Kenny Xu: Asian-American success disproves Critical Race Theory
Author Kenny Xu explains why Asian-Americans are ‘An Inconvenient Minority’ for the left’s racial agenda.
The author of a new book feels Asian Americans are an "inconvenient minority" to the liberal media because as their community succeeds based on merit alone, they debunk the critical race theory narrative that opportunities of non-Whites are limited because of systematic racism in the United States.
"Asian Americans prove that critical race theory is not true, cannot be true," author Kenny Xu told Fox News. "Asian Americans never needed politics to succeed in this country. They just want to be treated based on merit."
Xu’s book, "An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy," examines how Ivy League universities such as Harvard discriminate against qualified Asian Americans to maintain a particular racial makeup in their student body. He found that race-based admissions processes designed to push diversity at elite institutions crush the narrative being pushed by much of the mainstream media.
Author Kenny Xu is the president of the nonprofit organization Color Us Blind, an organization "created to speak out against those who want to divide America."
"If America is still a systemically racist country for minorities, how come they have allowed Asian Americans to overtake Whites in education level and socioeconomic status? Asians get higher test scores," Xu said.
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The "Inconvenient Minority" author said that Asian Americans face plenty of problems but doesn't buy into CRT's theory that systemic racism limits opportunities for all non-White Americans.
"The whole idea of critical race theory is developed by saying, ‘Hey, our laws, our society, our structures are inherently stacked against people of color,'" Xu said. "Asian Americans prove that, even in the face of whatever racial narratives that you're in, you still can succeed, that this country is the land of opportunity."
Xu has been an outspoken critic of critical race theory and enlisted James Lindsay, who wrote the best-selling book "Cynical Theories: How Activists Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity – And Why This Harms Everybody," to pen the foreword. Lindsay wrote that critical race theory denigrates the key American virtue that a combination of talent and hard work can result in genuine, earned success.
"This denigration of merit … leads it not only to repudiate the foundational premise of America but also that has a disproportionate impact on one racial minority group in the United States more than any other: Asian Americans," Lindsay wrote.
Mainstream media hosts and pundits such as MSNBC’s Joy Reid have fiercely pushed back on critical race theory's critics, although there is apparent disagreement as to the extent of its influence over U.S. educators. Many claim it’s not even being taught in schools and also erupt over the threat of laws that would ban it from being taught outright.
"An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy" hit retailers on Tuesday. (Kirkus Reviews)
Xu feels the media has an agenda to promote "the self-victimization of minorities," but Asian Americans are often forgotten because their education rates and economic status don’t fit the narrative.
"I think it's deliberate. The reason why is because Asian Americans are the inconvenient minority," Xu said. "Critical race theory really doesn't have any room for Asians."
As a result, Xu thinks Asian American parents should be concerned if their children are being taught critical race theory in school. He feels the families of most successful Asian Americans came to the country without any privilege but thrive because of meritocracy.
"If you're an immigrant parent of a child in America, you know, the only way that you see forward to your child having a better life is to train them to be to be talented, to have merit, so that they can compete in an American meritocracy and critical race theory, you know, says that meritocracy is racist," he said. "[CRT] undermines the entire concept that formulated the ability for Asians to succeed in America."
Xu pointed to Vietnamese Americans as an essential example of why meritocracy is America is far from racist because so many of them escaped communism and arrived in the United States without anything but an opportunity. Many of them can’t even speak the language but still manage to thrive, often starting small businesses such as nail salons and restaurants.
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"Anybody in the media who subscribes so readily or easily to the racial victimization narrative should really grapple with the story of Vietnamese Americans for a long time," he said. "They should go into their studio and mosey around this issue for a very long time to how that could possibly comport with their ideology."
Xu was passionately against critical race theory long before it emerged as a hot-button topic, and examined Vice President Kamala Harris’ record as a California lawmaker when she was chosen as then-candidate Joe Biden’s running mate. She supported race preferences in admission and "was one of the leading proponents of critical race theory policies" in the country, he said.
"I realized, oh my gosh, getting elected, this is going to get worse," he said. "I devoted a portion of my book to talking about it."
He sees widespread hypocrisy from the "chattering class" of progressives and Democratic leaders alike who push inclusiveness and claim to fight back against hate while simultaneously working against the Asian American community.
"You go to some of these school board meetings where, you know, Asians are fighting for their rights to be treated equally in the admissions process. In high schools in New York City, Asian Americans were fighting for their right to be treated equally in the admissions process at Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, specialized high schools, and then you have these liberal Upper East Side parents. You know that these are the most liberal, blue loving, chattering class people you ever think of," Xu said. "And they're just indulging in these anti-Asian stereotypes … there is this fear that Asian Americans are taking over all the best public schools and opportunities."
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Xu is also the president of the nonprofit Color Us United, an organization "created to speak out against those who want to divide America."
"An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy" hit retailers on Tuesday.