building my career. None of that mattered because of my skin color.
This isn’t just about me. Race-based hiring erodes trust in science, undermines excellence, and has demoralized a generation of qualified scholars.
This must end.
Let my case serve as a warning that there is a price for violating civil rights.
He ends with a link to a Wall Street Journal piece announcing the suit—probably written at least with the approval of his lawyers from America First Policy. Meanwhile we get to hear from the ‘Chief Legal Affairs Officer’ from the same organization. She’s not technically signed onto the complaint but there can be little doubt that she knows a great deal about the case, so this thread is illuminating:
BREAKING: The @A1Policy has filed a federal lawsuit against Cornell University on behalf of Dr. Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) for unlawful employment discrimination.
— Leigh Ann O'Neill (@LaLONeill) January 28, 2026
Our complaint details previously undisclosed internal documents showing that Cornell ranked faculty candidates…
The cut off text:
Our complaint details previously undisclosed internal documents showing that Cornell ranked faculty candidates using a literal ‘diversity axis.’ Race, ethnicity, and identity were the gatekeepers.
She also includes a link to a Washington Post article, we guess as an act of charity as their newsroom circles the drain. Heh.
Cornell officials were explicit about avoiding a fair hiring process altogether:
— Leigh Ann O'Neill (@LaLONeill) January 28, 2026
"The [Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion] is concerned about us having a Search dynamic. What we should be doing is inviting one person whom we have identified as being somebody that we…
The cut off text:
What we should be doing is inviting one person whom we have identified as being somebody that we would like to join our department and not have that person in competition with others.’
Faculty received emails attaching a spreadsheet ranking candidates by a “diversity axis.”
— Leigh Ann O'Neill (@LaLONeill) January 28, 2026
Of the 25 candidates listed, all were marked as either black, Latina, LGBTQ, disability, American Indian, or Southeast Asian; not a single one had “white” listed by his or her name—and this…
The cut off text:
Of the 25 candidates listed, all were marked as either black, Latina, LGBTQ, disability, American Indian, or Southeast Asian; not a single one had ‘white’ listed by his or her name—and this was by design.
The suit is filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York. Dr. Wright is asking the court to declare that Cornell's employment practice violates Title VII and the New York State Human Rights Law.
— Leigh Ann O'Neill (@LaLONeill) January 28, 2026
Finally, we want to reiterate that this is what makes Elizabeth Warren’s fake native American nonsense odious and her claims that it didn’t help her get hired complete nonsense. Whatever one feels about affirmative action, faking being in a minority in order to steal an affirmative action seat from an actual minority is low—doubly so for a leftist politician who explicitly supports affirmative action. And that is very obviously what she did—it strains credibility to claim otherwise.
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