Edward Blum’s Crusade Against Affirmative Action Isn’t for Asians; It’s for White Students.
We're still hearing from this guy?
It’s been eight years since Edward Blum and the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) first began their attack on affirmative action.
In the latest development, the Supreme Court agreed in late January to hear the group’s challenge to the admission process at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. NBC News calls it “the most serious threat in decades” to affirmative action in universities and colleges, given the court’s conservative majority.
I remember this debate surfacing when I was in high school, I was baffled to hear that Blum’s argument rested on purported discrimination against Asian students at Harvard. And, even more shockingly, Asian parents, particularly Chinese parents, were mobilizing in the street to back this lawsuit. I’d never seen Asians or Asian Americans so politically fervent within the U.S. in my lifetime. College admissions seemed to be the issue that won this particular group over.
I understand their desire to fight on this. Many of our immigrant parents labor tirelessly and even swallow discrimination, all so we can go to good schools and prosper. Any threat to their child’s prospects of future success is of paramount importance.
However, I still see Blum’s lawsuits as nothing more than a ploy to wholly reinstate the historical advantages of white students. SFFA claims to act in the interest of Asian students by removing race-conscious admissions; and indeed, there are some Asian Americans who back the organization. But a majority do not sympathize with its aims. The 2020 Asian American Voter Survey found that 70% of Asian Americans supported affirmative action.
Asian Americans are once again being used as a pawn in conservative efforts to deny race-based inequality in this country. This time, to tear down efforts to make academia a more equitable space. Harvard’s admissions data shows that its class of 2025 is nearly 26% Asian American. Hispanic or Latinx students make up just 12.5%, and Black students account for nearly 16%. Native Hawaiian students are 0.5% of the student population, but no other data is available for Pacific Islander students of different backgrounds.
Fair admissions for Asian college students does not mean treating Asians as a racial bloc, but acknowledging the vast disparities in income and college attainment within our group. Instead, we see the concerns of college-educated East Asians, or those with the means to send their children to college, dominating in SFFA’s messaging.
In purporting to align with the interests of Asian Americans, Blum is making a play to dismiss claims that anti-affirmative action is racist – after all, he’s helping Asians! Blum previously sought to challenge affirmative action through Fisher v. University of Texas. In this case, the plaintiff was a white woman, Abigail Fisher, who contended that affirmative action was the reason she did not get admitted. This time around, Blum strategized that he “needed Asian plaintiffs” instead to make his case.
It’s simply a new way to weaponize the model minority myth in favor of white advantage. Indeed, the model minority myth is the driving ideology behind SFFA. The organization and its allies rely on stereotypes of Asians as hard-working academic overachievers to argue Asian students are more deserving of a spot at, say, Harvard. Critically, this is in contrast to other racial minorities who may benefit from affirmative action.
Several prominent Asian American scholars submitted an amicus brief to SFFA v. Harvard, which stated: “By arguing that Asian Americans are disadvantaged by policies designed to increase racial diversity within student bodies, SFFA seeks to fuel intra-minority and within-group conflicts, while also presenting disinformation regarding Asian American educational experiences.”
In its legal arguments, SFFA has focused on Harvard’s “personal rating score” as evidence of discrimination against Asian applicants. This score takes into account the applicant's admissions essay, recommendations, accomplishments and alumni interviews, according to the brief. It does not take into account race, but SFFA’s sleight of hand may make you believe so.
The organization incorrectly referred to the score as a “personality score” and claimed that Harvard determined Asian applicants “did not have good personalities.” The term “personality score” was widely picked up by the media, though it was an invention by the SFFA. In reality, there was only a 0.05 difference between Asian and white applicants.
To see a white man claim to take up the mantle of Asian American rights by undoing affirmative action is deeply infuriating. Once again, we are being used as a prop of white supremacy to deny Black, Latinx and other racially minoritized groups access to resources and power. This is especially confounding to me, as much of my high school and college experience was supported by programs specifically for students of color. Many, if not all, of these programs were spearheaded by Black administrators, teachers and activists.
That is not to say racial solidarity should be a quid-pro-quo interaction. Instead, us college-educated Asians in particular must reflect on the foundations we stand upon and decide who we want to fight for. For the longest time, who has been denied what our parents want so badly for us? Who has been shut out, time and time again, before our parents even reached American soil? Whose rights are truly at risk? Are we content with conservatives buttressing their arguments with our identities, claiming to speak in our interest?
So long as organizations like SFFA have the resources, the crusade continues. And for white students accessing prestigious schools, there’s a bottomless supply of money. The question for our community is not how long this lasts, but what role we will play in continuing it.
To further decolonize our minds:
Here are TEN reasons NOT to fall for the “Asian American Penalty” trap in admissions!
Mobilizing Social Science Research to Inform Judicial Decision-making: SFFA V. Harvard
What do you make of the affirmative action debate at these elite institutions? Let us know!
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Imagine, white students dont want to be discrimated against because of the color of their skin. Next thing you know, they might want to be treated equally in hiring!