The Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, focusing on whether Harvard’s consideration of race in admissions intentionally discriminates against Asian Americans, is expected this month. A big part of our research has been to identify anti-Asian discrimination, so we understand how charges that Asian Americans are held to a higher standard in college admissions might feel like another instance of anti-Asian bias. But we just don’t see an Asian American penalty in college admissions.
Potent myths about admissions circulate within and outside Asian American communities: “Asian Americans have to score higher than other students to get in” and “Asian Americans shouldn’t check the Asian box on applications.” These myths are often endorsed by college admissions advisors and accepted by parents and students, though not a single Asian American student has testified that they faced discrimination in the high profile Harvard case.
The faulty evidence for these myths rests in large part on the assumption that tests like the SAT are the best and fairest measures of merit. But the SAT has never been fair and is rooted in racism, developed by a racist eugenicist, Carl Brigham. Standardized test scores are more highly associated with parental education and family income than with college success or completion. Asian Americans have the highest education and incomes of any racial group, though there are significant variations in income and parental education among Asian Americans, with poverty rates among Hmong and Burmese Americans at more than 25%.
