“Affirmative Action Isn’t Jim Crow: Asian Americans and the Reconstruction of White Entitlement”

A talk by Prof. Iyko Day (English and Critical Social Thought, Mount Holyoke College)

My presentation explores the way the rhetoric of Black victimization has been exploited to bolster the perception that Asian American college applicants are oppressed by affirmative action admissions policy. Several prominent organizations have argued that race-conscious admissions policy discriminates against Asian American applicants and thus violates the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Arguing that this renders Asians the “new Blacks,” they have filed lawsuits against the use of race or ethnicity in admissions decisions. My talk responds to these characterizations by exploring the way the figure of the Asian American student has been recruited to expand the property interests and entitlements of whiteness since the 1970s. I will also examine antiblack constructions of Asian American success that function to discredit the demands for racial reparations.

This event is a collaboration of the UNC Asian American Center and the Carolina Asia Center!

Register at go.unc.edu/alliance2

Part of ANTI-BLACKNESS AND ALLIANCE: A SERIES ON ASIAN-BLACK RACE RELATIONS