AAST Responds to SCOTUS Decision on Affirmative Action
In light of the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action, members of AAST were invited to share their perspective and analysis on the outcome.
Tara Davoodi (AAST minor, ‘26), co-wrote an op-ed that was published in the Baltimore Sun titled, “The Supreme Court made a mistake on affirmative action. Here’s how universities should respond.” | July 5, 2023
Dr. Janelle Wong, Director of AAST, was invited to speak on multiple roundtables and interviews. Here is a cumulative list of her recent interviews:
Affirmative Action Decision Day Roundtable hosted by the African American Policy Forum | June 29, 2023
NPR All Things Considered: What Asian Americans really think of affirmative action | June 30, 2023
NPR's Juana Summers discusses the Asian American perspective on affirmative action with University of Maryland professor and political scientist Janelle Wong. So we turn now to Janelle Wong for some insight. She is a professor of Asian American studies at the University of Maryland who has dedicated her research to breaking down and understanding Asian American demographic information.
Democracy Now!: Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in Colleges, Keeps It for Military Academies: Roundtable with short clip | June 30, 2023
The conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has declared race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities across the country to be unlawful, effectively ending affirmative action in education. The landmark 6-3 ruling was along ideological lines and strikes down decades of precedent, but stops short of banning legacy admissions and allows military academies to continue using affirmative action. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the court, assailed the majority’s “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness” to questions of racism and equity. We host a roundtable discussion on the ruling and its impact with Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division; Janelle Wong, director of Asian American studies and a professor of American studies and government and politics at the University of Maryland; and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, founder of Futuro Media and host of the Latino USA podcast.
NPR Morning Edition: How Affirmative Action Divided Asian Americans and other people of color. Here's how. | July 2, 2023
That myth posits that Asian Americans are a "good" minority group — assimilating and bootstrapping themselves into the American dream. "It's been used historically to undermine other non-white groups pressing for justice," says Janelle Wong, director of Asian American studies at the University of Maryland.
NPR It's Been a Minute: A rare battle at the Supreme Court; plus, Asian Americans and affirmative action | July 7, 2023
[Second half of the program focuses on racial solidarity after affirmative action decision]
Then, Brittany invites Janelle Wong, University of Maryland professor and political scientist, to unpack the various public faces of the efforts to end affirmative action - and how the myth of the model minority shifted the conversation.