Asian American Is Not a Color

March 25, 2024
Affirmative action in college admissions is “like a third rail” in Asian American communities, according to this searching study. Race studies scholar Poon (Rethinking College Admissions) tackles the contentious topic (“If you want a pleasant and conflict-free Asian American holiday dinner, I suggest not talking about affirmative action”) in 36 interviews with leading Asian American activists on both sides of the debate. She finds that proponents of affirmative action are a “panethnic coalition” who act out of solidarity with other racial groups; whereas opponents are mostly Chinese Americans who consider the policy to be “anti-Asian,” sometimes in an explicitly conspiratorial sense (in one anecdote, a group of students relay to Poon that their parents believe the California public university system is on the verge of “ban all Asians”). Startingly, she argues that both sides fundamentally misunderstand the nature of affirmative action: almost all the interviewees believe that, in certain instances, “racial quotas” have penalized individual high-achieving Asian American students. Delving into the legal history of affirmative action, Poon aims to show that this assumption isn’t true—that affirmative action has long been “holistic” rather than quota-based. Though intriguing, that argument can sometimes feel like splitting hairs; more revealing is Poon’s nuanced analysis of her subjects’ differing ideas about and experiences of anti-Asian racism. The result is a provocative must-read for readers engaged with the issue.