If it feels like we’ve been here before, we have.
The use of race in college admissions is legal and has been tested and upheld by the high court time and again, most recently in the Fisher v. Texas case. But that’s not stopping conservative anti-affirmative activist Ed Blum.
He’s the one leading the charge in this new federal court challenge in Boston this week. It’s a case that claims Harvard is somehow using race in a discriminatory way in college admissions. Harvard, of course, denies the claim. But Blum and his ilk, who have made fighting against racial justice their life mission, has something new up their sleeve. They feel they have the perfect victim.
Those of us who thought Blum losing Fisher v. Texas would settle the issue of affirmative action, once and for all, were sadly mistaken. Fisher was merely a learning experience for Blum. When he realized he couldn’t fight and beat affirmative action with a White victim (Fisher), he set out to find a better victim. He advertised on websites. Sure enough, the good victims came to him.
They would have to be a real minority, a person of color. But not a Black or Latino. They’re not perfect victims. Any Black or Latino who applied would generally get into an elite school of their choice.
Blum needed a group that was rarely heard from, that would somehow be qualified for admission, but get rejected. In that sense, they’d be whining in the same key as Whites. Only Blum’s new plaintiffs are not White. They’re Asian.
The so-called model minority is Blum’s perfect victim — proxy Whites who feel aggrieved because they didn’t get into elite schools.
