A substantial number of Asian Americans oppose racial preferences in college admissions (otherwise known by the euphemism “affirmative action”). In a transparent effort to dissuade them and courts from this view, Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Health Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) created and broadly disseminated a fundamentally dishonest study, falsely proclaiming there is “no strong evidence of discrimination against Asian American applicants in admissions to highly selective colleges.”
For research to be meaningful, its hypothesis has to be valid, its methodology reliable, and its analysis unbiased. CEW’s study and report Selective Bias: Asian Americans, Test Scores, and Holistic Admissions is none of these. Instead, CEW tries to take-down a straw man of its creation with flawed methodology, biased analysis, and misleading headlines, all packaged into a broadside against Asian Americans delivered through a widely distributed press release, report, and webpage.
CEW Demeans Asian Americans
CEW’s mudslinging starts by seeking to shame Asian Americans with the repugnant accusation that they are dupes, shilling for white opposition to affirmative action. The introduction to CEW’s report asks:
Why the focus on Asian Americans? It is indicative of the complex place Asian Americans have in US society. These court cases come at a time of increased attention to assaults against Asian Americans. Many of the attackers have scapegoated their victims as spreaders of the deadly COVID-19 virus. Conversely, the use of Asian American rather than White plaintiffs in the college admissions cases is meant to evoke a sympathetic reaction. [My emphasis.]
This evidence-free ad hominem attack trivializes 25 years of Asian American opposition to racial preferences. In the United States, there are about 23 million Asian Americans from 20 countries as diverse as China, Japan, Vietnam, and India. A 2019 PEW study shows that 58% of Asian Americans oppose the use of race or ethnicity in college admissions, though a 2020 AAPI Voter Survey of Asian Americans suggests 70% support for less invasive “affirmative action programs designed to help Blacks/Black people, women, and other minorities get better access to higher education.”
Read the full story from Minding the Campus here.
