Trump's Department of Justice files suit vs. Yale over admissions

The Justice Department filed suit against Yale University for race and national origin discrimination and once again, Asian Americans are being used as a front to dismantle affirmative action.

The lawsuit filed Thursday (Oct. 7) alleges that Yale discriminated against applicants to Yale College on the grounds of race and national origin, and that Yale’s discrimination imposes undue and unlawful penalties on racially-disfavored applicants, including in particular most Asian and White applicants.

The lawsuit follows a two-year DOJ investigation prompted by a 2016 complaint against Yale from the Asian American Coalition for Education and 132 other organizations, but the real driver behind the complaint is the Students for Fair Admissions headed by affirmative action foe Edward Blum.

“Illegal race discrimination by colleges and universities must end,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “This nation’s highest ideals include the notion that we are all equal under the law. For centuries, people from all over the world have learned of this ideal, left their ancestral homes, and come to the United States hoping that this country would live up to its ideals and that they and their families could enjoy equal opportunity and pursue the American dream.

"All persons who apply for admission to colleges and universities should expect and know that they will be judged by their character, talents, and achievements and not the color of their skin. To do otherwise is to permit our institutions to foster stereotypes, bitterness, and division.”   

In an email to the Yale community Thursday evening, University President Peter Salovey reiterated that Yale has communicated with the DOJ over the past few weeks, adding that the University has provided them with statistics showing that the allegations are false.

“I want to be clear: Yale does not discriminate against applicants of any race or ethnicity,” Salovey wrote. “Our admissions practices are completely fair and lawful. Yale’s admissions policies will not change as a result of the filing of this baseless lawsuit. We look forward to defending these policies in court.”

The Justice Department found Yale discriminates based on race and national origin in its undergraduate admissions process, and that race is the determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year. For the great majority of applicants, Asian Americans and Whites have only one-eighth to one-fourth of the likelihood of admission as African American applicants with comparable academic credentials. Yale rejects scores of Asian American and White applicants each year based on their race, whom it otherwise would admit.

The Yale case is similar to the suit filed against Harvard and it's admission policies. In that case, Asian American applicants were again used as supposed victims of an alleged biased admission policies. A lower court's decision in Harvard's favor is being appealed. The U.S. 1st District Court of Appeals heard arguments on Sept. 16 in which the three-panel judge aggressively questioned the plaintiff's lawyers. Both sides of the case believe that the Harvard suit will wind up in front of the conservative U.S. Supreme Court.

As in the Harvard case, the Asian students cited in the complaint are from families of new immigrants predominantly from China unfamiliar with the history of affirmative action and the generations of racism that prompted it.

“Yale believes that having a student body and a faculty from around the globe and around the country — including individuals with a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds, socioeconomic and family upbringings, gender orientations, talents and skills — enriches Yale’s community in immeasurable ways and prepares our students to lead and succeed in an increasingly diverse global workforce,” said Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, Jeremiah Quinlan.

Yale's first-year students for this fall is 45% White, 29% Asian, 14% Hispanic or Latino, 13% Black or African American, 2% American Indian or Alaska Native.

Clearly, Asian American students are not being discriminated against. What is really at danger are the slots taken by White students admitted through legacy status, ie. those who have a special skill or admitted because of a relationship with a wealthy donor alumni or celebrity. 

Apparently the Trump and Bill Barr-led Justice Department that can't be bothered with biased police, hasn't acted against blatant voter suppression or speak and act against white supremacists, has prioritized trying to find a case against affirmative action an activist Supreme Court could rule against without revealing the case's racist intentions.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Queens councilman assaulted, mugged

COUNCILMAN PETER KOO

ASAM NEWS

While walking home, a Queens, New York City Council member was attacked in an attempted robbery  on April 9, PIX 11 reported.

Councilman Peter Koo, D-Queens, was “assaulted and mugged by three attackers in the lobby of his building,” his staff wrote in a Facebook post. “As he entered the lobby from the street, one assailant struck him from behind in the side of his head. Words were exchanged, and CM Koo took out his phone to call 911.”

Woo told police that the three unidentified men had followed him, demanding money. When he refused, the men told him they had a firearm and attempted to take his phone. Woo refused again, and the men fled.

PIX reported that a 16-year-old was taken into custody, then charged with robbery and assault, though another outlet says two of the assailants were caught after they robbed someone several blocks away.

The lawmaker described it as a “frightening encounter.”

“While I do not believe this attack was racially motivated, Asian communities in New York City have experienced a significant uptick in racist attacks since the outbreak of COVID-19, and it is important that our law enforcement continues to receive support so that they have the resources they need to protect our communities,” Koo said to QNS.com.

The New York attorney general has recently set up a hotline for Asian Americans to report hate crimes, with its governor, Andrew Cuomo, demanding an investigation of an attack against an Asian student — one of many coronavirus-centered hate crimes in New York. Crimes recorded run the gauntlet of harassment on the subway to physical attacks.

There have been over 750 reports of Asian American bias and hate crimes across the country since March 27, according to a FBI report.

Queens is one of the most diverse communities in the country. The US Census Bureau reports that the population of Queens is 50% white, 28% Hispanic, 24% Asian, 21% black, and 3% mixed race. Almost half (48%) of Queens residents are foreign born, and 56% speak a language other than English at home. Some of the largest ethnic groups are Chinese (9%), West Indian (7%), Italian (7%), Indian (5%), and Irish (5%).

Koo praised police for their “swift action” after contacting them with his attackers’ descriptions and the direction in which they were heading.

“I remind our community that during these uncertain times, we must all continue to stay aware of our surroundings and take precautions against those who are looking to take advantage of our incapacitated society,” Koo said.

NYC mayor vows 'clampdown' on hate attacks after woman burned by possible acid

ASAM NEWS

A Brooklyn woman is recovering from severe burns she suffered when someone poured what police believe is acid on her as she emptied her garbage, reports the New York Post.

In the video, you can see the suspect sitting on the steps. The 39-year old woman comes out at 11 p.m. Sunday (April 6) with a bag of garbage. As she dumps it into the can, the man sneaks up from behind and pours a fluid on her that caused second degree burns.

She is listed in stable condition at Maimonides Hospital. Social media posts identified her as an Asian.

On Monday (April 6), New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio publicly denounced the uptick of hate crimes against Asians in his city.

"In the midst of this crisis, there is another crisis that we’ve all been disgusted by which is discrimination and hatred directed against our Asian American community, particularly our Chinese American community,’ the Daily Mail reported the mayor said.

DeBlasio vowed to throw “the full weight of the law” at them. During the last two weeks of March, the NYPD says it received 11 reports of hate crimes against Asians. This is a part of a nationwide trend which has seen more than 1100 reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in just weeks nationwide.

Interracial family target of threatening letter

FACEBOOK

The Yu family with friends.

ASAM NEWS

A family of 7 received a threatening letter demanding they move out of their Vacaville, California neighborhood in 60 days.
“The clock is ticking,” the anonymous typed letter read.

Marc Yu found the letter sticking out of his mailbox. He is Chinese Filipino. His wife is Mexican. They have five children.

“We family suggest that you rent somewhere else,” the letter continued. “We may sound harsh, but your interracial family is not welcomed here.”

Yu posted the entire letter on Facebook where he received much support.

“We want our simple life to be left alone,” Yu said. “You aren’t going to drive us out of Vacaville. We love Vacaville,” Yu told KXTV.

The letter referred to the Yu's as renters. They actually own the home.

“It’s a stupid letter,” Yu said to KXTV.

His message to the letter writer: he’s not moving anywhere.

___________________________________________________________________

America First, Buy America may be the beginnings of a new anti-Asian movement

"AMERICA FIRST," has been the clarion call of President Donald Trump since the early days of candidacy. In his inauguration speech, Trump further clarified his statement to mean "Buy American and hire American."

As many people have advocated - most notably undocumented Filipino/American immigration reform activist Jose Antonio Vargas - we need a new definition of who is "American." Considering the demographic trends, he says, we need to change the image of an American that is held by most immigrants and people from other countries: white and male.

Trump's America First exhortation has a deeper and darker meaning, according to Dana Frank, a history professor at UC-Santa Cruz and author of Buy American: the Untold Story of Economic Nationalism, who recently wrote an OpEd in the Washington Post.

A lot of the rhetoric being used has a strong appeal to Trump's voting base -- voting patterns have shown that Trump won most of the white, males whose schooling ended after high school -- because much of its history is based on anti-Asian sentiment. Among Trump's "bad" players on the world economic scene is China and Japan, which he considers as economic rivals.

It's not surprisingly that Trump prefers to side with the Russians, whom most Americans see as white, over the "colored" Chinese even though Russia is equally dangerous to world peace and economic stability.

"The Buy American exhortation follows a long history of similar campaigns steeped in racism, especially against Asians and Asian Americans, that have had real, destructive consequences," she wrote. "It’s not that the Buy American call is racist in itself — there’s nothing wrong with seeking to reinvest our dollars back in good local jobs. The problem lies in the way in which it frames the issues."

The anti-Asian aspect of the call became really strong in late 1932 and early 1933, when William Randolph Hearst, the media magnate who owned 27 daily newspapers with a circulation of 5.5 million, launched a Buy American campaign as his answer to the Great Depression: “Buy American and spend American. … Keep American money in America and provide employment for American citizens.” Every day for three months, Hearst’s papers in lockstep ran three or four editorials, testimonials, articles, cartoons and columns exhorting Buy American.

Hearst's vicious racist campaign was so effective, that by the time the U.S. entered World War II, the American public was primed to accept without question the internment of 127,000 Americans of Japanese descent, one of the most shameful chapters in American history.

This cartoon accompanied an anti-Japanese editorial in William Randolph Hearst's publications, June 22, 1913.

Frank goes on to say that the during the 1960s, Japanese goods were pictured as cheap, badly made products. The anti-Japanese sentiment of the 1980s led to the death of Vincent Chin when some Detroit workers believing the Japanese auto industry was making inroads on the U.S. market believed saw Chin as a threat.

In today's world, the America First rhetoric Trump is using to renegotiate treaties blames foreign countries, particularly Mexico and China, for "stealing" American jobs, when in actuality, it is American corporations that are making the decisions to move those jobs overseas to lesser paid workers often working in conditions that have been outlawed in the U.S.

America First would be fine if the American middle class was benefiting from the President's strategies, but it looks to me like the real beneficiaries are the heads of corporations and Wall Street investors - the very same people he is inviting to run the government and rewrite the rules to let Big Business run amok unfettered by regulations designed to protect the average investor and business.

What should be especially troubling to AAPI is that thinking of China as the economic "bad hombre;" it is not a far stretch from associating all Asians, including Asian/Americans, as those big, bad "Others." In many minds, AAPI are already "foreign" and "others," Trump's language can only solidify that image which could lead to more attacks from white supremacists. Many believe that the hateful racist rhetoric used during the presidential campaign has led to a rise on attacks on AAPI. A website where Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders can report hate-inspired incidents has been created.

Frank concludes her article, "Today, we need to eschew both corporate-driven free trade and dangerous nationalism, and instead embrace a politics of trade and immigration based on empathy, respect and support for working people around the world."

READ the entire article, here.