Asian and black students reveal why they oppose affirmative actionBy Rikki Schlott
June 15, 2023
“People around me always saw me as a typical Harvard man,” Calvin Yang said. “It was like my dream.”
His application was stellar: a GPA over 4.0, a 1550 on the SAT and two varsity sports.
Yang had also founded a policy startup in Canada that helped pass landmark legislation aimed at tackling climate change, landing him a spot on Canada’s 30 under 30 list. He even co-organized what was called the largest climate protest in American history, attracting over 300,000 people.
The 21-year-old did everything in his power to become the “Harvard man” he had always dreamed of being.
So when he opened a rejection letter from the school, he was “shocked.”
“I remember just sitting in my room reading that letter over and over again and making sure that I hadn’t mistaken anything,” he told The Post.
* * *
Daniel Idfresne, a 19-year-old first generation Haitian American and sophomore at Syracuse University, feels that race should not be a factor in college admissions.
“As a student, I take extreme pride in the work that I’ve done,” he told The Post. “[Race-conscious admissions] takes away from that narrative that you have for yourself: that I’m the hero of my story and I got into a school because I worked for it.
“If African Americans have this idea that there’s a possibility that they’re in Harvard because of affirmative action and not because they know their ABCs and 123s, that could hurt their self-image and their belief about being able to leave their mark on the world,” Idfresne added.
* * *
Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/06/15/asian-black-students-on-why-they-oppose-affirmative-action/
