Monday, June 4, 2012

America listening! Some AsAm orgs are NOT!

   80-20 Filed A Supreme Court Brief on May 29th.  http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/pdf/amicus-brief.pdf. It attracted a huge amount of media attention, mainstream and ethnic! See footnote at the end.
   Strangely, America listening is not enough, because ours is a house divided among itself. The following article from Chronicle of Higher Ed, the most prominent publication in higher education, will make my statements crystal clear. I quote the first and last paragraphs of that article.

             Asian Americans and Affirmative Action
             June 1, 2012, 11:29 am By Richard Kahlenberg
http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/asian-americans-and-affirmative-action/32649?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
"The amicus briefs for those challenging affirmative-action policies at the University of Texas were due to the Supreme Court earlier this week, and among the most talked about are those filed by Asian-American groups. Traditionally, most Asian-American organizations have supported affirmative action, but as Peter Schmidt notes in the Chronicle, the decision of (80-20, Brandeis Center and) three major Indian-American organizations to oppose affirmative-action policies this week "reflects a marked departure from the position most other Asian-American groups have taken on the issue.". . . . . . . . .
   . . . "As long as Asian American groups presented a mostly solid phalanx of support for affirmative action, these issues could be downplayed. But with the emergence of a split, the thorny issues posed by Asian Americans may be hard for the U.S. Supreme Court to ignore."
   The last paragraph above makes it clear that the future filing of legal brief supporting "race-conscious" college admission by any Asian Am orgs lessens the chance of the Supreme Court ruling in our favor. It also implies that such "AsAm" organizations approve the current discrimination against our children.
     Please Persuade These "Asian Am" Orgs To Stop
   Are you amazed or dumbfounded or perhaps angry? Here are their names.
o The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
   (Margaret Fung, info@aaldef.org )
o Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC)
   (Stewart Kwoh, skwoh@apalc.org )
o OCA and many other Washington, DC based Asian Am orgs have also filed in the past in favor of "race-conscious" admission.
o Asian American Institute (AAI),
o Asian American Justice Center (AAJC),
o Asian Law Caucus (ALC)
   These orgs have provided good service for our community in the past. Hence, just tell them that the past is forgotten, IF they do NOT make the same mistake again.
              Dishonest Defense of Themselves
   The above Asian Am organizations make it seem that they will be filing a amicus brief to support Affirmative Action (AA).  Actually, they HAVE AND WILL support a particular part of the AA that has been shown to discriminate Asian Ams. grossly -- the "race-conscious" college admission policy.
   This "race-conscious" plan is actually AGAINST the original purpose of AA -- to make up for the historic wrongs committed against minorities.
   Please confront and ask these "AsAm" orgs why they are supporting an admission plan that "to receive equal chance to enter elite colleges, Asian Ams need to score 140 SAT points above whites, when Asian Ams have historically been on the receiving end of discrimination.
   Are these AsAm orgs. FOR or AGAINST our rightful interests?
   YOU must reason with & exert pressure on those organizations. Ask them to stop or you'll hold accountable. You'll stop supporting them, and indeed ask all your friends to stop supporting them. PASS the word.
   Post your comments on 
 http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/politicaledu/posterboard.asp.

Sincerely,
S. B. Woo, a volunteer
President, 80-20 National Asian Am. Educational Foundation
http://www.80-20EF.org

FOOTNOTE: HUGE Media Attention since 5/29 - we got America's attention.
1) "Wall Street Journal online":
Opinion: College Admissions Biased Against Asians? 5/31/2012
http://online.wsj.com/video/opinion-college-admissions-biased-against-asians/0DABA001-2535-4B96-BC96-1FEC7687072F.html
2) 2 Chronicle of Higher Ed articles: The one above plus one on 5/30/2012
http://chronicle.com/article/Indian-American-Groups-Urge/132037/?key=Gmh6J1A7ZXZIZnA3MD0TZzxRaSBoNUN0YHEcPil2bltRFA%3D%3D
3) One "Inside Higher Ed" article published a few hours after our filing:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/30/asian-american-group-urges-supreme-court-bar-race-conscious-admissions
4) One "World Journal" article,a Chinese article written by Huiman Chen
http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_news/18780196/article-%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%B8%E9%8C%84%E5%8F%96%E6%B6%89%E6%AD%A7%E8%A6%96-
5) Many blog articles. Search under Asian American & Supreme Court.