Harvard University: Affirmative Action Case

Affirmative action is an action favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination; positive discrimination.

Where is it used? Giving access to education and employment, granting special consideration to historically excluded groups, specifically racial minorities or women.

A recent trial is going on whether Harvard University discriminates against Asian-American.

There is an ongoing court hearing where "Students for Fair Admissions" had filed a lawsuit against Harvard University. Students for Fair Admissions argued that Harvard is discriminating against Asia-American in the admission process.

In November 2014, Students for Fair Admissions filed its lawsuit, alleging that Harvard is “employing racially and ethnically discriminatory policies and procedures in administering the undergraduate admissions program” that is biased against Asian-American applicants.

Harvard has defended its “holistic review” process that individually assesses each applicant and considers a number of factors, including academics, extracurriculars, and personal factors, with the goal of making each class diverse. The university says that while race is one of the many factors considered for assembling a class, it is never used against an applicant, nor is it a deciding factor for any applicant. Some reports say Asian-American students were overrepresented relative to their share of the general US population.

Edward Blum, a white, 66-year-old legal strategist, created "Students for Fair Admissions." Blum leads the Project on Fair Representation, a group founded in 2005 to “support litigation that challenges racial and ethnic classifications and preferences in state and federal courts.”

Affirmative action was created to diversify the workplace and in the educational institution. To use this as a tool to discriminate is not a healthy idea for a mature democracy. The process should be phased out when its intended goal is fulfilled.

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