On Halloween, the Supreme Court held oral arguments for two affirmative action cases, one against Harvard and one against UNC. The verdict? Well, there isn't a verdict in appellate proceedings, and we don't know yet (and probably won't for a while), but the Supreme Court does seem poised to strike down affirmative action. Being Asian American is a weird position to occupy in this debate--on the one hand, the educational benefits of diversity are very real to me, but on the other hand, how would I have felt if I had gotten rejected from Yale despite stellar scores and doing everything "right?" In this episode, I unpack my own experiences with affirmative action in the context of affirmative action's history in California and the United States and try to enumerate why affirmative action makes so many Asian Americans angry. Which side should we be on?

[timestamps]

intro - 0:00

Harvard and UNC - 0:54

a brief history of affirmative action - 6:55

my college experience - 12:27

final thoughts - 21:25

[additional references]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-31/california-banned-affirmative-action-uc-struggles-for-diversity

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/improved-race-ethnicity-measures-reveal-united-states-population-much-more-multiracial.html

https://blog.press.umich.edu/2010/01/sandra-day-oconnor-revisits-revives-affirmative-action-controversy-new-release-next-25-ye/

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