How Affirmative Action is Harmful to Asian Americans and Perpetuates Systemic Bias

in #affirmative6 years ago (edited)

I was more than qualified for admission to Columbia University, an Ivy League school, based on hard statistics like test scores and GPA. I will keep my specific details private, but I am an Asian American who was likely discriminated against on the basis of race and "diversity." I ended up attending and graduating from another highly ranked institution but one that was not an Ivy. Even though I ended up carving out a life most would say was successful, I certainly had to struggle against a system that stacked the odds against me, and continues to do so.

I believe all Asian-Americans struggle against bias in Western society, particularly men, as our society stereotypes them as unassertive, unattractive, and socially awkward. The racial bias runs even deeper against darker-skinned South Asians. The bias is so painfully obvious to anyone who cares to actually look, empathize. and pay attention. Pedigrees from schools like Harvard are one way to overcome this systemic bias, but Asians, while deserving based on merit, are shut out of these elite institutions in the name of "diversity." This to me is an abuse of "white privilege." By selecting members of one minority population over another simply on the basis of race, so these so-called "elite" institutions can claim their campus is "diverse", all while keeping their own numbers of white students inflated. Until we see elite college campuses looking like UC Berkeley, where admissions are race blind, and where 42% of their incoming class is Asian, roughly double the percentage of the Ivy institutions, there is work to be done.

If you believe in meritocracy in college admissions and that this injustice has no place in modern society, I encourage you to donate at https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/. These folks are suing Harvard for racial discrimination and the case is likely going to the Supreme Court. I personally donated to the effort.