‘Race-blind America’ advocate Kenny Xu celebrates SCOTUS striking down affirmative action
Color Us United president Kenny Xu explains why he's "ecstatic" the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the use of race as a factor in college admissions last week.
Color Us United president Kenny Xu is "ecstatic" that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the use of race as a factor in college admissions last week after he spent years pushing for a race-blind America.
"What I've always wanted, and what America should have, is a merit-based society. People are diverse, but they're different, diverse in more than just race. They're diverse in talent, skills, ambitions," Xu told Fox News Digital.
Xu, who authored the 2021 book "An Inconvenient Minority: The Harvard Admissions Case and the Attack on Asian American Excellence," has long felt Asian-Americans were getting a raw deal in higher education.
"It just so happens that Asian-Americans are academically excellent, disproportionately so -- then they should be rewarded for that," he said, noting that people who are disproportionately excellent in athletics, business and artistically are celebrated.
Author Kenny Xu is the president of the nonprofit organization Color Us United, an organization "created to speak out against those who want to divide America."
"Asian Americans, they deserve the fruit of their efforts. They should not be stereotyped as test-taking robots with no personality as Harvard was doing. And standards should not be lowered just to admit more of a certain minority," Xu said. "So, I think that this is an important decision for the Supreme Court and for America."
The Supreme Court ruled that admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the 14th Amendment, and Xu is a board member for Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff in the case. He said his role was essentially to advise and generate momentum for the case, but he doesn’t think it would have been successful if Asian Americans didn’t come out to support it.
"When you read the court's opinion, it's very clear that they understood the frustrations that ordinary Asian Americans were experiencing under racial preferences. That the court said the equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment does not just apply to Black Americans, but in an increasingly diverse society, it has to apply to all Americans," Xu said.
"And Asian-Americans are quickly becoming an inconvenient minority because, even though they've been historically discriminated against, they lack a lot of the social connections that a lot of privileged people have," he continued. "They still succeed in this country. They have the highest incomes, highest educational attainment. So they're the inconvenient minority. And therefore, colleges and universities treat them as if they're the privileged class, which is wrong."
Kenny 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. (Kirkus Reviews)
Xu doesn’t believe anyone should be treated as if they're the privileged class.
"People should be treated based on their content of their character," he said.
The author and activist has noticed "a lot of freakout from the left" over the ruling, but urged everyone to calm down.
"They shouldn’t freak out," he said. "This means that people finally get to be treated based on their merits. This means that Black and Hispanic individuals, who get into college, know that they get into these colleges because of their merit. That's a great thing."
While Xu is thrilled at the landmark ruling, he doesn’t plan to take a step back from pushing for a race-blind society anytime soon.
"The fight is not over," he said. "We have to continue to fight back against the pernicious influence of the racism narrative in our country. Remember, it was the racism narrative that brought about affirmative action."
Xu also blasted Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent in which she called the ruling a "truly a tragedy for us all" with "ostrich-like" logic.
"The reality is racism is far less of an influence than it was in our country before. We should be moving towards a merit based, colorblind society in an increasingly diverse society across many respects," Xu said. "Campaign needs to continue to rid, for example, the pernicious influence of diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI]."
Xu expects Color Us United to fight DEI, along with other elements of the far-left agenda such as critical race theory.
"You have to start from the premise that leftist programs don't work. So, when leftist programs don't work, which happens frequently, take a look, for example, at our public education system, which everybody knows has been dominated by Democrats and the left for the past 50 years, and it just hasn't worked. The racial achievement gap has flatlined for the past 40 years. We spent three times as much money adjusted for inflation, throwing money at it. So, it just doesn't work," Xu said.
Color Us United president Kenny Xu celebrates SCOTUS striking down affirmative action. (Fox News Digital)
He believes there are two responses to radical leftist programs that simply fail. One option would be shifting to something different and adjusting on the fly, while the second option would be to blame society, conservatives, and America for continued failure.
"The left has chosen the second path. They have decided to blame America, and of course, what's the ideology right now that blames America for everything, for racism continuing and pervasive and systemic racism? Critical race theory," Xu said.
"Critical race theory is the ideology that says America is a racist country. Disparities are because of racism," he added. "Racism, to the left, is their explainer. It is the rationalization for the problems of why their programs don't work."
Xu’s soon-to-be released second book, "School of Woke: How Critical Race Theory Infiltrated American Schools and Why We Must Reclaim Them," dives into the rise of polarizing CRT.
"Especially now that the Supreme Court has ruled on affirmative action, K-12 education is going to be the defining issue of the next 10-20 years, because we are seeing its results after 40 years and how consistently mediocre and average they have been. So ‘School of Woke’ speaks to that," Xu said.
"Why have they been averaged? Is it because of racism? Hint it's not because of racism," he said. "’School of Woke’ is really about these ideologies that are causing this middling achievement in these schools."
Color Us United bills itself as "a home for those who want to live in an America united in our individuality and freedoms."
"We are the voice of those who oppose dividing America by race, religion, sexual orientation or any other characteristic. We resist those who divide Americans in the name of ‘racial equity’ — in government, schools, corporations, journalism, or social media," the organization’s website states.