Asian-Americans rejoice over Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned affirmative action spurred much outcry from the Left, but much of the coverage ignored how conservative Asian-Americans felt about the ruling.

The left-wing group Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment Education Fund (AAPI FORCE-EF) criticized the ruling because it thought the ruling would have negative impacts on Asian-American students. In a press release, the group claimed, “The court’s decision negatively impacts all students, especially students from working-class communities of color, and overturns decades-long multiracial organizing efforts for racial equity.” It said, “Affirmative action opponents, including a small but vocal contingent of wealthy Chinese conservatives, have used racial scapegoating to divide our communities.”

The group’s interim executive director, Cha Vang, blamed “right-wing” efforts for the ruling. Vang said, “The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action is the latest consequence of right-wing efforts to roll back the progress of the civil rights movement. Their end goal does NOT protect Asian Americans against discrimination.”

But AAPI FORCE-EF’s statement does not mean that all Asian-Americans were in agreement with their criticism of the ruling.

Color Us United President Kenneth Xu told the press, “What I’ve always wanted, and what America should have, is a merit-based society. People are diverse, but they’re different, diverse in more than just race. They’re diverse in talent, skills, ambitions.” He said he was “ecstatic” about the 6-3 ruling because it reintroduced the idea of merit, not race, in college admissions.

Xu added that the Left “shouldn’t freak out.”

“They shouldn’t freak out,” Xu said, “This means that people finally get to be treated based on their merits. This means that Black and Hispanic individuals, who get into college, know that they get into these colleges because of their merit. That’s a great thing.”

The Court’s ruling demonstrated that not all racial or ethnic groups are monolithic when it comes to politics or public policy, which further reinforced the importance of the ruling to overturn affirmative action in college admissions.