Since the Supreme Court deemed affirmative action unconstitutional in June 2023, many have wondered what this will mean for the college admissions process. Now that the current admissions cycle is coming to a close, it’s clear that people of color have once again been used as pawns to further the ideals of white supremacy.
Early last year, Asian American students became the center of this discussion when Jon Wang was featured in a viral video on X (formerly Twitter). Wang was rejected from six elite universities, so he blamed affirmative action and other students of color for those rejections.
It was confirmed that the University of California has a history of suppressing Asian American admissions in competition with white students since the 1980s. American strategist, Edward Blum, and other anti-affirmative action groups have coined Asian Americans as the victims of race based admissions. This has created friction between Asian Americans and other minority groups.
Instead of directing their justified anger toward white admissions boards, Black and brown students have become the target of the affirmative action discussion. In Wang’s viral video, it’s implied that he and other Asian American students don’t receive admissions into universities at the same rate as Black and Hispanic students.
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While I don’t agree with most anti-affirmative action ideals, I can understand why some Asian American students feel overlooked by universities. Organizations like the Education Data Initiative publish statistics that favor Black and brown students. For example, the initiative published, “Attendance among [Black or African-American] demographic has increased by 125.5%.” A similar statistic was released for Hispanic and Latino students.
Meanwhile, that statistic is not present for Asian or Asian American students on the same website. This is just one instance of the education system pinning people of color against each other. This makes it much easier for these organizations to use and manipulate Asian Americans for their cause.
It’s undeniable that Asian American students are being wronged by the college admissions process, and it should also be known that the racial friction as a result is very intentional. It’s evident that the Asian American identity has been weaponized by people like Edward Blum in the court to get the decision they wanted. Blum’s first attempt at striking down race-based admissions was by using white plaintiffs, but those cases failed miserably.
To be clear, affirmative action was never a perfect system, but it certainly helped even the playing field for students of color, including Asian Americans. Over time, universities found ways to manipulate the policy. Now that it’s been struck down, I don’t think university practices will go anywhere. These institutions will still find a way to admit the students they want and reject the students they don’t.
Affirmative action has been struck down, and this means diversity, equity and inclusion programs are next. The university has already gotten a head start by doing away with the DEI initiatives on campus. Race based admissions is only the beginning for what’s to come.
Now that affirmative action in higher education is gone, who will these organizations blame when certain students aren’t admitted at their desired rates? What will be the new excuse?
Jemiah Clemons is a 19-year-old kinesiology sophomore from Miami, Florida.
