The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday morning that admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the 14th Amendment, but as a board member of Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff in the case, I know our fight is not over yet. I have witnessed and played an active part in a movement that has become something much more than just a challenge to race-based admissions.
Ever since our organization partnered with the Asian American Coalition for Education to sue Harvard in 2014, Asian Americans have led the charge in demanding the United States return to its defining meritocratic principles. Despite facing enormous and well-funded opposition, they have been successful in many cases.
In 2020, leftists attempted to re-establish race preferences in California — a state which had previously banned them — in the form of a ballot measure known as Proposition 16. My mentor Wenyuan Wu convened a team of grassroots activists in response, and I joined the campaign. We sought the state’s reaffirmation of its long-standing commitment to the prevention of race influence in admissions, public contracting, and government hiring.
The fight for “No” on Proposition 16 encouraged many Asian Americans to get politically involved and spread our pro-meritocracy message to our local communities and national media.
Our efforts worked: We won with 57 percent of California votes — despite the pro-racial preferences crowd outspending us by more than $18 million.
Meanwhile, many Asian Americans took the meritocracy battle to the schools. In Northern Virginia,
