The scarring and emotional wounds left by the divisive debate over SCA5 and affirmative action in California threatens to permanently damage the relationship between traditional political allies.
The Chinese American activists who led the charge against SCA5 have even angered other groups within the Asian American community, reports the Mercury News.
These activists fear a return to race based admissions is a code word for quotas and will take spots at the University of California from their children and give them to blacks, Latinos and other Asian Pacific Islander groups.
“There was a bombardment of negative information from Chinese-language media who framed it as a return to quotas,” said Vincent Pan, executive director of San Francisco’s Chinese for Affirmative Action. “They whipped the issue into a frenzy.”
Not so, says SB Woo, of 80-20, the political action committee behind much of the anti-SCA5 backlash. To Woo and his supporters, its simply not fair that Asian Americans need higher test scores than any other ethnic group to get into many elite universities.
“The way Asian-American students are treated … is a gross violation of the 14th Amendment(equal protection under the law),” Woo said. “Is it a surprise to you that in 1965, when affirmative action first came out, every minority supported it? I did, too. But as used in college admissions, it’s hurting everyone.”
But will Chinese Americans become the enemy of other ethnic groups. You can read opinions about that in the Mercury News.
There are also some statistics in the article about the percentage of each ethnic group that applies to UC who actually are admitted.
RE: SCA5 Affirmative Action Debate Leaves Deep Divide Among Ethnic Groups: These activists fear a return to race based admissions is a code word for quotas and will take spots at the University of California from their children and give them to blacks, Latinos and other Asian Pacific Islander groups.