A tweet depicting a photo of demographic data at the University of Maryland seems to indicate that Asian Americans are grouped with White students and separated from other people of color, reports the Post Millennial.
The tweet is being used to bolster arguments against affirmative action and to support lawsuits alleging discrimination against White and Asian students.
In the photo, data of minority students are labeled “students of color minus Asians.” The other category is “White or Asian students.”
The op-ed in the Diamondback contended that solidarity between Black and Asian students could be a strong force on campus.
“Over the past year, much of the nation’s attention was on a wave of COVID-19-related violence against Asian Americans powered by false narratives saying Chinese people and others of Asian descent spread the virus,” the authors wrote. “Over that same period, hate crimes against Black Americans rose as well. The most recent data show that in 2020, the FBI recorded 274 anti-Asian hate crimes and 2,755 anti-Black hate crimes. These trends show that both Asian and Black Americans face racial discrimination, but their experiences are also distinct.”
The piece is signed by a number of professors from both the Asian American Studies and African American Studies departments including Dr. Janelle Wang.
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