In 2014, Edward Blum, a well-known conservative Jew and founder of Students for Fair Admissions, led a group of Asian-American students to sue Harvard for supposedly capping Asian-American admissions, while engaging in “racial-balancing”. One of the most commonly cited studies in the discussion of higher education and affirmative action’s work against Asian-Americans is sociologist Thomas Espenshade’s demographic analysis of applicant date, from 1980 to 1990. By examining the correlation between race and standardized test scores, Espenshade showed that Asians, on average, needed to score 140 points higher than their white counterparts in order to face the same probability of acceptance by competitive private colleges. In addition to a plethora of critiques, this study fosters an incompetent argument against affirmative action. It reveals that college admissions work against Asian-Americans, and for white students. But which American institution does not? There are admissions loopholes which favor athletes and children of alumni and donors. Ivy-league schools actively recruit athletes to be a part of their sports teams, who tend to be white and wealthy. The same goes for legacy children, as students of color tend to be first-generation, from a lower socioeconomic class, and lack certain academic resources and opportunities. With this in mind and the circulation of wealth, I think that college acceptances often play into the favor of white students. This, in turn, affects “racial quotas”, as white students’ acceptances are heightened by various “loopholes”, enabling them to fill up a majority of a class. The most convincing set of statistics examines the growth of the Asian-American population in California and the decreased growth rate of admissions. While this may suggest the end of affirmative action, especially in California, has hurt the Asian-American applicant pool, it strongly affirms that affirmative action is not against Asian-Americans. All in all, I think that it is important to examine stats and data, rather than false and misleading narratives that convolute our perspective of affirmative action.
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