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Is ‘trauma shorthand for Blackness’ in college admissions? Report sparks debate

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4 hours ago

May 9, 2026

A recent interview published by NPR appeared to suggest that people working in college admissions look for keywords that will help them identify Black students.

An April 25 NPR episode entitled, “In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness,” on “Code Switch,” a show that concentrates on racial identity issues, host Gene Demby spoke with former Georgetown University admissions officer Aya Waller-Bey about how admissions officers try to find Black students without violating the law.

Demby said the conversation centered on “How admissions essays are used to help colleges bring in the type of students that they want, how in the wake of affirmative action being struck down by the Supreme Court, that still revolves in a lot of ways around race, and what all that tells us about the kind of diversity that is seen as valuable and visible in the elite spaces.”

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Due to the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that using race as a factor in college admissions is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, Waller-Bey said that colleges are looking for other words to identify Black students.

During the conversation, Demby asked, “How do we know that they’re metabolizing in the ways you’re talking about?”

“Yeah, that’s an interesting question,” Waller-Bey responded. “I mean, I think, increasingly so universities have to really be mindful of their institutional priorities right now because of the constraints placed on by the federal administration.”

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“So I think identities such as first-gen and low-income are actually becoming incredibly important,” she added. “I think admissions officers and universities are trying to figure out how to mark students in the process. How can we identify students? How could we categorize them in ways that are, like, compliant and, like, constitutional? You know, because they…”

Demby interjected, agreeing, “Right, they won’t get you, like…” to which Waller-Bey responded, “Sued.”

Waller-Bey continued saying that college admissions staff are trying to look for other ways to find Black students.

“So I do think there is a desire to identify students,” she said. “And this is why the disclosures become incredibly tricky — right? Because the disclosures, to a certain extent — and this is what came up in my interviews with my admissions officers — disclosures give really important context for admissions officers, so they can advocate or create a rationale about why Aya might deserve to get accepted into this, you know, program, right?”

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Waller-Bey continued, “But the consequence is students are now saying, ‘OK, they need me to disclose so they can see me in this process. They need to know my background, my identity. They need to know I’m first-gen. They need to know I’m low-income. They need to know I’m Black. They need to know all these things so they can see me qualitatively now’ — right — because of the limitations post the 2023 race — decision on race-conscious admissions.”

A November report from Inside High Ed said that various universities still use diversity essays following the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions case and “have kept the prompts, saying they are the best way to get to know their applicants.”

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Bobby Cox, Iconic Braves Manager And World Series Champion, Dead At 84

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Americans to be evacuated from Hantavirus cruise ship as global health chief travels to quarantine island

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56 minutes ago

May 9, 2026

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17 Americans will be among the 150 people evacuated from the M/V Hondius cruise ship after an outbreak of a strain of Hantavirus as the World Health Organization’s head tells the public that the trending virus “is not another COVID-19.”

The cruise ship, which will anchor off the coast of Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday, will be followed shortly after by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a lengthy Saturday morning message posted to X, Ghebreyesus assured the globe that the risk Hantavirus poses to public health remains low.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” Ghebreyesus wrote.

“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he continued.

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Ghebreyesus claimed he would be personally visiting Tenerife, the Canary isle where passengers will arrive after evacuating the cruise ship.

“I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion,” he wrote.

“Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance. As I have said many times: viruses do not care about politics, and they do not respect borders. The best immunity any of us has is solidarity,” the WHO head continued.

Despite his assurances, however, Dr. Tedros also warned the public to stay vigilant against the virus which has already claimed three lives on the cruise ship.

“The virus aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes strain of hantavirus. It is serious. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families,” he wrote, though again reiterated that public health risk was low.

The U.S. government is planning on further evacuating the American passengers to a military base in Nebraska for quarantine and monitoring, Fox News Digital previously reported.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the outbreak personally, telling reporters Friday, “We have very good people looking at it. It seems to be okay. They know the virus very well. They’ve worked with it for a long time. They know it very well. Not easy to pass on. So we hope that’s true.”

“Our American passengers, they’re gonna be taken to Nebraska, to a center where they will be monitored. They will be isolated, they’ll check their vital signs, their temperature, their oxygen level, their blood pressure,” Dr. Janet Nesheiwat, a former Trump-tapped nominee for Surgeon General, told Fox News on Saturday.

“If they start to develop any symptoms, we can intervene early. Because as it is right now, there’s no specific treatment for this virus other than supportive care, like oxygen, fluids, hydration, analgesics,” she said.

Fox News Digital contacted the WHO and the CDC for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Brittany Miller contributed to this report.