By Shengxiao “Sole” Yu, Rohan Zhou-Lee

The dismantling of affirmative action harms all communities, including Asian Americans. This piece debunks myths, exposes racial wedge politics, and calls for cross-racial solidarity.

In the spring of 2019, many high school seniors looked toward their futures at their respective colleges. Headlines flooded our screens with the breaking news that 33 parents were being charged by the FBI for felony conspiracy to influence undergraduate admissions at elite institutions across the U.S. These parents, including celebrities like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, were indicted in a bribery scandal that helped their children get into schools like Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, and University of California, Los Angeles. Many news outlets called this a “shocking scandal,” involving “backdoor deals” that broke the trust between the public and academic institutions — a trust built on the idea that college admissions are based on merit.

While the people involved in the scheme should be held accountable, this bribery scandal is far from being the shocking aberration that the media portrayed. It is, in fact, simply an example of the norm: that college admissions, and more broadly, pathways to socioeconomic success, are largely determined by the family’s generational wealth and access to networks of power and privilege. It is precisely for this reason that affirmative action policies that seek to correct the playing field for marginalized communities is necessary in the fight for education equity.

The “American Dream” is Built on a Myth of Meritocracy

The idea that the United States of America is largely built on a meritocracy has been packaged and sold to many of us as a promise. It is framed as the “American Dream,” where people of all racial backgrounds, regardless of social identities like gender, immigration status, and class, all have a fair shot at achieving success. To achieve success, the myth tells us, you just have to work hard in a “meritocratic system,” get into a good college, get a good job, get promotions, climb the socioeconomic ladder, and advance in society, all of which falls under the narrow definition of what success looks like in the “American Dream.”

To read the entire article: https://www.mochimag.com/activism/anti-affirmative-action-movement-exploit-asian-americans/

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