Asian Americans for Affirmative Action

Sunday's NYT Education supplement ran a cover story by Timothy Egan about Asian Americans and affirmative action. Focusing on UC Berkeley -- where Asians have grown to 41% of the student body since Proposition 209 banned racial preferences in 1997 -- Egan observes that the end of affirmative action and the implementation of a "pure meritocracy" in admissions spells hugely disproportionate numbers of Asians at elite colleges and drastic shortages of Hispanics and African Americans. Berkeley, he concludes somewhat ominously, is the future of higher education.

But you don't need the NYT to spot the trend. Just take a day trip to the Ivy league campus of your choice. Back when I was at Yale (in the mid-'90s), Kim was the most common last name. Outdoing the Jones by far, there were, I think, 51 of us at one point. (There were even, to my chagrin, two Richard Kims!) As Egan points out, Asian Americans comprise roughly 5% of the US population but represent anywhere from 13-40% of undergraduates at many top schools: 27% at MIT, 24% at Stanford, 17% at UT Austin, 13% at Columbia, 37% in the UC system as a whole and so forth. In contrast, only 3.6% of Berkeley's freshman class are African American and only 11% are Hispanic -- way below state population levels.

Egan's right about the numbers, but he misses the mark on many other measures. First, he underplays the differences between "brain drain" Asian Americans and more recent, less affluent, less educated Asian immigrants. As Frank Wu points out in his book Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, after the passage of Prop. 209, Filipino Americans (like African Americans) were "zeroed out" at Berkeley's law school despite the fact that the Bay area contains one of the largest Filipino communities in the US. Egan does quote a few academics who note that Sri Lankans and Koreans are not the same people, but he makes it seem as if the salient differences are matters of culture and "values" rather than of class and access.

Secondly, for much of the article Egan gives the erroneous impression that Asian Americans are just delighted about their demographic surge at the UCs, biting to end affirmative action elsewhere and seize seats currently reserved for other minorities. He gives airtime to Jian Li, who's campaigning to deny Princeton federal funding because he thinks its admission policy discriminates against Asian Americans. (Despite a perfect SAT score, Li was rejected by the Tigers. But don't shed a tear just yet, he's doing quite fine at Yale). And Egan cites a 2005 study by Thomas J. Espenshade and Chang Y. Chung that finds that, without affirmative action, Asians (and not whites) would fill the vast majority (80%) of spots reserved for African Americans and Hispanics at elite universities.

But what Egan fails to note here is that, despite the possibility that Asian Americans may be the group most "disadvantaged" by affirmative action, they consistently, vigorously and overwhelmingly support it at the polls. Back in 1996, California governor Pete Wilson, Ward Connerly and a host of other right-wingers ran a vicious, race-wedge campaign for Prop. 209. Asian communities were targeted with a slew of invidious, "me-first" messages designed to appeal to their narrow self-interests. And yet, 61% of Asian American voters rejected Prop. 209. Last year, when Michigan voters approved a similar measure (Prop. 2) by 58%, 75% of Asian American voters voted against it. Joining the NAACP, Rainbow/Push Coalition, the ACLU and the UAW in mobilizing opposition to Prop. 2 was the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The real question then about Asian Americans and affirmative action -- one that Egan and the NYT don't ask -- is why? Why do we continue to support a policy that apparently "harms" us? One answer is that it doesn't, at least not always and not equally. Connerly and his minions -- who have anti-affirmative action initiatives brewing in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska -- have focused their message almost exclusively on admissions, and not on public employment and state contracts, even though affirmative action applies to those arenas as well, arenas in which Asian Americans are often underrepresented. (By focusing solely on Prop. 209's impact on UC admissions, the NYT repeats Connerly's misinformation).

But racial group interest aside, I have a hunch that Asian Americans support affirmative action because the legacy of discrimination against Asians -- from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to Japanese internment to the crucifixion of Wen Ho Lee to post-9/11 roundups of brown folk -- is seared into our collective memory. And despite the model minority myth, and despite the occasional con-jobs like Dinesh d'Souza or Elaine Chao, most of us know that the deck isn't fairly stacked, that the moment demands remedy, for us and for others.

The last question I'll raise is: What's up with white people? If abolishing affirmative action would gain whites little in the admissions game (and then mostly to the ruling class of whites) and if Asian Americans reap most of the benefits of what Egan calls a "pure meritocracy," then why is it that only white people as a group vote to end affirmative action? Why are the litigants and campaigners at the forefront of the affirmative action backlash predominately white (Connerly aside)? From where does this seething, misplaced, amnesiac resentment, so often masquerading as class-consciousness (see Walter Benn Michaels) and fairness, come?

Egan's article, if unwittingly, at least provides a clue. In his Bladerunner-esque, dystopian image of Berkeley as "Asian heaven," as "boring socially, full of science nerds, a hard place to make friends," as abuzz with "foreign languages" and packed with "clubs representing every conceivable ethnic group," lies the real anxiety behind the white backlash -- the unnerving, inevitable end of the white republic. If Berkeley is indeed the future of America, then neither maintaining nor abolishing affirmative action will preserve this American future as a white refuge. But keeping (and restoring) affirmative action will provide, however imperfectly, space for not just the yellow, but also for the brown, the red and the black.

Comments (18)

1. "But racial group interest aside,..."

   Is that POSSIBLE in a discussion of affirmative action?

   Or is it even possible to discuss the failure of the IDEA of affirmative action????

   Posted by Mask at 01/09/2007 @ 10:11am

2. not comfy with affirmative action (which i think is a good attitude, support it or not), but at the risk of echoeing the whiney whitey, "wish i had some freebies in life" mantra...i support colorblind implementation of affirmative action up to a point. what point? ah, there's the rub...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 01/09/2007 @ 10:15am

3. For me this is another example as to why Afirmative Action(quotas based on color) are a joke ...Asian Americans, as well as any other group know a free pass when they see one and no one wants it to go away.. I still believe any group will take any advantage over another when offered...

   the real question that should be asked and studied is this..forget counting the number of face colors of those coming or being allowed in the front door of American Universitys...count those leaving the back door with degrees...and compare those with those leaving the side door with out a degree(drop outs, failures, or unabled)...THEN count color of the faces...might give you a real measure of effectiveness of the program..or would that be to close to the truth of the whole concept?

   Affirmative Action holds spots in principle for those who have had a history of past discriminations..regardless of abilitys of qualifications of those applying at times...hence perfect scores not being admitted..defeats the whole concept of higher learning and turns the whole thing into a social program...and we as a society never seem to experience the best and the brightest, but the most poilical corrected....

   Posted by john maasch at 01/09/2007 @ 10:21am

4. AA to "work" has to be SO complex as to be ridiculous.

   The prime example would be a "Cosby Kid" (no, not Fat Albert and Mushmouth), but the son and daughters of Bill Cosby. Rich, well-educated at private schools, but under a "basic" Affirmative Action plan....they'd get "points" for being African-American, that a white kid from a middle class family wouldn't get, because Mr Cosby's great-great-grandfather was a slave and his father had to sit at the back of the bus....while his kids never worked a day in their lives and rode at the back of a limousine.

   So then you fix it to "income", then you get a higher proportion of POOR whites getting screwed over by poor minorities....and you fix it again....and again...and again.

   Meanwhile the "civil rights" or "racial group interest" groups (as Mr Kim noted) get into it and start complaining because it's "not working for THEIR 'people'" and you have to fix it again.

   Remember the same people who CAME UP with Affirmative Action...which led to "University of California v. Bakke" in 1978...are the same ones who claim they can FIX it (or even that there's "really not much wrong with it")!

   Posted by Mask at 01/09/2007 @ 10:31am

5. Posted by JOHN MAASCH 01/09/2007 @ 10:21am

   it is absurd. but then so are people's attitudes toward other ethnicities. i remember a hooha a few months back about affirmative action being applied in the favor of white boys...many were quite hypcritical.

   i dont like it, but think it is still needed, even if only as a precaution.

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 01/09/2007 @ 11:18am

6. "i dont like it, but think it is still needed, even if only as a precaution"

   tell this to the ones who didn't get in...with perfect SATs...

   Tell me, do you agree with counting those who GRADUATE and then count color to see if the prograsm is producing anything but talking points?

   Posted by john maasch at 01/09/2007 @ 11:31am

7. "...that refuses to culturally and socially mix with non-Asians...."

   "All speaking from first-hand experience, that is ..."

   Posted by ZERO 01/09/2007 @ 12:20am

   Okay, bets? ZERO tried to ask out some hot Korean chick at UC and she turned him down. He blames it on her being a "segregationist Asian"...

   she blames it on him being ZERO!

   Posted by Mask at 01/09/2007 @ 12:55pm

8. "a) are quite aware of and happy about their rising power and presence in the university system (46% in UC Berkeley indicates that Berkeley, for example, is now an Asian school) "

   So, Affirmative Action for whites might be in order here?

   "b) quite often demonstrate the "voluntary racial self-segregation" described by one Asian Berkeley student in the NYT write-up "

   Isn't this racist and AA programs should help eliminate this so the diversity crowd can mix?

   "c) in my personal experience frequently believe in the superiority of their own native culture over others, and take their overwhelming presence in the university system as evidence of this.."

   Because they preform better on any measureable testing system...could it be that they are there in higher numbers than black, latino, white, or what ever because the VALUE AND UNDERESTAND what an education can bring? Majoring in sciences and engineering and getting great paying jobs verses majoring in black, latino, womens diversity studies that have zero value in the real market world to anyone anywhere?

   "I personally can confirm that it is not great that Asians dominate the student body."

   why? are you racists?

   "d) typically fail, quite voluntarily, to assimilate into mainstream American culture, choosing instead to remain Asian and separate. "

   You mean like blacks and black frats houses? Like Latinos and their groups who want to take back the SW on campus? " Asian students relying on Korean and Mandarin languages as primary communication vehicles is quite real. The UC system is increasingly a mechanism by which Asians who do not assimilate gain good education, and then remain, voluntarily, a separate body within the greater American culture."

   Like the Spanish speakers who live here for generations and can't pass an english proficancy test? and teach them in Spanish all their lives here and kill off ther MEED to assimilate/

   This post is the best evidence of failure of AA programs and the need for English requirements.Period...and an example of do gooders fucking up the entire system for all in order to make some sort of "ammends" to one group...resulting in ruining the entire system.

   Posted by john maasch at 01/09/2007 @ 12:58pm

9. Should read...NEED.

   Zero has made the best case for killing off AA programs across the board..

   In Asia, they believe their culture is the best out there...and it is not a bad thing per say,..it is better than those of us here who go to great lengths to denigrate OUR culture...as the Asians and others look at you and smile...knowing you are "providing them with justifacation" by YOUR actions and behaviors...you re-enforce THEIR false beliefs and actually play into them....

   They come to our schools and learn in our language..could you go to Korea and learn in theirs?

   Evidence our system works against us and for the rest of the world couldn't be more obvious...

   and yet you STILL..."I am in general a fan of affirmative action, "...as you walk yourself up the gallows of sociaetal failure for you and yoyr culture, build by your own hands..

   KOOK thru and thru..to the very essence and core...encouraging your own extinction over time is still suicide fo you and murder for the rest of us.....and you want more goddamned programs..

   Posted by john maasch at 01/09/2007 @ 1:08pm

10. Yuck. What a lot of whiners you are. So ZERO has a thing against Asian-Americans the likes of which I see in my zone against Latinos and--still--blacks: that being stereotyping and racism a la Birth of a Nation. Such dimwitted claptrap..."personal experience" my ass. That kind of hatred has led to Jim Crow. Are they dirty and lazy, too, ZERO? Every fucking group likes to stick with its own kind and that's neither here nor there in this discussion. So leave your myopia in your head.

    What do you peons suggest, then? Hurt the Asian Americans because they overachieve? Those who are against affirmative action continue to be so for one deluded reason: they think that, all things balanced, they are better situated to succeed than other groups. Just like poor people who gripe about the government interfering with their pursuit of the American dream, uninspired, mediocre whites think the world is set aside for their pleasure, regardless of their lack of unique skills to do anything with the world once it is handed to them. Poppycock! And it's not a matter of finding past injustices to defend affirmative action. It's a matter of being aware of who constructed the economic and social landscape of our country and how best those from other groups can contribute.

    My only gripe with Mr. Kim's article is this example of The Nation's geographic bias, "Just take a day trip to the Ivy league campus of your choice." Where do you think we live, Mr. Kim? Days in my world have 24 hours and that is not enough time to travel to and from the nearest ivy tower.

    Posted by tjbehrens1 at 01/09/2007 @ 1:42pm

11. "I thought affirmative action was about assisting those who are under-represented, not over-represented? "

    so we DO need more whites..

    Again,, what are the colors of those who actually graduate?

    Isn't that more relevant to ask? And if not, why not?

    Posted by john maasch at 01/09/2007 @ 2:06pm

12. i agree tj. yuk. yuk. double yuk. if you read the responses here, what is happening in our universities makes perfect sense. maasch responds to an article that states affirmative action works against asian americans in regard to higher education with, "asian americans know a free pass when they see one..." zero's repulsive mental problems once again rise to the surface for all to see.

    i attended a small engineering college. i noticed a chinese man in one of my computer classes who appeared bewildered. he could not understand english. he seemed hyper-introverted, i guess. through chinese-english dictionaries, we communicated. i helped him through the class and we became good friends. he was very relieved to have a friend--i mean extremely relieved to have a friend. due to his work ethic, our friendship consisted of the one or two hours a week he wasn't studying. he had to go back to china after he got his phd in metallurgy. he desperately wanted to stay here. he even considered doing it illegally. but he had a wife and son in china.

    it is amazing that asian americans vote for affirmative action when it works against them as far as education goes. and that horrid past seared into their consciousness is not so far away. neither are the perspectives and attitudes that caused the horrid past.

    Posted by loveloki at 01/09/2007 @ 8:15pm

13. Speaking from personal experience, Asians in the major universities:

    a) are quite aware of and happy about their rising power and presence in the university system (46% in UC Berkeley indicates that Berkeley, for example, is now an Asian school)

    b) quite often demonstrate the "voluntary racial self-segregation" described by one Asian Berkeley student in the NYT write-up

    c) in my personal experience frequently believe in the superiority of their own native culture over others, and take their overwhelming presence in the university system as evidence of this

    d) typically fail, quite voluntarily, to assimilate into mainstream American culture, choosing instead to remain Asian and separate.

    Posted by ZERO 01/09/2007 @ 12:20am

    Agree to disagree with me all you want. If you can live with these ideas in your head, them I am all the more grateful not to live anywhere near the "liberal" northwest. You're just wrong. I'll answer none of your questions until you tidy up your own messed up house. Perhaps Iowa or the Dakotas is more your cup of tea.

    Posted by tjbehrens1 at 01/09/2007 @ 8:24pm

14. It's a shame, ZERO. You were one of the few here whose ideas I not only agreed with almost entirely, but one who expressed his ideas with clarity and even style. Now all of a sudden you're David Duke? It's just inconceivable.

    Posted by tjbehrens1 at 01/09/2007 @ 8:26pm

15. yes, tj. that happened to me too. i still enjoy reading and agree with most of what zero posts here. when it comes to women, asians and who knows what else, zero has some real mental issues.

    Posted by loveloki at 01/09/2007 @ 9:14pm

16. If there as an impulse for minority groups to self-segregate, it isn't necessarily because of their belief in the "superiority" of their native culture. People tend to gravitate towards the familiar. It's human nature.

    Perhaps one of the reasons Asians do so well academically is because many come from solid middle class families, who see education as an investment and a right, not a privilege. Many immigrants who come to this country pay for their children's college education, up to and including graduate studies. Many "native" Americans aren't fortunate enough to have this advantage in life even if they come from middle class families and therefore are forced to raise college money for themselves. (How many times have I heard American parents say they don't believe in giving their children a "free lunch" so to speak.) How is this fair competition for "native" Americans when the children of immigrants only have to focus on their studies while attending to high school, whereas "native" American students have to work after school to save money for college?

    Until American parents start believing that they are just as much responsible for their children's college education as they are for feeding and providing a home for their children, immigrant children will always excel over their American counterparts.

    Posted by blue photon at 01/09/2007 @ 10:14pm

17. reason why I as an Asian American support Affirmative Action is that I think AA does not really have a big enough affect that calls for it to be over. Seriously Do a significant number of middle class whites really get affect enough that they have to get rid of AA? Does the few students who get affected really mean anything? (think about it those cases where it does happen are so big only because it is rare)

    Affirmative Action is like the only thing most minorities have as an advantage over white people. And More to that So very few minorities even have the chance to be in for affirmative action to help them. Another thing why should i as an asian be against something that only really helps white people. I rather support fellow minorities.

    Posted by DongWoo at 01/10/2007 @ 12:12pm

18. Mr. Maasch, A couple of things:

    1. If I were you, I'd practice my spelling before going on about disadvantaged white folks with perfect SAT scores.

    2. A great majority of those benefitting from the current admissions regime are white (or Asian, as Mr. Kim points out).

    3. Why are you not outraged by the practice of setting aside admissions slots for children of wealthy alumni?

    4. In South Africa, "affirmative action" is part of the country's ongoing reconciliation. It's apparently pretty easy for guys like you to forget that the US was also an officially apartheid state. Not too long ago, African-Americans and people who looked like African-Americans were mutilated, their families killed, and their homes and businesses burned for daring to seek social, financial, and educational parity with whites. Whites in the US practiced severe post-slavery racial discrimination throughout the 20th century. In this light, affirmative action in educational admissions is very small potatoes.

    5. Anyone who thinks that corrective action such as affirmative action in government contracting and public employment is unnecessary should spend some time in the outer boroughs of NYC, where a lot of the old vocabulary of race hatred is still going strong.

    Posted by stinavelez at 01/11/2007 @ 12:44pm