Indian-Americans back Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action

MANY Indian-Americans have voiced their support for the US Supreme Court ruling which struck down race based affirmative action policies in college admissions last week.

East and South Asian Americans have been at the forefront of activism against these policies as they see it as creating disadvantages for Asian American applicants, reported the Times of India.

The Supreme Court on Thursday (29) struck down the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, effectively prohibiting affirmative action policies long used to raise the number of black, Hispanic and other un-derrepresented minority students on American campuses.

In a historic decision that will force many colleges and universities to overhaul their admissions policies, the justices ruled that affirmative action admissions programs that consider an applicant’s race did violate the US Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law.

Indian-Americans who support the ruling said that the ‘fight is not over yet’.

"No matter the controversy that it’s causing, it’ll help many Indian- Americans like myself," said Diya Patel, a New York resident with dreams of attending University of North Carolina.

"I always felt like I had to work twice as hard as my peers to get the same results. For years, I stressed about not being able to get into my dream school because of my heritage, which is a feeling no one should have."

"I wish this had happened when I was applying,’ says Zack Maini, who will attend Rutgers this fall. "When I was going through the process and would be considering a certain school, my grades would be good enough, my extracurriculars were good enough, but there was always this underlying thought that my race wasn’t good enough. I went through my whole life as a person of color, experiencing racism and prejudice in a majority white town."

Manga Anantatmula, who fought against discrimination against Asians in colleges and universities, has described the ruling as ‘historic’.

She stood strong alongside Edward Blum of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) and as a board member of Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) since 2015 in the lawsuit against Asian discrimination.

Anantatmula relentlessly represented the Indian community in presenting discriminatory policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina to the Department of Education and the Trump Administration to bring justice to Asian students.

She thanked Blum and Yukong Zhao for roping her into this effort in 2015, ‘which was a turning point of my life fighting for the civil rights of Asians leading to this historic ruling against affirmative action in the admissions process.’

Anantatmula, who is a Republican and ran for the US Congress in 2020 from Virginia, said that affirmative action policies were ignored for several decades.

She added that ‘as the only Indian-American woman in the case, I still wonder why the Legacy admissions or the affirmative action for the privileged is untouched and still exists? It’s time for legacy admissions to be abolished and no more reservation for the privileged class’.

She pointed out that legacy admissions constitute 36 percent of the admissions.

According to her, the president favours other minority groups over Asians making it the darkest day for America and its constitution for not upholding equality of all races.

Meanwhile, vice president Kamala Harris tweeted that the decision is ‘a denial of opportunity’ and ‘a step backward' for our nation.

The National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) was listed as Amicus Curiae along with Asian American organisations including the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in this campaign.

"The court decision rejecting affirmative action in the American colleges is timely and we at NFIA are naturally elated," said Raj Razdan, president of NFIA.

(with inputs from PTI)