Affirmative action under fire
Protesters take sides in lawsuit vs. Harvard
Protesters took to the street yesterday, arguing for and against affirmative action in separate demonstrations ahead of opening arguments in federal court today in the Harvard University discrimination trial.
Hundreds gathered in Copley Square to protest affirmative action, arguing the policy is harmful to Asian-American students by imposing higher requirements with lower acceptance rates in comparison with other races. Protesters said students were being discriminated against based on their race.
“This isn’t just about affirmative action, it is about it affects and how it hurts Asian-Americans,” Harvard student Kelley Babphavong said. “It makes you feel pitted against your community, but race isn’t an indicator of your background.”
She said college admissions should be blind so the focus is on applicants’ characters and academics rather than a quota.
“Studies have shown that Asian-Americans typically score higher on academic ratings but usually on the personal ratings score lower,” Babphavong said. “We have seen that same thing happen in the last century with the Jews, and it is scary to see history repeating itself with diversity.”
The organization Students for Fair Admissions filed suit against Harvard on the basis of racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in its applications, saying that the university holds them to a higher standard than other students with a lower acceptance rate.
The suit started in 2014, following implications that race is a factor in admissions in order to create a more diverse campus.
The lawsuit cites a Duke University economist’s analysis of Harvard admissions data, saying “AsianAmerican applicants who have a 25 percent chance of getting in would have a 35 percent chance if they were white, and dramatically better odds than that if they were black or Latino.”
Harvard denies the allegations, saying the university has not done anything unconstitutional in its admissions process.
Meanwhile, at Harvard Square in Cambridge, students and teachers gathered in counterprotest to defend affirmative action.
“Diversity doesn’t just mean seeing faces of different colors across campus,” Harvard Law School student Gregory Davis told the Legal Defense Fund. Davis said he saw firsthand the impacts of disbanding affirmative action in California.
“If affirmative action is dismantled, it has a grand ripple across the country,” Davis said. “When affirmative action was outlawed in California, the proportion of black people in classrooms dropped overnight. It was really tough, and it has never really recovered from it.”
In a statement, Harvard said if the lawsuit succeeds, “it would diminish students’ opportunities to live and learn in a diverse campus environment — denying them the kind of experiences that are central to Harvard’s educational mission and critical for success in our diverse society.”