In response to SFFA v. Harvard making national headlines, UNAVSA released a statement in support of race conscious admissions and affirmative action. Part of the statement is as follows:
Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard has recently made national headlines inciting heavy debate within the Asian American community regarding race-conscious university admissions. Because our organization believes equality comes in many forms, including the law, UNAVSA strongly supports equal opportunity policies such as affirmative action. The current lawsuit against Harvard threatens to divide the Asian American community and hurts all marginalized groups including the Vietnamese community. Should holistic and race-conscious admissions be repealed, the mechanisms that aim to equalize educational opportunity will be jeopardized.It is easy to take for granted the education and privilege that we have as post-secondary educated people. However, without holistic admission policies, many minority groups would face even greater injustice and marginalization. Open hostility towards race-conscious considerations in public policies highlights the prejudices that remain in the U.S. Combating inequality, racism, and discrimination requires policies such as affirmative action that are proactively fighting for racial justice.UNAVSA has written about the Vietnamese North American community’s relationship with the model minority myth, data disaggregation, and previously signed a letter in support of data disaggregation efforts in California. We stand firm that ending affirmative action will not help communities of color, including ours. We will continue to support policies advocating for increased educational attainment in the pursuit of racial justice.