NYU website gets a makeover with some racist nonsense
Higher education under the Trump administration seems to be affected, but New York University suffered a somewhat different attack. The university’s website was hacked on Saturday morning, with the homepage displaying insults and racial messages showing exam scores classified by race.
Apparently, the hacker identified as X with a racial slur, something that the platform now allows (“@bestn*ggy”). The hacker attacked the university’s homepage, displaying the message: “On June 29, 2023, affirmative action in university admissions was declared illegal. But Computer N*ggy Exploitation (CNE) reveals that at NYU it continued anyway.”
The message was followed by a chart supposedly showing average SAT scores, ACT scores, and admitted NYU candidates’ scores categorized by race. Additionally, the hacker posted links to mirrors of the alleged data he accessed to show the scores, identified as “raw data,” editing or removing personally identifiable information.
In a message, the hacker stated that the data was “literally raw data from the NYU data file,” and “only the minimum (edited) is posted to demonstrate that they are breaking the law.” Furthermore, the hacker claimed responsibility for a breach that allegedly exposed millions of social security numbers.
The apparent accusation presented by the hacker and his racist persona is that NYU admits college students based on certain aspects of race. The theory is that some students would not be admitted if it were solely based on their exam scores and GPA. Some of the worst X accounts picked up the information to suggest that NYU acts with preferences towards students based on their race.
What’s the reality?
Of course, the data does not show that at all. NYU operates with test-optional admissions, so those who submit their test scores are already self-selecting and will only submit their scores if they think they could help them. Similarly, scores do not explain the disparity that affects standardized tests because children of wealthy people simply perform better than those from poor households, most likely due to the resources available to each.
(That would be the idea behind inclusion, diversity, and equity programs that seem to offend people like this hacker because there are extremely capable individuals in all social strata who simply do not have the same opportunities as others and end up being overlooked).
NYU posts its own data on entering classes, indicating that it has seen by 2028, following the Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action in university admissions.
All of this indicates that the hacker and those who picked up his data are lovers of the rule of law. But in reality, they are racists who want to punish universities, affecting the quality of higher education institutions.
