Why Race-Conscious Admissions Benefits Asian Americans
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing, for the second time, arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, a constitutional challenge to the university’s equal opportunity in admissions policy.
Though the petitioners in this case are not Asian American, Asian Americans are often found to be at the center of the debate on race-conscious admissions practices, pegged against other communities of color. In fact, the petitioners explicitly claim that University of Texas’s admissions plan “burdens” Asian American students.
But there is no evidence that University of Texas’s admissions practices discriminates against or harms Asian Americans. University of Texas, Austin, began considering race as a factor in 2005, and since then, there has been no drop in Asian American overall admissions. Opponents of race-conscious admissions also point to a gap in test scores between Asian American applicants and applicants of any other ethnicity, but this “test score gap” long existed before race-conscious admissions practices.
There is, however, much stronger evidence that shows admissions policies that consider race benefit all students, including Asian Americans.
Throughout our nation’s history, race-conscious admissions has directly benefited Asian Americans. Asian Americans, similar to African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, were subject to historic exclusion and de jure segregation in public education, particularly in California with its significant Asian American population. During this time, Asian Americans were designated beneficiaries of various affirmative action programs and these programs began to ameliorate the long history of discrimination and exclusion experienced by Asian Americans in accessing higher education.
Even today, Asian Americans benefit. There is great diversity within the Asian American community. Around 11 percent of Asian Americans live below the federal poverty line. Some Asian American ethnic groups, including Hmong, Cambodian and Bangladeshi, are among the most impoverished in the country. While 73 percent of Taiwanese and 68 percent of Indians have bachelor’s degrees, that rate drops down to 14 percent for Cambodians and Hmong. Like many other students of color, they grow up facing obstacles to educational opportunity, like underfunded schools and outdated textbooks.
Admission policies like those at University of Texas allow these students to have a fair shot. University of Texas does not pre-determine how many Asian American, black, Latino, or other students of color it will accept before reviewing applications. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled long ago that universities cannot use a quota system.
Instead, the university considers an applicant’s test scores, class rank and course work. If these measures aren’t enough to grant admission, the University then turns to the weighted average score of two required essays and a holistic review of the entire application. Holistic review considers an applicant’s entire file, including demonstrated leadership qualities, extracurricular activities, awards, essays, work experience, community service and special circumstances. These special circumstances could include socioeconomic status, family situation, and only then, race.
Yet despite the many considerations that go into admissions, the petitioners in this case are only challenging race as a factor, contending that race should play no role in admissions in spite of the fact that race continues to define who a person is.
Asian Americans would likely agree that their families’ immigrant experience, as well as race, has shaped them. And the high court has already made clear that learning with and from people of different backgrounds and perspectives benefits all students, and in turn that benefits our communities, our work force, our military and our country as a whole.
Today, Asian Americans– particularly South Asian and Muslim students — are often targets of discrimination and hate crimes, as are other communities of color. In just the last few weeks, we’ve seen how fearmongering has been used to halt Syrian refugees from finding safety in the United States, and how Sikh and Muslim Americans have been profiled since the attacks in Paris.
With America’s shifting demographics, our students need to learn from and about each other. It’s critical to the success of our nation that our young adults understand and respect all races and ethnicities and appreciate — not fear — those who are different from them. In today’s racially-charged climate, it’s more important than ever that the U.S Supreme Court continues to recognize the many educational benefits of race-conscious admissions so universities can build student bodies that foster a meaningful understanding of our nation’s diversity.
