Asians & Affirmative Action

Asian American students in favor of affirmative action showed their support for overturning California's Prop. 209.

THE DEBATE about the role Asian Americans play in the affirmative action debate is heating up again at the University of North Carolina where some say Blacks and Latino students are unqualified to attend the school.

Asian Americans are refusing to be pitted against the Black and Latino students, according to an article Asian American Activists Are Refusing to Join the Fight Against Affirmative Action by Joseph Williams, a former correspondent for Politico. 

It appears that a questionable advocacy group is claiming that Asian American students are being refused admission because their spots are being taken by allegedly unqualified Black and Latino students. It is the same argument that was being used in California earlier this year to make it appear that Asians don't support affirmative action.

After a little digging, however, it turns out the advocacy group's parent organization Project for Fair Representation is run by Edward Blum, who is more interested in ending the affirmative action program than helping Asian American students gain admission.

Project for Fair Representation filed a lawsuit in federal court against UNC Monday (Nov. 24) and what it alleges is a "race-based" affirmative action program. The suit was filed on behalf of the actual plaintiff, Students for for Fair Admission, a recently formed group of "high-achieving" students (in other words - Asian). PFR also filed a suit versus Harvard for its policy of "legacy" admissions. In both cases, the "high achievers" claim they were denied spots  on campus because less qualified students were taking their seats in class.

Affirmative action and Asian Americans have had questionable relationship for a while. Some say we're against affirmative action, while others say we're for it.

When California's State Constitutional Amendment 5 overturning Prop. 209 was rejected last Spring by the legislature, the media said it was because of strong opposition from Asian Americans. There's now evidence that line perpetuated by mainstream media is a myth. 

I don't know who the media is talking to when they say that Asian Americans are against affirmative action but the Asian Americans I know are overwhelmingly in support of affirmative action. A recent survey taken by the Field Poll and the National Asian American Survey indicate that support for affirmative action among AA's has actually grown since 1996 when Prop. 209 was passed by California voters. It's not even close.

"These findings point to the likelihood that the opposition to SCA-5 was probably the result of selective mobilization among those Asian American voters opposed to the measure, rather than a sign of drastically shifting opinion among Asian American voters against affirmative action," wrote Karthick Ramakrishnan, author of the NAA survey in an L.A. Times oped. 

What worries me though, is the discovery of the involvement of Project for Fair Representation and how it is pitting Asian Americans against each other and using AA's and the myth of the "model minority" against other minorities in a divide-and-conquer strategy. It makes me wonder how many shadow groups are out there, what else have they been doing and what is their funding source? 

I - for one - strongly resent that Asians are being used by organizations to do their dirty work for them. Evidently, there are forces in this country who would prefer the current power structure remain unchanged.

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