Asian Texans for Justice Releases Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 29, 2023
Contact: Sabrina Sha
sabrina@asiantexansforjustice.org
The Supreme Court strikes down college and university affirmative action programs as unconstitutional, severely restricting consideration of race in admissions. 70% (1) of Asian Americans support affirmative action. Higher education institutions must reform admissions policies and provide financial aid for all students.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Today, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to all but eliminate race as a factor in college admissions, preventing students of color from getting a fair shot at a high-quality education that will help them thrive. This harmful decision will not only affect our freedom to thrive as Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and other people of color in Texas, it may also impact our ability to get hired in the future.
“Asian Texans for Justice is deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action policies that have benefited Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and AAPI students, who all deserve a fair shot when applying to college. Eliminating affirmative action reinforces the model minority myth, which not only falsely implies that AAPIs as a whole do not face racial injustice, but that all AAPI communities' experiences are the same. Combined with Texas’ efforts to eliminate college DEI programs, the affirmative action ban will make it harder for Texas AAPIs to fully thrive and be represented.”
- Lily Trieu, Interim Executive Director of Asian Texans for Justice
The majority of Asian Americans support affirmative action. With programs like affirmative action, at Harvard, Asian Americans rose from 3% of the class of 1980 to 27.6% of the class of 2026. Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are incredibly diverse and have the greatest wealth gap of any racial group (2).
Without race-conscious admissions, it is all but guaranteed that racial segregation will rise at our nation’s colleges and universities, disproportionately harming Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, and Southeast Asian communities. Removing race as a factor in college admissions won’t prevent that bias from happening – it will make it impossible to see bias as part of a person’s lived experience. As a result, entire generations of talented students of color will be denied the future they deserve.
Despite this decision, institutions of higher education can improve access by offering more financial aid, eliminating preferences for athletes and the children of alumni; eliminating tests like the ACT or SAT; and teaching ethnic studies to help all students learn the true history of America. As Texas AAPIs, we’re joining together in Texas to ensure we all have a fair shot at a high-quality college education that will help us succeed.
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Asian Texans For Justice (ATJ) envisions a future where all people feel bold in their belonging. We connect Asian and Pacific Islander Texans to civic action to build personal and political power. For updates follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
