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The Columbia hack is a much bigger deal than Mamdani’s college application | A hacker has a list of millions of people by race. So why is the coverage about Zohran Mamdani
A politically-motivated hack on a politically-vulnerable school is flying under the radar
The hack appears to be politically motivated: the purported hacker told Bloomberg as much, saying they stole the data because they wanted to know whether Columbia had continued to engage in “affirmative action,” admissions policies meant to improve opportunities for groups that colleges had once discriminated against, after the practice was barred in 2023 by the Supreme Court. The Republican war on affirmative action is part of a broader push to undermine the Civil Rights Act, which is barely disguised as attacks on “wokeness” and “DEI.” Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order banning “illegal discrimination,” which targeted so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, a fairly broad umbrella of initiatives meant to make sure underrepresented groups don’t face barriers in schools and workplaces. Journalists have long struggled over balancing newsworthiness and sourcing — the 2014 North Korean hack of Sony Pictures produced a spectacular revelation about Hollywood’s war on Google, but also gossip intended to humiliate Amy Pascal, where reporters played along and effectively did Kim Jong Un’s bidding.
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