It's no secret that a significant portion of Asian-Americans oppose measures that would give all races equal opportunities in jobs and education. A
poll conducted in 2012 for instance showed that more than 30% of Asian Americans were against equal-opportunity measures, while compared to 81.4 percent of Latinos, 83.1 percent of African-Americans supported affirmative action. Breaking this down on the basis of Asian ethnicity, things become even more problematic: Nearly 40% of Chinese-Americans in the state of California and more than 50% of Korean-Americans oppose Affirmative Action.
A number of Asian groups are demanding that universities rely on what they call "meritocracy" in order to admit students. This word in itself is very broad but usually what these Asian groups - many of whom are composed of newly arrived Asian immigrants - want when asking for "meritocracy" is to have admissions that would largely be based upon standardized test scores and grades, as done in many East Asian countries. This system would be faulty for a few reasons. First standardized test scores tell little about academic potential other than, well, the ability to take a test. They cannot measure for things like creativity or personality - and a quick glance at the educational system in many Asian countries will immediately tell you about the level (or rather lack thereof) of creativity in that part of the world.
Secondly it ignores the
huge possibility of cheating that happens at all levels among Asian and Asian-American students. Such test scores then have little correlation with actual ability in Asian and Asian-American students. In other words, Asians rarely
embody the sterling academic credentials they include with their applications. Even when cheating is factored out, again it falls back to money - high-scoring Asians and Asian-Americans are usually those who can afford expensive tutors and SAT training sessions where they learn to 'game' the test without having to, for instance, learn vocabulary definitions. In essence consideration of "standardized test scores and grades" in effect might give many Asian or Asian-Americans an
unfair advantage over other minorities.
It is true that some Asian communities might benefit from admissions standards that are solely based on test scores and school report card grades. However, this does not mean that it is a just system; people are more than numbers on a piece of paper. Each individual is unique, with personality traits and abilities which do not always correlate to paper. Furthermore, just because a system helps one's own race does not make it the correct one to advocate.
Much of Asian opposition to affirmative action comes from a
pervasive anti-blackness within Asian communities and racist sentiment among Asians in general. This ignores the fact that Asians have benefited from both the civil rights movement and, ironically, the fruits of white privilege
simultaneously through the "model-minority" myth. That is to say that while Asians were willing to sit on the sidelines and reap the rewards of civil rights, they also embraced anti-blackness and were accorded a sort of "Asian privilege" from the political structure of the time. Part of that privilege was the ability to participate in certain areas white civic life, including education. This lead to Asians being in fact
overrepresented at top universities - with nearly 21.3% of Harvard undergraduates coming from Asian or Asian-American backgrounds, despite Asians making up less than 5% of the total US population, while African-Americans are
still under-represented by a factor of 10% at Harvard. Yet despite this, racists within the Asian-American community still want to increase the proportion of Asian-American students at the expense of other minorities.
Opposition to Affirmative Action also ignores the historical injustice faced by blacks, which was NOT similarly faced by Asians. This is a huge historical ignorance on the part of Asians who rather than showing solidarity with oppressed black people selfishly promote their own racial goals at the expense of everyone else.
Rather than anti-blackness and unwittingly (or sometimes wittingly) throwing other minorities under the bus, Asians must be compassionate and show solidarity with African-Americans and Hispanics. Rather than advocating for test-based admissions, Asians need to address issues of cheating and academic dishonesty in their own community. Rather than attempting to turn elite university into little Chinatowns or Little Tokyos, Asians should be advocating for a equitable admissions policy for all.
