Affirmative Action
In its July 29, 2025 memo, rife with misrepresentations, the U.S. Department of Justice aims to chill colleges and universities from pursuing lawful activities that aim to advance racial equity, dismantle barriers to educational opportunity, and strengthen our campuses and our country as a whole. The memo implies that a college admissions essay prompt about an applicant’s lived experience, or their experience overcoming obstacles, may be unlawful because it “advantages those who discuss experiences intrinsically tied to protected characteristics” like race or gender.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have been the subject of the “model minority” myth - the false idea that Asian Americans are “high achieving students.” This has resulted in AAPIs being used to draw a wedge between communities of color, especially in narratives around education. Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC conducted a poll to better understand and uplift the AAPI community’s real feelings around education access.
This list includes all of our individual, foundation, corporate, and other community support. Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC gratefully acknowledges the numerous donations made in anonymity.
Civil Rights Organizations Call on University of Michigan Law School to Ensure Equal Access to Educational Opportunity in Response to Troubling Email About Law Review
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Today, a group of civil rights organizations sent a letter to the University of Michigan Law School calling on the institution to affirm its commitment to providing equal educational opportunities for its Black, Latino, Indigenous, female, and LGBTQ+ students in response to a discriminatory email suggesting their lack of qualifications to be accepted onto the Michigan Law Review.
Civil Rights Organizations File Brief Defending Philadelphia School District’s Attempt to Make Its Admissions Process Fairer
In the lead-up to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard University and SFFA v. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which ended race-conscious admissions in higher education, the founder of SFFA, Edward Blum, and his allies argued that ending affirmative action would supposedly remove a racial barrier to Asian American access to highly selective colleges and universities.
Civil Rights Groups Pleased by Supreme Court Decision Rejecting Challenge to Race-Neutral Admissions
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – For a second time this year, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition to take up a case that sought to undo public school districts’ efforts to expand educational opportunity to Black and Latino students who are chronically under-identified and under-represented in the nation’s highly selective publicly funded high schools.
Many colleges and universities have now released demographic student data for their first freshman class admitted after the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.
Bravery of Victimized Chinese scholars, affirmative action advocate, Arizona social justice leader to be honored at 2024 American Courage Awards
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC) will honor several individuals whose bravery is plucked from the headlines. On October 3rd, Advancing Justice – AAJC will recognize the Chinese scholars who had to prove their innocence after being targeted as national security threats; a student advocate on the front lines of trying to save affirmative action policies in higher education; and a social justice leader who is pushing back against voter suppression.