“I oppose affirmative action. But I also oppose legacy admissions, I oppose any kind of process or system that tries to degrade us from the principle of merit that our country was built upon. We’re founded upon excellence. That’s what the American dream is….That is a universal Maxim with which we should be striving to.”
In this episode of ATL:NOW, I am joined by board member of Students for Fair Admissions Kenny Xu, plaintiff in a landmark federal case against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the universities’ affirmative action policies discriminate against Asian-Americans and are a violation of the constitution.
“It’s a big decision. This means that Americans can rest easy knowing that they will be treated based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin at a critical time of their life, which is college admissions. At least they will know that their race cannot play a factor for or against them, which is something they can’t control,” says Xu.
Xu explains that the verdict is actually a win for both Asian-Americans and Black students.
“At UC Berkeley, after they banned affirmative action, the Black kids went down briefly, but the Black graduation rate went up. And actually, the number of Black bachelor’s degrees remain the same. Isn’t that exciting?,” asks Xu. “Affirmative action…all it does is it mismatches kids into places where they could thrive in another school. It’s not about the prestige of your school. Most educators, and even the left know that it’s about what you do with it.”
Affirmative action programs, which include DEI and CRT, are in opposition to the idea of meritocracy, argues Xu.
“Asians choose to focus on academics. Some people choose to focus on sports. Some people choose to focus on art. Some people choose to focus on business. You should allow people to receive the rewards in their efforts, wherever it goes,” says Xu.
