Opinion | Affirmative action in US universities is unfair, not least to Asian-Americans

Preferential treatment in university admissions for some minorities but not others is neither fair nor in the American spirit

It also takes away from the achievements of those, like Asian-Americans, who have managed to succeed without affirmative action, or even in spite of it

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Demonstrators protests against Harvard University’s admission process at Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2018. Since 2014, Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action group, has been fighting a case against Harvard for an unfair admissions policy it says discriminates against Asian-Americans. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:00am, 18 Jun 2023

With the conservative US Supreme Court likely to overturn race-based affirmative action for university admissions in the coming days, many have spoken out about the need for such a policy even though most Americans believe it should be banned.

Even if we were to disregard the voice of the majority in our democracy, the principle of affirmative action – the preference given to minority groups who have historically been discriminated against in the US – is neither aligned with the ideals of our enlightened society nor faithfully applied.

Affirmative action is not an end in itself but a means contrived to achieve a specific end. That end is to “ensure that applicants are treated equally without regard to race, colour, religion, sex or national origin”, according to the executive order signed by president John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Nothing is more ironic and illogical than implementing a means opposite to the end it strives for. So much for Dr Martin Luther King Jnr’s dream for his children to one day “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.

The current practice of affirmative action, even if one were to endorse its principle, also begs the question of why Asians are notably excluded. From the passing of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act in response to “yellow peril” fears – the notion that Asian immigrants were stealing American jobs, simply because they worked hard and were willing to take less pay – to the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, the Asian-American community has not been immune to historical discrimination and marginalisation in the US.

Nor are we free from racism today, as manifested in the rise in Asian hate crimes at the peak of the Covid-19 lockdowns and amid worsening US-China relations.

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