The latest battle in the culture wars cleaving American society centers around diversity programs on university campuses, now restricted or banned in a growing number of US states.

The debate pits those on the left, who advocate for boosting minority students victimized by deep-rooted inequality, and those on the right who say people should be judged on individual merit, not skin color.

“The idea of present discrimination being the remedy for past discrimination... is inherently wrong,” said Jordan Pace, a Republican member of the House of Representatives in the state of South Carolina.

“We don’t like the idea of judging people based on immutable characteristics, whether it be gender or race or height or whatever,” he said, calling the United States a “hyper-meritocratic society.”

Often known as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs, many American universities had given special consideration to minority students — particularly those who are Black, Hispanic and Native American — as they sought to correct long-standing inequalities.

Last June, the country’s conservative-majority Supreme Court put an end to affirmative action in university admissions, reversing one of the major gains of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Now, Pace is urging his state to follow the lead of Florida and about a dozen other states that have scrapped campus DEI programs.

The primary target group across the country... are Black people,” said Ricky Jones, professor of pan-African studies at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.