Students suing Harvard over affirmative action policies they say discriminate against Asian-American

[elleng]

Source: nyt

Win Justice Dept. Support.

The Justice Department lent its support on Friday to students who are suing Harvard University over affirmative action policies that they claim discriminate against Asian-American applicants, in a case that could have far-reaching consequences for the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

In a so-called statement of interest, the department supported the claims of the plaintiffs, a group of Asian-Americans rejected by Harvard. They contend that Harvard has systematically discriminated against them by artificially capping the number of qualified Asian-Americans from attending the school in order to advance less qualified students of other races.

“Harvard has failed to carry its demanding burden to show that its use of race does not inflict unlawful racial discrimination on Asian Americans,” the Justice Department said in its filing.

The filing said that Harvard “uses a vague ‘personal rating’ that harms Asian-American applicants’ chances for admission and may be infected with racial bias; engages in unlawful racial balancing; and has never seriously considered race-neutral alternatives in its more than 45 years of using race to make admissions decisions.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/politics/asian-students-affirmative-action-harvard.html?

[procon]

1. Take this with a eye of suspicion; Someone on MSNBC reported

that this is being backed by a rightwing group. Didn't catch the whole segment, but they are the same conservative activists who were behind that woman, Abigail Fisher, in Texas who claimed reverse discrimination rather than admit that the reason she didn't get in was that she wasn't qualified.

Asian groups are putting out a warning for Edward Blum, his racist agenda and his mission is to dismantle affirmative action.

[elleng]

2. Right. Read the whole article to get the whole picture.

[nycbos]

4. Broken clocks are right twice a day.

Much evidence suggests that elite schools used modern day quota systems similar to what they used to keep jews out of elite schools.

[procon]

5. I can't speak to that as my comment was focused on the subject of this thread

and the exploitive racist rightwing group that is behind these legal challenges to affirmative action. Maybe they are already planning to use religion in their mission to reshape society in their own image, nothing surprises me any longer.

[BeatStanford]

3. Things everyone has already known for years for $600 Alex

This.

And this:
https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/open-championship-2018-eddie-pepperell-credits-hangover-for-great-final-round/

[appalachiablue]

6. It's been in the works. I'm paywalled, so another related NYT piece July 3,

*Trump Admin. Reverses Obama on Affirmative Action, 'Race-Blind' Policy Encouraged, New York Times, July 3, 2018.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will encourage the nation’s school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, Trump administration officials said. The reversal would restore the policy set during President George W. Bush’s administration, when officials told schools that it “strongly encourages the use of race-neutral methods” for admitting students to college or assigning them to elementary and secondary schools.

Last November, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Justice Department to re-evaluate past policies that he believed pushed the department to act beyond what the law, the Constitution and the Supreme Court had required, Devin M. O’Malley, a Justice Department spokesman said. As part of that process, the Justice Department rescinded seven policy guidances from the Education Department’s civil rights division on Tuesday...

The Supreme Court has steadily narrowed the ways that schools can consider race when trying to diversify their student bodies. But it has not banned the practice. Now, affirmative action is at a crossroads. The Trump administration is moving against any use of race as a measurement of diversity in education. And the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the end of this month will leave the court without its swing vote on affirmative action and allow President Trump to nominate a justice opposed to a policy that for decades has tried to integrate elite educational institutions.

>A highly anticipated case is pitting Harvard against Asian-American students who say one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions has systematically excluded some Asian-American applicants to maintain slots for students of other races. That case is clearly aimed at the Supreme Court. “The whole issue of using race in education is being looked at with a new eye in light of the fact that it’s not just white students being discriminated against, but Asians and others as well,” said Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity...
Read More, https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016209904

[JCMach1]

7. And how about admissions testing that descriminates against people

and inflated GPA's based on AP and IB courses that are unavailable to many students largely based on socio-economic status...