In the U.S., Asian-Americans are a conscientious and hope-filled minority group who always put education, America's future, the first. Somehow, each year, many Asian-American applicants with excellent extra-curricular activities, competition medals, extraordinary SAT scores and high GPA are rejected by Ivy League Universities, due to their blatant, systematic and continuous discrimination against Asian-Americans during its college admissions process.

The brutal shocking facts are:

1. “Most elite universities have maintained a triple standard in college admissions, setting the bar highest for Asians, next for whites and lowest for blacks and Hispanics”—Daniel Golden, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal Reporter.

2. Asian-Americans have the lowest acceptance rates for each test score range of the SAT. Asian-Americans need to have a 140 point higher score than Caucasians do, 270 points higher than Latinos do, and 450 points higher than African Americans do on equal footing to get admitted—Espenshade (Princeton Professor) & Radford.

3. The share of Asians at Harvard peaked at over 20% in 1993, then immediately declined and thereafter remained roughly constant at a level 3–5 points lower, despite the fact that Asian-American population has more than doubled since 1993. “The relative enrollment of Asians at Harvard was plummeting, dropping by over half during the last twenty years, with a range of similar declines also occurring at Yale, Cornell, and most other Ivy League universities.” —Ron Unz, The American Conservative.

It should be noted that over the last two decades not only has the number of Asian-American applicants increased, but also have their qualifications improved from originally high standards. Asian Americans accounted for only 10% of the US national team for the Mathematical Olympiad during 1980s, and reached 58% during the 2000-2012 period. Asian Americans only accounted for 20% of the US national computer Olympic team during 1980s, and reached 75% during the 2011-2012 period. Nowadays, American mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology Olympic teams are mainly composed of Asian Americans. Asian Americans were only 22% during 1980s in the Intel Science Talent Search, but the number jumped to 64% after 2010. In the past 5 years, Asian Americans accounted for 31% of the outstanding Presidential Scholar Award. The selection process is through comprehensive evaluation based on test scores, personal qualities, leadership, and community services.

Even though the pool of highly qualified Asian American college applicants has grown substantially, the admission rate lagged behind for Asian Americans in the Ivy League, fixed around the 14-18% ratio. This is clearly the result of racial discrimination and a de facto quota system.

The US Supreme Court banned the use of quotas in school admissions as early as 1978. The discrimination and hidden quota systems against Asian Americans formed detrimental barriers in the way of our children's advancing their education. It is the largest human rights issue that Asian Americans are facing today.

Over recent years, a few Chinese-American and Indian-American students filed complaints to the Department of Education to protest the unfair and unlawful treatment by Ivy League universities. However, the Asian-American communities were largely silent, thus they did not provide necessary support to them.

On November 17, 2014, we heard exciting news: Mr. Blum, the well-known activist who fights for equal college admission rights for all races, representing Asian-Americans, filed a lawsuit against Harvard and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over their discrimination practice in the admissions process.

Today, Mr. Blum has started fighting for us. Asian-American organizations cannot afford to be silent again. We should unite and jointly file a complaint with Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education and Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice in protest of Harvard University’s discrimination against Asian-Americans during its college admissions process. This action will bring two major benefits.

1. It will stop Harvard and other Ivy League Universities’ discrimination against Asian-Americans sooner. In 1988, Asian-Americans filed complaint to the Education Department on discrimination issue from Harvard, and the admission rate of Asian-Americans in Harvard jumped from 10.8% in 1988 to 16.1% in 1991. Even though the appeal might not root out race consideration in Ivy League’ admissions processes, it will make it less influential and less a burden for Asian-American applicants.

2. It will provide vital support to Mr. Blum’s lawsuits. It proves that we care about our rights and interests, and that we support those actions that help our children to achieve their dreams with less racial barriers.

Today, a group of Asian-American civil rights activists and association leaders have prepared the complaint. It has been supported and reviewed by Asian American Legal Foundation, ready to be filed to the Department of Education and Department of Justice. We already have 10 plus organizations who joined and more are joining. We call for more Asian-American associations and organizations to join hands and participate in the appeal process. We have to unite, work together, and show our strength!

Since the nature of this complaint is to protect our future generations' rights and interests and we are protected by the freedom of speech Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, any Asian-American organization can join this complaint if its constituents, including individuals denied admission to Harvard University based on their race, and/or who seek the opportunity to apply for Harvard admission without being discriminated against based on their race.

Please join this complaint. If we unite, we can make a difference in bringing equal opportunity to our children! We can also help America stronger because it is the equal opportunity and fairness that make America the great nation we immigrate to, for us and for our children.

Contact: 

Yukong Zhao Email: yukong.zhao@outlook.com

Jack Ouyang Email: jack.ouyang@Chineseequality.org