An Inside Perspective on Harvard's Affirmative Action Lawsuit

Genevieve Hu, former leader of the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association (AAA), spoke to the Groton community on November 7 about the value of diversity and the association’s decision to support the university in the recent affirmative action lawsuit.

 

A federal judge ruled in favor of Harvard University in the suit, in which Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) had alleged unfair treatment of Asian applicants. The court concluded that Harvard’s use of race was not discriminatory; SFFA is appealing.

 

“As you can imagine, this lawsuit created emotional and moral conflicts in my heart and caused divisions in the Asian American community,” said Genevieve, Groton School’s 2019 Percy and Eben Pyne Chapel Speaker. “The very demographic group my organization, AAA, represents is portrayed in the lawsuit as the main victim.”

 

Yet, she explained, the SFFA was not motivated by concern for Asian students. “SFFA’s lawsuit against Harvard is a blatant attempt to eliminate efforts to foster diversity on college campuses, to the detriment of all students,” Genevieve said. “[FSSA founder] Edward Blum’s solution to remove race-conscious admissions clearly holds alternative agendas. His motivations are not to support Asian Americans or to help those with different socioeconomic backgrounds, but rather to uphold white institutional privilege.”

 

Genevieve acknowledged that the suit “did expose an inherent problem with implicit bias that exists within the admissions process.” Diversity, however, is a key component of a good education. “Race plays an irreplaceable role in our individual experiences, just as ethnicity creates cohesive, collective identities,” she said. “Without diversity, the social and intellectual experience that Harvard hopes to promote becomes nothing but a hollow promise.” 

 

Now a senior at Harvard, Genevieve began her talk by explaining how her own perspective as an Asian American woman shifted when she moved for college from Hong Kong, where she grew up, to the U.S., where she was born. In Asia, she was part of the majority and didn’t face the stereotypes that surround Asians in the U.S. “I wanted so desperately to prove how un-Asian I was,” she said. 

 

An invitation to join Harvard’s Asian American Association renewed her pride in her heritage, thanks in particular to a retreat where she heard peers' stories. “Although we had this bracket category in common, our stories were so diverse and rich. People spoke of their desire to be white like those around them, or the effect being Asian had on their body image and their choices in life,” she said. “This event so closely bonded us and made me grow to appreciate the nuances that existed with being Asian in America.”

 

The SFFA lawsuit did not acknowledge those nuances. “The lawsuit treats Asian Americans as a monolith—as though all Asian Americans have access to the same opportunities and share the same lived experiences,” Genevieve said. “Asian Americans make up the most economically unequal racial group in America . . . The intrinsic assumption that all Asians have the educational resources that give them the ability to receive perfect SAT scores and GPAs plays into this detrimental stereotype that the lawsuit propagates.”

 

Genevieve summed up her feelings by quoting a Harvard Crimson article written by Julie Chung and Alexander Zhang: “The 20 million Asian Americans in this country are engineers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, and computer scientists. They are gardeners, business owners, refugees, and cooks. They are musicians, writers, and artists. They are Harvard students and high school dropouts. They are leaders, followers, jokesters, athletes, and free spirits. No admissions officer, teacher, or guidance counselor should ever gloss over the diversity of these experiences. But SFFA and Edward Blum should take note: Asian Americans are not a tool to uphold white institutional privilege and divide communities of color. Let us oppose discrimination and lift each other up at the same time.”

 

Finally, in her own words, she concluded, “Diversity and inclusion will make our schools better, will make our colleges better and, ultimately, will make our society fairer and stronger.”