Judge Sanctions Asian-American Discrimination

In a landmark case naturally ignored by the news media, a federal judge recently ruled the bastion of self-proclaimed student diversity, Harvard University, can legally discriminate against Asian-Americans.  The verdict is a reminder of the insanity of race-conscious college admissions policies.

This breach of fairness and justice was so out of whack with American principles of equality that it is impossible to fathom how U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs, an appointee to the bench of President Obama, could ignore the plaintiffs compelling argument of discrimination.

As background, the lawsuit against Harvard was brought on behalf of more than two dozen plaintiffs by Students for Fair Admissions, a conservative legal activist organization.  Their case claimed admission metrics used by Harvard were biased against Asian-Americans.

In particular, the plaintiffs cited a metric called personal rating, which supposedly measures intangibles such as an applicant's kindness, empathy, self-confidence or leadership quality. The plaintiffs' evidence showed the metric penalizes Asian applicants due to unfair stereotypes.

At the heart of the issue is a practice many universities have concocted to enroll more Hispanic and African-American students by using nebulous or subjective measures to allow otherwise less qualified applicants to leapfrog others with proven academic achievements.

While admitting that Harvard's admission process could stand improvement, the judge's decision concluded: "That being said, the court will not dismantle a very fine admissions program that passes constitutional muster solely because it could do better."  Her ruling is tacit approval of discrimination.

To understand the folly of the ruling, additional context is required.  For instance, Asian-Americans make up only 5.6% of the U.S. population, certainly qualifying this ethnic group to be granted minority status.  By comparison, African-Americans represent 13 percent of the population.

Some of you are huffing right now about the enslavement of African-Americans as the rationale for now granting this group favored status in admissions.  But did you know Asian Americans were incarcerated in concentration camps in this country based solely on racial discrimination?

After Pearl Harbor, Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order forcing Japanese Americans to be relocated to camps in the Western U.S. as war hysteria and racial animus toward this ethnic group escalated.  More than 120,000 citizens endured imprisonment.

The Census Bureau used data to pinpoint the location of citizens of Japanese origin to assist in the roundup.  In 1988, Republican President Ronald Reagan signed legislation formally apologizing to Japanese Americans for "racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership."

The mea culpa came appallingly late--43 years after the end of World War II.

During the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the mid-1860's, Asian laborers from China and Hong Kong were recruited because few whites wanted to endure the back-breaking labor.  Chinese workers received 30-to-50% less pay than their white counterparts.

Hundreds of Chinese laborers died from explosions, landslides, accidents and disease.  Their white overlords worked the Chinese literally to death in many cases.  They were considered expendable and thus were treated with excessive cruelty.

Concerned with growing Chinese immigration, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the only U.S. law to prevent immigration and naturalization on the basis of race. The legislation restricted Chinese immigration for the next sixty years.  It was the ugliest form of discrimination.

Asian Americans have suffered racial discrimination at every level of society.  Yet there appears to be no recognition by Harvard, Judge Burroughs or many Americans.  The reason is America's political establishment, particularly Democrats, coddles blacks because of their clout at the ballot box.

In a stunning admission, Judge Burroughs wrote that eliminating consideration of race would cause the African-American student population to decline from 14% to 9%.  She failed to point out that the Asian-American student population has remained nearly stagnant, thanks to race-based favoritism.

In fact, the percentage of Asians admitted to Harvard declined from 1992 to 2013.  Meanwhile, the percentages of African-Americans and Hispanics have risen.  So who is being discriminated against here?  Apparently, facts don't matter to Judge Burroughs, the daughter of a Harvard graduate.

For the record, Judge Burroughs applied to Harvard and her application was rejected.  If only, she had been Hispanic or African-American, she might have earned a degree from this hypocritical university.  Sadly, an Asian American would have had even worse odds of admission than the judge.