5 Big Questions for Kenny Xu

Kenny Xu, author and president of Color US United, spoke with Campus Reform on the extent and ramifications of anti-Asian discrimination in education. 

Xu’s new book, “An Inconvenient Minority: The attack on Asian Americans and the fight for meritocracy,” exposes just how severely the playing field is tilted against Asian American students who seek admission to top colleges. 

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The leadership at Harvard and other elite universities has a lot of explaining to do, according to Xu. “In the name of diversity, they are discriminating against the most qualified applicants,” he says.

Xu’s book draws a direct link between academic standards and global competitiveness. He told Campus Reform, ”If [schools] continue to go down this road and penalize the most excellent people, you’re going to eliminate quickly the culture of excellence in America that keeps us competitive and running.”

Despite this “sad and frightening reality,” the secret to academic success, in Xu’s view, is simple: “The number one principle is hard work. it’s study. you cannot beat it.”

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Xu says he found that, according to Harvard’s internal research, 43 percent of its student body would be Asian if the university did not discriminate in admissions based on race. He would ask the Harvard president, “Why are you so insistent upon trying to make a class that is against meritocracy? Why are you so against the idea that Asians could, potentially, be 43% of your school, if there was no discrimination?”

Click the video above to learn more about Xu’s research into admissions practices at elite high schools and universities.  

Follow the interviewer on Twitter: @AngelaLMorabito