COLOR THEORY

Asian Americans Discriminated Against in Harvard Admissions Process: Lawsuit

School officials ranked Asian-American applicants low on personality, says a group backed by an anti-affirmative action activist.

Harvard University ranked prospective Asian American students lower than other races on characteristics like personality, likability, and courage, according to a lawsuit filed against the school on Friday. While Asian Americans ranked high on academics and extracurriculars during the admissions process, the subjective ratings hurt their chances of being accepted into the Ivy League school, according to an analysis of over 160,00 records conducted by the Students for Fair Admissions, a group that’s led by the conservative lawyer Edward Blum. The lawsuit accuses Harvard of “racial balancing” and keeping the Asian-American student rate low in favor of “less qualified” Latinos, blacks, and whites. Blum has led legal challenges to the Voting Rights Act and represented Abigail Fisher in her 2016 Supreme Court case alleging discrimination against white applicants at the University of Texas. Harvard denied discrimination against any group and claimed Blum is presenting “incomplete and misleading data” that presents a “dangerously inaccurate picture” of the Cambridge admissions process. Both Harvard and Blum’s group asked for a summary judgment in their favor—if denied, the case is set for an October trial, which could lead to the case ending up in front of the Supreme Court. In November, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into Harvard’s affirmative-action policies.