The Thorny Relationship Between Asians and Affirmative Action

Despite the complexity of the issues at stake, the debate over affirmative action in America is rarely as nuanced as it ought to be. Treating affirmative action as a practice that either hurts or helps an entire racial group, for instance, prevents productive conversations about its role in college admissions.

The limitations of such interpretations of affirmative action are, at times, revealing. Consider the Justice Department’s plans to crack down on “intentional race-based discrimination” in college admissions, an initiative by this week, based on an internal Justice Department memo obtained by the newspaper. The memo isn’t explicit about whom it considers victims of such discrimination, but the and lots of outlets that subsequently reported on the revelation—didn’t hesitate to read between the lines. The department wants to sue institutions that discriminate against white applications, wrote the in its lead. Press