Asian-Americans have taken center stage in the debate over affirmative action. With the U.S. Supreme Court preparing to issue a new ruling on the constitutionality of affirmative action in America’s colleges and universities, much attention has been paid in the courts and in the media to the Asian-American community’s perspective on higher education admissions.
In the case now before the court, 94 Asian-American civil rights and community-based organizations joined briefs filed by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (which we co-authored) and the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice in support of the University of Texas at Austin (U.T.). These groups contend that Asian-Americans, like students of other races, benefit from the kind of diversity that enriches their education and prepares them for careers in the global workplace, and that Asian applicants in communities struggling with low educational attainment will suffer if programs like U.T.’s are dismantled.
