No sooner had the Supreme Court released its decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, than Harvard, the losing party, released a statement of its own by President-elect Claudine Gay. The statement was apparently prepared in advance, in anticipation of a judicial defeat. Gay, while expressing Harvard’s intention to comply with the Court’s decision, struck a pose of defiance: “We will comply with the Court’s decision, but it will not change our values.”
She did not say what those values were.
She added that the decision “has … strengthened our resolve to continue opening doors.”
She did not mention the fact in opening its doors to some, Harvard has been closing them to others; namely Asian Americans.
Harvard’s post-decision statement represented a missed opportunity. This was the moment for Harvard to own up to its discrimination against Asian Americans and to apologize.
An apology would not have required Harvard to repudiate its admissions policies, far less to admit guilt. Harvard could have still insisted that its actions, in its view, were legal and moral, and that the law would ultimately vindicate it. It could have asserted that any harm done to Asian Americans was the unfortunate but unavoidable cost of remedying greater harms.
An apology would merely have required Harvard to acknowledge that in addressing what it sees as a long history of oppression of blacks by whites, Harvard has been hampering and harming Asian Americans.
Continue reading
toputitbluntly.com 