To understand the long and twisted journey to the Supreme Court’s chilling decision to dismantle affirmative action in higher education and its implications, you cannot do better than to ask civil rights champion and self-described optimist John Yang. As president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, John has navigated the drumbeat to defeat affirmative action for years and a devastating rise in anti-Asian hate crimes since the emergence of Covid-19. AAJC employs a range of strategies, from education to litigation and policy advocacy to advance the rights of Asian Americans and all communities of color. John points out that the case brought before SCOTUS by white nationalist Ed Blum relies on the model minority myth, a persistent trope, and a convenient strategy for pitting Asian Americans against other people of color. In fact, the data reveals a high level of support by Asian Americans for affirmative action. John is also buoyed by the emergence of new youth-led Asian American nonprofits and the cohort of civil rights partners, including the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Urban League, Lawyers Committee and MALDEF that are moving this nation towards justice.