For Immediate Release
February 28, 2019
Livingston, New Jersey: Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) is pleased to learn that another well-respected national survey organization, the Pew Research Center has recently reaffirmed that an overwhelming majority of Americans support our long-standing policy position: Race or ethnicity should not be a factor in college admissions. Using rigorous methods and scientifically designed questions, this new Pew Survey finds that the majority of Americans (73%) say colleges and universities should not consider race or ethnicity in their student admissions.
This public opinion, researched in early 2019 by the center’s American Trends Panel Wave, holds true across racial, ethnic groups as well as the political spectrum. In this survey, more than half of Americans also disapprove the use of legacy, athletic ability and gender as factors in college admissions. Overall, the Pew survey confirms similar findings of a 2016 Gallup poll that 63% of Americans oppose race-based affirmative action and 70% support strictly merit-based college admissions.
By specifically including Asian-American respondents in the survey, this Pew survey effectively debunks erroneous findings disseminated by affirmative action supporters previously, such as NAAS’s surveys of Asian Americans between 2008 and 2016. Claiming that the majority of Asian Americans support affirmative action, these biased reports were often conducted with serious methodological flaws and grossly misleading questions, such as “Do you favor or oppose affirmative action programs designed to help black, women, and other minorities get better jobs and education?”. The truth of the matter is: As a minority group, Asian Americans have suffered the most from race-based affirmative action policies in education and the majority of us reject such discriminatory programs. We sincerely hope that after the Pew Research Center survey is published, journalists nationwide will dismiss misinformation promoted by these biased supporters of affirmative action, who often manipulate public opinions to fit their political narrative.
Today, AACE is sincerely appreciative of the heartfelt sympathy and support for our cause from the American society, as revealed by the new Pew survey. Compared with biased NAAS Data that spews half-truths and outright falsehoods regarding our communities, Pew Research Center, along with Gallup, strives to present authoritative and objective information on issues related to higher education and our cause of equal education rights.
AACE president, Mr. Yukong Zhao said: “The 2019 Pew Research Center survey, in addition to the 2016 Gallup poll, demonstrates that an overwhelming majority of Americans support our cause and reject race-based college admissions policies. It proves that we are on the right side of history! Race-based college admission is divisive, ineffective and shamelessly abused by Harvard and many other selective universities. Now the time has come for us to transition affirmative action on college admissions from being race-based to being socioeconomically based. This will surely better help disadvantaged families across America!”
Asian American Coalition for Education
MEDIA CONTACT:
Swann Lee, telephone: (617) 906-6380, email: [email protected].
Wenyuan Wu, telephone: (786) 393-8028, email: [email protected].
About the AACE: www.asianamericanforeducation.org
Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE) is a non-political, nonprofit, grassroots national organization, the proven leader in fighting for Asian-American children’s equal educational rights. On May 15, 2015, the founders of AACE united 64 Asian-American organizations and jointly filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to request that they conduct investigations into Harvard University’s discriminatory admissions practices against Asian-American applicants. As the largest joint action taken by Asian-American communities over the last few decades, this complaint is now being investigated by the Justice Department. Over the years, we have advanced the cause of equal education rights for the Asian-American community. In July 2018, the federal government adopted our policy recommendations by rescinding Obama era guidance that promoted racial balancing and acquiesced to racial discrimination in college admissions.