To get past the affirmative-action-is-reverse-racism argument that often frame these discussions, I'd recommend checking out this thoughtful breakdown of the case from Metafilter:
Yeah, debates over affirmative action are just one of many situations where the Asian American "model-minority" mythos gets used in service of anti-Black and anti-Latinx racism, and I encourage other Asian Americans to resist being used as tools for this agenda. Our proximity to whiteness will not protect us. Our ancestors never enjoyed it, and it will not save our children. In solidarity with other minorities, we can use the privilege we have to dismantle the systems that oppress the most vulnerable among us.
On multiple occasions in my life, white people irl have complained to me about how affirmative action disadvantages Asian Americans, clearly expecting me to agree. I think this demonstrates a profound and/or willful ignorance of history? Racism against Asian Americans definitely exists -- but anti-Asian racism looks very different from anti-Black and anti-Latinx racism, it has different historical roots, and it has had different historical impacts. In some contexts, Asian Americans get the privileges associated with proximity to whiteness, and in other contexts, they don't.
I think the educational system leading up to elite universities and white-collar professional fields is one context where Asian American and white people generally get profound advantages.
As this comment notes, the guy behind this case clearly has a clear ideological axe to grind:
I love to see Harvard squirm, and they surely deserve whatever fallout comes their way from this case. But there's some context here worth keeping in mind: this lawsuit is part of a sustained campaign by neocon perpetual litigant Edward Blum to kill affirmative action. He is the same guy behind Fisher v. University of Texas (previously), which claimed that a white applicant was the victim of "reverse racism." Whatever the merits and facts of Harvard's specific treatment of Asian-American applicants, Blum will be seeking the broadest possible ruling against race-based admissions policies across the board.
Are those privileges really given to Asians? Isn't there a little possibility they have reached those privileges by themselves?
Why should a student who has worked hard all his life be punished for being Asian?
Why don't we try instead teaching those who are left behind how to get a at the top?
And by the way I'm not "white" at least not in the new racist standard, I'm a Latino (as if that meant anything, a race or an ethnicity? No one knows).
Affirmative action is racism, not "reverse-racism". "reverse-racism" is a racist term since it is used to dismiss prejudice against certain races. Racism is racism, no matter the race of the target or the race of the perpetrator.
Yeah, debates over affirmative action are just one of many situations where the Asian American "model-minority" mythos gets used in service of anti-Black and anti-Latinx racism, and I encourage other Asian Americans to resist being used as tools for this agenda. Our proximity to whiteness will not protect us. Our ancestors never enjoyed it, and it will not save our children. In solidarity with other minorities, we can use the privilege we have to dismantle the systems that oppress the most vulnerable among us.
On multiple occasions in my life, white people irl have complained to me about how affirmative action disadvantages Asian Americans, clearly expecting me to agree. I think this demonstrates a profound and/or willful ignorance of history? Racism against Asian Americans definitely exists -- but anti-Asian racism looks very different from anti-Black and anti-Latinx racism, it has different historical roots, and it has had different historical impacts. In some contexts, Asian Americans get the privileges associated with proximity to whiteness, and in other contexts, they don't.
I think the educational system leading up to elite universities and white-collar professional fields is one context where Asian American and white people generally get profound advantages.
https://www.metafilter.com/174730/Asian-American-Students-Su...
As this comment notes, the guy behind this case clearly has a clear ideological axe to grind:
I love to see Harvard squirm, and they surely deserve whatever fallout comes their way from this case. But there's some context here worth keeping in mind: this lawsuit is part of a sustained campaign by neocon perpetual litigant Edward Blum to kill affirmative action. He is the same guy behind Fisher v. University of Texas (previously), which claimed that a white applicant was the victim of "reverse racism." Whatever the merits and facts of Harvard's specific treatment of Asian-American applicants, Blum will be seeking the broadest possible ruling against race-based admissions policies across the board.
https://www.metafilter.com/174730/Asian-American-Students-Su...