Harvard University sued over discrimination towards Asian Americans

This is completely justified. Affirmative action is outdated and needs to be eliminated.

On Monday, federal lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were filed alleging that both universities discriminated against white and Asian American students as a result of their race-based affirmative action policies.

The Project on Fair Representation (POFR), which is spearheading the suit on behalf of a new organization called Students for Fair Admissions, argues that both Harvard and UNC follow policies that admit African Americans and Hispanics over better-qualified Asians. In the case of Harvard, POFR also accuses the school of having a hard quota for how many Asians are admitted to the school, which they compare to the school’s quota on Jews that existed prior to World War II.

The lawsuit represents a follow-up effort to Fisher v. University of Texas, a 2013 Supreme Court case in which POFR fell short in an effort to have all racial affirmative action abolished.

In that case the court ruled that racial affirmative action may be acceptable in order to achieve diversity at a school, but that such affirmative action is subject to “strict scrutiny,” the highest standard of judicial review for a policy. Under strict scrutiny, a narrow violation of certain constitutional rights is acceptable as long as it achieves a compelling government interest and there is no alternative method of achieving that interest other than said restriction.

In these new lawsuits, POFR argues that UNC and Harvard cannot meet the burden of strict scrutiny because other, more constitutional means could be used to establish diversity.

The lawsuit represents new territory in the campaign by activists seeking to abolish affirmative action. In the past, efforts have focused exclusively on public universities. Harvard, however, is a private university, which traditionally have had more leeway to set their own policies. The new lawsuit argues that despite its private status, Harvard is still subject to the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause via Article VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination by all institutions receiving federal funds.

Both schools have defended their admissions policies, with Harvard telling The Associated Press their holistic approach to applicants had been explicitly held up as acceptable by the Supreme Court in its 1978 ruling University of California v. Bakke.

However, according to POFR, Harvard’s holistic admissions are really just a thin veneer for a highly racially-oriented policy. Their lawsuit points out that Harvard’s Asian population rose swiftly throughout the 80s and early 90s (as America’s Asian population surged) but then abruptly stagnated in the 90s at around 16.5 percent and has barely moved since.

In comparison, at schools that explicitly do not use racial affirmative action, such as Caltech and the University of California system, Asians are about twice as common as they are at Harvard. Harvard’s efforts to keep the number of Asians down are so great, POFR says, that two different applicant pools exist, one for Asians and one for everybody else.

Even playing field. Harvard should take a stand against Affirmative Action. There is no need to discriminate against anyone based off skin color or socioeconomic background. If you don’t get in, MAYBE you’re just not good enough?!

Source 1 and 2.

7 thoughts on “Harvard University sued over discrimination towards Asian Americans

  • Anonymous

    Governments like mediocrity because that is where the maximum votes are. Forcing an above average private institution to become average is a drawback of democracy.

    Reply
  • Marisa Sung

    Harvard University sued over discrimination towards Asian Americans! This is completely justified. Affirmative action is outdated and needs to be eliminated. On Monday, federal lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were filed alleging that both universities discriminated against white and Asian American students as a result of their race-based affirmative action policies.

    I was born half deaf and there weren’t any “special privileges” or quotas for the disabled when I was growing up. My parents told me that I had to work much harder than everyone else and my father home schooled me in addition to my attending Catholic School full-time. The bar has been raised higher=one must work harder to compete. Bronx Science was mostly first generation Chinese and Jewish because they scored the highest on the entrance exams. That is how it must be regardless of your faith, ethnicity and or socioeconomic status! The Affirmative Action Law is archaic and must be abolished! Harvard had a policy of taking just 1 individual per high school back in the day when I was applying to colleges and Georgetown University followed the same procedure = if you went to a highly competitive high school your chances were lower. Due to this policy, I was wait listed by my top choice=Georgetown. Due to Affirmative Action, all of the students of Hispanic and African American background were admitted to all of the Ivies along with full scholarships despite their much lower student rankings=completely unfair! We all attended the same school with the same curriculum! If you meet and/or surpass the required credentials, you should be admitted, if you do not, admission should not be permitted based on ethnicity! 🙁

    Harvard University Crimson Fight Song

    Reply
  • Marisa Sung

    Harvard University is the most liberal educational institution out there. I never had any desire to attend Harvard in any capacity. There are much better schools out there who don’t buy into the liberal brainwashing of their students! Most CEO’s in this Country are the Alumni of great State Universities like University of Michigan, University of Indiana, University of Wisconsin, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina, etc. 🙂

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    Those are great examples of Universities that created industrial leaders and contributed to economic expansion.

    Then there’s this…..

    http://youtu.be/j4XhDpSgHrs And so it began…….ha!

    Reply
  • Marisa Sung

    Harvard University sued over discrimination towards Asian Americans! This is completely justified. Affirmative action is outdated and needs to be eliminated. On Monday, federal lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were filed alleging that both universities discriminated against white and Asian American students as a result of their race-based affirmative action policies.

    I was born half deaf and there weren’t any “special privileges” or quotas for the disabled when I was growing up. My parents told me that I had to work much harder than everyone else and my father home schooled me in addition to my attending Catholic School full-time. The bar has been raised higher=one must work harder to compete. Bronx Science was mostly first generation Chinese and Jewish because they scored the highest on the entrance exams. That is how it must be regardless of your faith, ethnicity and or socioeconomic status!

    The Affirmative Action Law is archaic and must be abolished! We now have an “African American” President although he is not from Africa and his enemies claim he is hardly American but who am I to judge?? He definitely benefited from Affirmative Action along with his gem of a wife and as such paved the way for the following generation to succeed on their own merit so why do we still have Affirmative Action?? 🙁

    Harvard had a policy of taking just 1 individual per high school back in the day when I was applying to colleges and Georgetown University followed the same procedure = if you went to a highly competitive high school your chances were lower. Due to this policy, I was wait listed by my top choice=Georgetown despite the fact that my family has serious connections to that school! Unless, you make a huge donation to the school, they don’t give you preference for family connections! Due to Affirmative Action, all of the students of Hispanic and African American background were admitted to all of the Ivies along with full scholarships despite their much lower student rankings=completely unfair! We all attended the same school with the same curriculum! If you meet and/or surpass the required credentials, you should be admitted, if you do not, admission should not be permitted based on ethnicity! 🙁

    Affirmative Action “Creates More Racial Injustice”

    The University of Texas is notorious for having to accept Mexican Candidates most of whom are either Illegal Immigrants or the children of Illegal Immigrants! This angers the legal tax paying citizens of the State of Texas! 🙁

    Reply
  • SigneTonAvenir.org

    The Project on Fair Representation (POFR), which is spearheading the suit on behalf of a new organization called Students for Fair Admissions, argues that both Harvard and UNC follow policies that admit African Americans and Hispanics over better-qualified Asians.

    Reply

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