We, the Coalition of Asian American Student Organizations, stand in strong opposition to the Supreme Court’s decisions on affirmative action and believe in advancing racial equity across all facets of education. As beneficiaries of the privilege granted by these elite universities, we understand how important it is for these opportunities to be accessible. The Court’s decisions move us further from that goal.
We write this letter as a coalition of Asian American students who recognize that media representation of Asian Americans in this conversation has highlighted certain groups that fiercely oppose affirmative action. We find this to be an incomplete representation of our community.
The fight for justice and equality for Asian Americans is deeply connected with that of other marginalized groups, and we stand in solidarity with Black, Latine, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous people. It was the work of Black civil rights leaders that enabled many Asian Americans to find a home in this country through the 1965 Immigration Act. In higher education, Asian American student organizations joined Latine, African American, and Native/Indigenous student organizations in establishing the “Third World Liberation Front” (twLF) in 1968. The strikers successfully fought for ethnic studies and increased admission of working class students of color at San Francisco State and UC Berkeley. True racial equity is only possible when all of our communities work together.
In honor of the campus organizers and community leaders that fought before our times, coalitions of students from all walks of life have demonstrated our deep support for race-conscious admissions in the SFFA v. Harvard and UNC cases. Numerous student, alumni, and civil rights organizations, including diverse affinity groups from Harvard and UNC, opposed the Court’s ruling. The widespread opposition to the ruling demonstrates the nationwide solidarity between students of different marginalized groups.
We reject the claim that race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against Asian American applicants. Race-conscious admissions benefit all marginalized groups, including Asian Americans. Affirmative action policies particularly assist Asian applicants from low-income and underrepresented ethnic backgrounds. Much of the data claiming that these policies discriminate against Asian Americans have been disputed and are far from settled. It is critical to acknowledge that underrepresented groups such as Hmong, Vietnamese, Filipino, Laotian, Bhutanese, Burmese, Mongolian, and Cambodian Americans all fall under the broad category of Asian American. However, their experiences in the US in areas such as employment or education can vary greatly from other Asian groups such as Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Japanese Americans. Further, the Asian American community has one of the greatest wealth gaps of any racial group in the United States. The term “Asian American” encompasses a deeply diverse community that cannot be generalized with harmful stereotypes like the “model minority” myth.
Historically, the United States has exploited racially marginalized groups and denied them equal rights. This history continues to impact our society, including our education system, in which there are still clearly documented disadvantages against Black and Latine students. Need-conscious admissions alone do not directly address this inequity, since some educational discrimination is directly race-based. Thus, race-conscious admissions remain an important way to take an applicant’s experiences into account.
In contrast, many institutions continue to benefit from these historical injustices, such as the labor exploitation of Black, Asian, Latine, and Indigenous people and the dispossession of Indigenous land. Today’s educational institutions were able to amass their wealth and resources in part through these processes of exploitation. Affirmative action policies alone cannot solve these inequities and are merely one tool used to address them. While these institutions can provide opportunities to racially and economically marginalized students, they were primarily designed to benefit the upper class and, in many instances, continue to reproduce forms of inequality—most obviously, through policies such as legacy admissions. We should not aim to merely diversify exclusive schools or include more racial minorities in the wealthy elite. Instead, we need to fight for an education system that truly works for an equitable society, and a future free of these systems of exclusion and exploitation.
The recent Supreme Court decision would not be so consequential without the outsized power and influence of elite universities in our society. We know firsthand that exclusive universities confer advantages to students like us, who gain access to resources, connections, and prestige not available to our peers. Thus, it is understandable that many in our community oppose affirmative action, which they believe restricts their access to these resources and the opportunities they can provide. While this belief is inaccurate, it reflects a very real anxiety about the limited possibilities to achieve one’s dreams, or even just to reach financial stability. However, this anxiety should not be taken out upon other racialized communities. Rather than blaming other students for “stealing spots” at top schools, we should instead question this scarcity mindset and work towards making quality education and opportunity accessible to all.
Affirmative action was never a flawless policy, but it was a crucial component in this comprehensive effort toward justice. We must continue to grapple with long histories of exclusion, and without race-conscious policies, this struggle becomes that much harder.
We will continue to advocate for racial equity on campuses, pushing for increased admissions outreach efforts directed toward historically underrepresented students. Furthermore, we will continue the fight for the inclusion of Asian American Studies and other ethnic studies courses—fields that have long been underfunded and undervalued.
This ruling does not mark the end of our efforts to ensure racial equity in higher education. Our organizations, now and always, will advocate for diversity and cross-racial solidarity. In doing so, we hope to honor the culture of collectivism and care that defines our heritage. We stand with all students of color, united against injustice.
Undersigned Organizations
- Amherst College Asian and Pacific American Action Committee
- Brown University/Rhode Island School of Design Asian American Political Alliance
- Boston University Asian Student Union
- Columbia Asian American Alliance
- Dartmouth Asian American Studies Collective
- Georgetown Asian American Student Association
- Georgia Tech Asian American Student Association
- Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association
- Johns Hopkins University Inter-Asian Council
- Princeton Asian American Students Association
- Stanford Asian American Activism Committee
- Stony Brook Asian Students Alliance
- University of North Carolina Asian American Students Association
- University of Pennsylvania Asian Pacific Student Coalition
- Washington University in St. Louis Asians Demanding Justice
- Yale Asian American Students Alliance
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