Global Times: Asian Americans at center of Affirmative Action debate in California Universities

Opponents of a push to remove a ban on race based admissions at California public universities are focusing their efforts on Asian Americans to stop it(photo by Maveric2003).

The Global Times reports many of the arguments against it say the constitutional amendment would discriminate against Asian Americans who make up more nearly 40 percent of the undergraduate enrollment at UC Berkeley and 34 percent at UCLA.

The State Senate passed the amendment known as SCA5 January 30 and its now in the Assembly.

Voters would get the final say in the November election if the Assembly approves the measure.

Tony Torng, board member of the Walnut Valley Unified School District, said that the impact of SCA5 on the Asian American community will be severe.

All three Asian Americans in the State Senate (Leland Yee, Carol Liu and Ted Lieu)  voted to  support the measure.

Supporters argue that the admission rate of African American, Hispanic and Native Americans has declined significantly since 2006 when voters passed Proposition 209 — which bans the state from consideration of race in education, employment and contracting.

You can read a lot more from those who oppose the measure in the Global Times.