NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE O n June 29, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in its landmark rulings on the lawsuits filed by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
Not surprisingly, some ideologically driven liberals launched fierce attack on these rulings, following along with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s mislabeling them as “a step backwards” for the country. The Biden administration has even planned a summit on how to work around the decisions.
Most Asian Americans strongly disagree with this negative reaction. As an Asian parent and the president of the Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE), which has been leading Asian communities in the fight for equal education rights since 2015, I want to tell my communities: Striking down affirmative action is a historic victory for Asian Americans.
For decades, the race-based affirmative action implemented at Harvard and other selective colleges nationwide has caused tremendous harm to Asian Americans. In the forms of higher admissions standards, de facto racial quotas, and racial stereotypes, this discrimination unjustly imposed unbearable study loads and stress on Asian-American students, possibly leading to depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems among some Asian-American youth. Afraid of being discriminated during college applications, Asian Americans often have to hide our racial identity and our great cultural heritage when applying for college.
In the face of such widespread injustice, Asian Americans have been fighting for equal education rights in college admissions since 1988, when we filed the first civil-rights complaint against Harvard University. Since then, several Asian-American students have challenged the discriminatory admissions practices of Ivy League colleges. In spring 2014, Asian parents in California formed an unprecedented grassroots movement against Senate Constitutional Amendment 5, an initiative that would have given voters the chance to restore affirmative action in the state.
In November 2014, Edward Blum’s group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) joined our fight by filing lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He brought much-needed legal talents and resources to help Asian-American communities, the most politically marginalized racial group in America.
After Blum was viciously attacked by the liberal media, co-founders of AACE stood up. We united 64 Asian-American organizations and jointly filed a civil-rights complaint against Harvard in May 2015, exposing anti-Asian discrimination in college admissions on the national stage. Since then, we have been leading Asian communities nationwide, standing firmly behind SFFA’s lawsuits against Harvard and UNC. Since July 30, 2018, AACE has built increasingly large alliances (from 64 in 2015 to 368 partner organizations in 2022) in Asian-American communities and filed five amicus briefs in support of SFFA’s lawsuits at various levels of the federal courts. In collaboration with partner organizations, AACE has organized two historical rallies in Boston and Washington, D.C., to raise awareness and solidarity for the cause.
It been more than 35 years since Asian communities filed the first civil-rights complaint against Harvard. Now, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have finally provided equal protection of the laws to our communities. This is a historic victory for Asian Americans. Our children will no longer be treated as second-class citizens in college admissions. They do not have to work much harder than others to get into the same colleges.
As an American citizen, I want to tell my fellow Americans: Striking down affirmative action is also a historic victory for all Americans.
For decades, race-based affirmative action has created racial division among Americans. By not selecting the most qualified students for higher education, it has also undermined American meritocracy. And by rejecting many Asian or white students who have excellent academic performance, it has exacerbated our STEM-talent shortage and has jeopardized our technological leadership in the world.
Striking down affirmative action will help preserve meritocracy, the bedrock of the American dream. More important, the rulings will abolish the only remaining race-based laws, advancing America towards the colorblind society Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of 60 years ago. Instead of “a step backwards,” for the country, the rulings actually achieved the ultimate goal of the civil-rights movement. Going forward, all American applicants to colleges will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by their merit and the content of their character.
As America moves toward a colorblind society, AACE urges America’s political and cultural leaders to take concrete measures to address the failing K–12 education in many African-American and Hispanic communities. It is not meritocracy, but the failing education in America’s inner cities that causes a lack of diversity in higher education. For too long, the American establishment has used affirmative action as a bandage to cover up this deep wound. But it never addressed these root causes. In 2017, the New York Times reported, “even with Affirmative Action, blacks and Hispanics are more underrepresented at top universities than 35 years ago.” It’s time to hold those truly responsible for this accountable, and to thwart the efforts of those, such as the Biden administration, who would prefer to undermine these rulings. The rest of us should celebrate a huge step forward for America.