May 2023, my dad drove my brother and me to school, the ride accompanied by the familiar sound of my dad’s favorite podcast playing in the background. The topic of the podcast that day was affirmative action. I had heard about this policy before but never paid much attention. However, I immediately got confused when I heard that the Supreme Court would be debating whether it was unconstitutional. I began to wonder how this could potentially affect me as a Latina student that would be applying to college in a few years, so, I did as much research as I possibly could. I had many conversations with students, teachers, friends, and family over spring and summer, I found myself going down a rabbit hole trying to learn as much as I possibly could about this topic.
Through my conversations about affirmative action, I realized that something about the language used did not sit right with me. As I did more research, listened to more podcasts, watched more videos, and read more articles, I found there existed deep layers of racist rhetoric within both sides of these arguments. When asked what my biggest takeaway is from all of these debates, it is not that one side is better than another, it is that we are all spreading hatred and racism, in some cases without even realizing it.
- 1961 – Everyone is allowed to pursue a collegiate education regardless of race
- 1965 – President Johnson ordered that government agencies should pursue policies that increase employment of minorities
- 1978 – Allen Becky vs. UC Davis rules quotas illegal
- It is also ruled that affirmative action is NOT to right historical wrongs, it would be too difficult to classify when that wrong has been met
- 1996 – Proposition 209 bans affirmative action in California, many states including Washington (2019) follow along in years to come
- 2003 – U Michigan Cases: one ruling that Point Systems are unconstitutional as they put people into boxes based on race, and the second ruling that a holistic review is a good use of affirmative action.
- It is also decided that affirmative action will likely be necessary for another 25 years, until 2028
- 2008 – Edward Blum against A.A. round 1: Abagail Fisher VS. University of Texas, a failed attempt at getting rid of affirmative action
- 2023 – Edward Blum against A.A. round 2: Students for Fair Admissions vs. UNC & Harvard, this time successfully banning affirmative action
In 2008, Abigail Fisher went to the Supreme Court claiming she was rejected from University of Texas, Austin because Black and Latino students took her spot. In Texas, the top 10% of a graduating class will automatically be accepted into the University of Texas. However, Abigail Fisher was only in the top 12%, leaving her application to be reviewed in the holistic review process. Abigail Fisher stated that the one and only reason she did not get accepted was because she was white, but this was later proven completely false. According to an article from ProPublica, there were only 5 Latino and Black students admitted with lower test scores than Fisher, meanwhile, 42 white students were admitted with lower test score than her. Even more fascinating, 168 Black and Latino students with equal to or better test scores than Fisher were also rejected. Neither of these statistics were mentioned to the Supreme Court by Abigail Fisher nor Edward Blum, the conservative activist who handpicked Fisher for this case.
Edward Blum has been on a crusade to prove affirmative action is unconstitutional for decades, filing over two dozen cases since the 1990s against the concept of race in American laws. His case with Abigail Fisher in 2008 failed, so, in 2014 he attempted a new approach. He founded Students for Fair Admissions, a “nonprofit membership group of more than 20,000 students, parents, and others who believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional” according to their website. Since his original argument that white people were discriminated against with affirmative action failed, he decided to change his argument to Asian Americans being discriminated. He began to claim that Harvard University had admitted the same, small, proportion of Asian students every year since the 1990s. Though his claims were never quite consistent…
- (November 9th, 2014 – Fox News) “(They) never (seem) to admit more than 17% of incoming freshman, yet the number of Asians has more than doubled”
- (December 18th, 2017 – Fox News) “In 1992, 19% of Harvard’s incoming class were Asian.”
- (May 11th, 2018 – PBS, The Contrary) “In 1992, 15% of Harvard’s incoming class were Asian.”
A Pew Research Center report from 2021 states that Asians make up about 7% of the US population, but according to the New York Times, in 2023 Asian Americans makes up 30% of Harvard’s student population.
Edward Blum made websites for each of the schools he was trying to sue for students to submit themselves to be plaintiffs. On the home page of all of these websites are Asian students posing in an upset looking manor. Indian American comedian Hasan Minhaj joked that it seemed as if the photographer told the actors in these photos, “why don’t you pose like your dad is grading your Kumon homework?”
June 29th, 2023, after decades of failed attempts, Edward Blum finally succeeded in banning affirmative action.
Is putting people from certain races at an advantage in college admissions racist? Or is it racist to make college admissions color blind when society and the K-12 education aren’t? What about… both?
A common argument against affirmative action is that “racism isn’t as bad as it used to be”. I personally find this take to be absurd, because as comedian Hasan Minhaj puts it, “you wouldn’t tolerate that statement from Wi-Fi”, and we all know how much we complain about Overlake Wi-Fi. One of the many examples of systematic racism that still exists today is within the public school system in the US, I believe the way it is funded sets minority students up for failure. The funding public schools receive in most states in the US is from property taxes. Redlining is still a very real part of American society, and most neighborhoods with Black and Latino students are low income. The funding these schools receive is significantly lower, leading to worse access to education for these students, continuing the cycle keeping these minorities in poverty. The Wall Street Journal created the graph below demonstrating the average SAT score by race, race and academic achievement are unfortunately highly correlated. A test score someone receives when they are 16-17 years old that is extremely subjective should not be seen as an accurate reflection as to how someone will be able to thrive as a member of society.
A detailed study was done on the effects of California’s ban of affirmative action (Prop 209 in 1996) by Zachary Bleemer. In my opinion one of the most interesting findings was that on average, Black and Latino student had lower wages than if they attended the universities they would have gotten into before Prop 209 (as seen in the graph below). However, Bleemer stated recently on a podcast with NPR, “there was no commensurate gain in long-run outcomes for the White and Asian students who took their place.” Asian American and White students were on average having an equal amount of economic success whether they did or didn’t attend the more selective universities. However, the same could not be said for the Black and Latino students, they benefited more from the opportunities provided by the selective universities. The fact of the matter is, 8 of the 9 supreme court justices went to either Harvard or Yale, and most CEO’s in our country went to prestigious universities. When universities decide who they will admit, they are not only thinking short term “who will thrive in this university”, they are also thinking about who is going to be the future leaders of our economy and workforce. If these universities only looked at factors such as test scores, universities would mainly consist of White and Asian students, creating another cycle keeping Latinos and Black people on the lower end of the economic spectrum. Meanwhile, data has shown that the Asian American and White students would end up in the same positions, nonetheless.
Affirmative action may seem as if it is the perfect solution to these problems, except it is perpetuating racism itself in many ways. A 2009 Princeton study found that Asian American students had to score 140 points higher on the SAT than white students to have the same chance as them be admitted into top universities. It is important to acknowledge that this study was done 14 years ago, and the SAT was out of 2400 points back then, but this is still a significant finding. On top of that, there was a study done on over 160,000 students who applied to Harvard from 2000-2015, finding that Harvard consistently rated Asian-American applicants lower in interviews for having poor “likeability, courage, and kindness”. Racial bias against Asian Americans through affirmative action continues to spread the model minority myth. This study also found that Asian American students were more likely to be described as “standard strong” meaning they lacked special qualities that would warrant admission despite being academically qualified. Asian Americans were 25% more likely to receive this rating than white applicants. I have found that many affirmative action defenders completely disacknowledge the fact that Asian Americans have been put in a disadvantage by this policy, justifying it by claiming Asians are a model minority, which is only spreading racism in itself.
Affirmative action debates have sparked rhetoric suggesting that Black and Latino students do not deserve a place in selective universities. I have heard statements claiming they do not want lawyers and doctors who “only got in thanks to affirmative action”. This statement is ridiculous in my opinion because in 1992 the acceptance rates of the Ivy Leagues ranged from 20-40%, today they range from 3-6%. I can almost guarantee that many students who were accepted into ivy leagues 30 years ago would not have been accepted today. There is no reason to worry about Black and Latino students today who received a slight advantage, but overall have nearly the same statistics as their White and Asian peers.
Thanks to affirmative action, a narrative has been painting Black and Latino students as the ones who are “taking” the spots of White and Asian students. However, 43% of white students in Harvard are ALDC (Athlete, Legacy, Deans Interests List, and Children of Faculty & Staff). This means there are more White ALDC students in Harvard than all of the Black and Latino students in Harvard combined. In a video about legacy admissions produced by the New York times, one legacy student named Yoni Rechtman (NYU ‘17) stated “I applied to 15 schools an got into two or three of them. It’s pretty telling that one of those places I got into was the place that gave me an explicit leg up.”
Truthfully, what made me upset was the inconsistencies of it all.
In many conversations I engaged in about affirmative action, I constantly heard the claim that Latino and Black students wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rigors of prestigious universities, yet I never once heard this about ALDC students. I listened to people state with certainty that Black and Latino students were “taking the spots of Asian Americans”, yet college admissions are not a one in on out policy. Even if they were, then why is the conversation not White ALDC student “take spots away”, since they make up more of the student body than Black and Latino students combined. If our generation is truly upset with inequalities within college admissions, why did everyone turn and blame Black and Latino students when White ALDC students are taking up more of these spots in reality?
However, I am also deeply upset with what a system that was originally supposed to provide equity has become. I feel guilty that I benefit from this system by being born Latina, when I do not need it as I was raised in a stable household that made enough money to send me to a college preparatory school. I am frustrated that Asian American students are getting discriminated against in a variety of ways by the college admissions system. It infuriates me that affirmative action has encouraged others to treat Black and Latino students as if we are less than, and wouldn’t be capable of being admitted into top universities if it wasn’t for affirmative action.
Ultimately, what hurts the most is witnessing how this has turned into “Us vs. Them”. Asian Americans are not a model minority. Hispanic and Latino students are not taking the spots of Asians. We do not need to be pit against one another as these events take place. We cannot take everything we hear about such sensitive topics like these as fact without checking, that’s how misinformation and hatred spreads. We all want the same thing at the end of the day, to foster a world where everyone is given equal opportunity despite race, so have sympathy and support one another in that fight.
Videos I highly recommend to learn more about this topic:
Affirmative Action vs. Race-Neutral Admissions: A Case Study | WSJ – YouTube
Affirmative Action | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj | Netflix – YouTube
Affirmative Action: Crash Course Government and Politics #32 – YouTube
Articles I highly recommend:
Here’s what happened when affirmative action ended in California : NPR
Supreme Court reverses affirmative action, gutting race-conscious admissions : NPR
What Is the History Behind Affirmative Action? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
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