Recent lawsuits filed against Harvard and the University of North Carolina have civil rights advocates in the Asian American community pushing back, reports Yahoo.
The lawsuits filed by Edward Blum’s advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions claims Asian American applicants are being held back in favor of less qualified blacks & Latinos.
“Conservatives desperate to shore up a shrinking, aging, mostly white base are hoping to sink their hooks into anxious Asian American parents who, like all parents, just want the best opportunities for their kids,” Cynthia Liu, education advocate and founder of the K-12 News Network. “This lawsuit plays on fears, falsehoods, and scarcity-driven and blinkered thinking.”
The group 18 Million Rising issued the following statement:
“Blum is clearly and intentionally exploiting the Model Minority myth by not just suggesting that the challenges of race can be overcome if people just work hard enough (i.e. “See! Asians work hard and are transcending race!”), but by claiming that race-conscious considerations are actually hurting Asians by passing them up in favor of Blacks and Latinos. Blum claims to be protecting the interests of Asian Americans by fighting to end affirmative action – despite the fact that 76% of Asian Americans say they support the policy. And the truth is, many Asian Americans (especially Southeast Asians and recent immigrants) benefit greatly from affirmative action.
However, Blum told the Boston Business Journal the emphasis should be on socio-economic status and not race.
“If Harvard truly wanted to pull together a truly diverse class from different backgrounds and different geographic areas and from different social strata, which I think is much more important than pulling together just a fixed percentage of well to do blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians, then Harvard could lower the bar for kids who have come from households where neither parent attended college, said Blum. “Or lower the bar for kids who come from households where neither parent attended college.”
If Blum truly believes that, why has he filed his lawsuit? Doesn’t in fact holistic admissions takes some of that into account? If he truly supports a diverse student body, he should be working with admissions officials on crafting an holistic policy that works to achieve that instead of trying to tear the system down.
As the hashtag says #IAmNotYourWedge.
You can read more about the Asian Americans behind that hashtag in Yahoo.
RE: Asian Americans push back against attack on affirmative action: Wedge or not, Asians benefit greater if poor socioeconomic status is given more weight than race in college admissions. One might argue, the ball is in the liberals’ court to embrace a fairer mechanism regarding Affirmative Action.