David Inoue
It’s the time of year we recognize the achievements of our annual national scholarship winners. This year was as competitive as ever, and many qualified students were shut out. This also coincides with the release of the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings of the top universities and colleges.
Over the years, there has been little change in the top 25 schools. It has created a small group of select universities that are desirable simply based on reputation, regardless of actual need or interests of the student.
Let’s be realistic. The quality of teaching is rarely better at these top universities, and might even be worse, where a professor is valued more for their research work than their teaching skills. And as I have said time and time again, as a chemistry major in my own studies, things like the periodic table of elements are the same regardless of which school you study at.
The drive to gain acceptance at one of these top schools, which offer perhaps a couple hundred thousand admissions out of millions that are available across all universities, colleges and community colleges across the country, is what has led to a disproportionate desire to gain whatever perceived advantage possible. The result of this delusion that everyone belongs at one of the top 25 schools is what has led to the dismantling of affirmative action at the higher education level.
Unfortunately, this will have further repercussions beyond those top 25 programs. The reality is that more minority students attend a much more diverse representation of the nation’s institutions of higher education. These colleges, which also sought to serve a diverse student population, will now be limited in their ability to select a diverse student body.
Where we have yet to see this potentially further play out is in the workforce. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs are under attack across the country, even as Asian American, African American, Latin American and Native American representation at senior management levels and in the boardrooms lag our presence in the overall workforce.
Corporate leaders continue to highlight their commitment to DEI efforts, even in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, and limited public pressure to scale back programs. In the creative space, already we have seen major media producers scale back their DEI programming, often the department that employs the highest percentage of minority employees.
In a bit of sad irony, one prominent Asian American organization that advocated for the elimination of affirmative action in higher education has now shifted its focus to disparities in the workforce and the lack of Asian American senior managers and executives. If only it had realized that it is through affirmative action practices that corporate diversity has reached the levels it has today.
This is the problem we have in our Asian American communities. We cannot only be supportive of programs like affirmative action when it benefits our prospects as it does in the workplace, but then try to abolish it because of the false perception that it is detrimental to our opportunities in higher education.
The foolishness of those who sought to eliminate affirmative action at elite colleges to perhaps improve a select few peoples’ opportunities to get into just a few slots has now jeopardized the chances of millions more at the majority of other schools and could soon spread to impeding opportunity in the workplace.
There is always a certain degree of arrogance in ignorance. When one doesn’t really understand something fully, it creates a false sense of authority. We have seen this throughout the Covid pandemic as the average person on the street suddenly knew more about how to prevent Covid than their physician or the public health department.
In seemingly achieving a victory in abolishing affirmative action at the higher education level, these warriors may have cut off opportunity for millions of students at the thousands of other not so highly selective schools and, more importantly, their own prospects upon graduation and throughout their future in the workplace. They truly won the battle, but in doing so, forfeited the war.
David Inoue is executive director of the JACL. He is based in the organization’s Washington, D.C., office.
