"Reverse" discrimination is still discrimination, and the government has no business playing racial favorites. As Thurgood Marshall once said, "Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws." Those of us who believe in justice and equality hope that the Supreme Court will strike down so-called affirmative action, at least in university admissions, next year:
An Asian-American teenager who could help end affirmative action has been pictured for the first time, as he spoke out against racist discrimination he says he suffered.
Jon Wang, 18, got a 1590 on his SAT and a 4.65 high school grade point average but was rejected by six top schools.
He is one of the plaintiffs in a Supreme Court case seeking to end the practice over claims it unfairly discriminates against high-performing Asian Americans.
In January, the high court said it will take up lawsuits from anti-affirmative action group Students For Fair Admission claiming that Harvard University, a private institution, and the University of North Carolina, a state school, discriminate against Asian American applicants.
The suits claim that affirmative action - policies meant to favor members of historically disadvantaged groups - gives an edge to African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans over Asian students.
A decision against the schools could mean the end of that practice and disregard race altogether in college admissions. Wang has sued a public and private college in the hopes of having the practice struck down at all universities nationwide.
He said despite his terrific scores - and a perfect score on his math SAT - he was rejected by Harvard, as well as MIT, CalTech, Princeton, Carnegie-Mellon and UC Berkeley.
Wang, who has come forward to speak for the first time alleges he was warned in advance that it's 'gospel' that it's 'tougher to get in, especially as an Asian American' by friends and guidance counselors...
The affirmative action case probably will be argued in the fall.
I'm rooting for you, Jon.
Update, 6/29/23: Congratulations, Jon:
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action admissions policies used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina to diversify their campuses, a decision with enormous consequences not only for higher education but also the American workplace.
In one of its most closely watched cases this year, the court ruled along ideological lines that the way the two nationally recognized colleges approached race violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The decision drew a sharp rebuke from the court's liberal wing, who said it rolled "decades of precedent and momentous progress."
Chief Justice John Roberts, long a skeptic of race-based policies, wrote that too many universities "have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin." The nation's constitutional history, he wrote, "does not tolerate that choice."
I'm rooting for you too Jon.
ReplyDeleteWe should not entertain their word games. Reverse discrimination doesn't exist, there is just discrimination, and elite colleges do it to Asian-American students all the time.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the Republicans and conservative pundits insisting that we eliminate ethnic heritage and race from all government forms and databases? Ethnic heritage isn't relevant to anything and race is more mixed up and imprecise. By any sort of logic, Elon Musk is African-American, but he doesn't have a parent who was the good kind of African, like Obama has, so he doesn't count.