The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a City University of New York program—its Black Male Initiative—for alleged racial discrimination. DOJ officials said the initiative provides educational benefits to minorities, particularly Black males, based on race, while CUNY says the program is geared toward Black, Caribbean, and Hispanic men but remains open to all students. DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said it has not reached conclusions and noted the program includes “additional layers of academic and social support,” such as peer-to-peer mentoring. DOJ’s assistant attorney general Harmeet K. Dhillon said race “can never play a role” in distributing educational resources or opportunities. The investigation comes amid broader DOJ attention to DEI and race-conscious practices at universities, including declared efforts to find policies unlawful. The agency is still fact-finding; CUNY did not respond to comment requests. For institutions designing outreach, retention, mentoring, or pathway programs, the case underscores how compliance questions are shifting from internal policy to federal civil-rights enforcement.