As Asian American scholars, we read with deep dismay — but not surprise — that Black and Latino enrollment at Stanford has dropped precipitously since the 2023 Supreme Court ban on affirmative action. As The Stanford Daily reported, Black student enrollment declined by 49.4% and Latino student enrollment declined by 14.4% compared to demographics from the class of 2027. Again, this is not surprising. When affirmative action was banned in California’s public universities over 25 years ago, Black and Latino enrollment decreased dramatically across UC campuses. 

Some will read the drops in Black and Latino student enrollment and the accompanying upticks in Asian and White student enrollment as indicative of “more qualified” students being admitted and “less qualified” students being siphoned off. This is emphatically not true. In truth, the first post-SFFA (Students for Fair Admissions) admissions cycle has shown “mixed results” for Asian student enrollment in elite institutions. We vehemently reject any narrative that rationalizes merit as the cause for these shifts in enrollment. The so-called neutrality of merit-based admissions has always been a myth. Indeed, in the late 1980s, Stanford was one of several colleges that admitted to “unconscious bias” in denying admission to Asian Americans after activists dug into the data and pointed out patterns of discrimination. Just in 2023, Stanford issued a formal apology for its history of racist admissions practices. 

Affirmative action is a historically effective tool to address structural racism and inequities in higher education. We see clearly how the narrative of the model minority has been embraced and weaponized to dismantle affirmative action, a policy that uplifts and unites all historically racialized and oppressed groups. As we have argued before, we reject the use of Asian Americans as a racial wedge against other communities of color. We refuse to be used in this way and condemn any and all attempts to use data on Asian American admissions to bolster the case against diversity.

This stretches far beyond Stanford. We must recognize how this enrollment data reflects the ideological battle waged against diversity, whether it takes the form of striking down affirmative action, lawsuits against ethnic studies, racist immigration policies, attacks on reproductive rights or anti-queer and trans legislation. As Stanford Law School Professor Shirin Sinnar powerfully wrote, “when institutions individually drop their resistance, hoping that the repression moves elsewhere, they not only implement the administration’s agenda but also convey to others that acceptance is normal. This shift in norms — when we shrug today at what was unthinkable yesterday — is ultimately the most pernicious consequence of obeying in advance.” 

Asian Americans have a long history of advocating for social justice within and beyond the university. We will continue this fight. We urge Stanford to do the same.

Signed (in alphabetical order),

anthony lising antonio, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education 

Gordon Chang, Professor, History

Thaomi Michelle Dinh, Associate Director & Lecturer, Asian American Studies 

Hien Do, Lecturer, Asian American Studies

Usha Iyer, Associate Professor, Art & Art History 

Marci Kwon, Assistant Professor, Art & Art History

David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor and Professor of Comparative Literature

Kathryn Gin Lum, Professor, Religious Studies

Katherine Nasol, Lecturer, Asian American Studies

Eujin Park, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education

Stephen Sano, Professor of Music, Faculty Director of Asian American Studies

Shirin Sinnar, Professor, Law

Shimon Tanaka, Lecturer, Creative Writing Program

Sharika Thiranagama, Associate Professor, Anthropology 

Jeanne Tsai, Professor, Psychology

Ge Wang, Associate Professor, Music 

Yuhe Faye Wang, Post-Doctoral Fellow, History 

Christine Min Wotipka, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education 

Sylvia Yanagisako, Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies and Professor of Anthropology, Emerita