Affirmative Action as an Asian American

I should preface this by saying that I don't presume to speak for all Asian Americans.  In fact, I think Asian Americans are quite split on the issue of affirmative action.  But the title is nicely alliterative so I went with it.

When I was in California this past spring, my uncle was discussing a recent California senate initiative (SCA-5) that asked the voters to overturn certain provisions of California Proposition 209.  Previously in November 1996, California had passed Proposition 209, which amended the state constitution to prohibit state governmental institutions from considering race, ethnicity, or gender in areas of public employment, public contracting, and public education.  This of course, wiped out any form of affirmative action which existed at the UC's.  In the subsequent years, the UC's have seen a rise in the attendance of Asian American students, while a significant decline in the populations of Native American, African American and Latino students.  SCA-5 wouldn't overturn all of Proposition 209.  It would target specifically public education.  It sought to eliminate public school system as part of the definition of "state" and delete the provision regarding operations of the state in the area of public education.  SCA-5 passed the California Senate in January of earlier this year, but its lead author backed off when faced with significant opposition from Asian American groups.  The measure has now been withdrawn from consideration.

California's experience with the ban of affirmative action isn't a story isolated to just California.  It's happening across the nation, including the public school system in New York in which admissions into the "best" schools is determined by testing.  Similarly, they are experiencing a significant decline in African American and Latino students, as well as white students, and nearly 75% of their student population is Asian American.

My uncle, with two young pre-college sons, was convinced that California was considering such a measure with the sole purpose of keeping Asian Americans out of the UCs.   He believes it is discrimination specifically targeted at Asian Americans.  Any arguments I might have thrown his way to suggest the contrary fell on deaf ears.  After all, on paper, it sounds like a fair and meritorious system.  The decline of African American and Latino students at these universities was likely simply because they lacked the SAT scores and grades to get in.  They simply weren't smart enough or good enough.  Unfortunately, my uncle's view is shared by many other Asian Americans who fear that their "spot" would be unfairly taken up by someone less deserving.

Not all Asian Americans share my uncle's view.  Myself, in particular, but there were also many other Asian American groups who were in support of SCA-5, such as the Asian Law Caucus, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Asian Pacific Americans for Higher Education.  They believe, as I do, that raising admissions percentages for all minorities will benefit Asian Americans students.   In the article above about Stuyvesant High School, Irwin Tang says,

“Affirmative action lowers the bar for black and Hispanic students,” Tang said. “They don’t have to score high or have as high of a GPA compared to an Asian student. That’s why many Asian students are being advised not to reveal their race.”

I always find this curious.  Unless one were of mixed race and had a non-Asian last name, when we apply to colleges and universities, our names are invariably attached to our applications.  One can often often tell gender and race just from the name alone.  The worry that our applications may be ignored by not checking a box is ignorant to the fact that race and gender inform all aspects of our life and experience.

Moreover, I struggle with Tang's argument that affirmative action lowers the bar for black and Hispanic students.  This is one of the sore misunderstandings of affirmative action.  All colleges and universities only want capable and successful students.  High percentage of students who drop out or take much longer than 4 years to graduate all reflect poorly on the caliber of the university/college.  On the other hand, students who make history, e.g. start Facebook, start Microsoft, become President of the United States are bragging rights.  But the students who will become the next Microsoft CEO or the president of the United States aren't always reflected in just your SAT scores and grades.  Sometimes it is about recognizing a singular drive in a student that may not always translate to test scores.  Discussions of who "deserves" an admissions letter just reeks of entitlement to me.

Post Proposition 209, when the UCs saw the population of African American and Latino students drop to alarming numbers, they took it upon themselves to adopt a variety of race neutral methods to boost those numbers.  This included reducing reliance on standardized test scores, creating outreach programs at high poverty high schools, encouraging community college transfers, looking at socioeconomic statuses, and my personal favorites - banning legacy preferences for children of alumni.  (Seriously, in discussions of fairness in college admissions, why haven't legacy preferences been banned at all public universities?!)  All these are good things, but while researchers Potter and Kahlenberg found that these methods have indeed increased the population of African American and Latino students at the UCs, Berkeley and UCLA are exceptions.

While I applaud the race neutral methods that universities have adopted, I nonetheless still support an admission practice where race is taken into consideration. Privilege in our society comes in many forms, including socioeconomic status and I would not want any university to stop the methods that they have adopted that have built a diverse campus. But in the situation of UCLA and Berkeley, we cannot exclude race as yet another form privilege presents itself. As an Asian American, I benefit from my race in an academic setting. It's been known since 1964 that teacher expectations has a significant effect on student achievement. Nobody questions my intelligence or capability because of my race and at times, I am assumed to be more intelligent, hard working, or capable because of my race. As such, I am more likely to be trusted with completion of projects; I get offered more assignments, more responsibility which translates to more opportunities to prove myself and pad my resume. Negative stereotypes surrounding Latino and African American students undoubtedly impact their performance as students. We can afford to move to a meritorious system of college admissions when we have a society in which racial stereotypes do not exist. I do not believe that such a society will ever exist in reality, but even if I didn't believe that, we are certainly far far from it.

Of course, these arguments fail to make an impression on my uncle, and I sometimes wonder if I have the luxury to hang on to such ideals precisely because I don't have any children, and am not thinking about their college admission.