Race-based school criteria roils Asian-Americans - again

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Asian-Americans have been divided over affirmative action for decades, long before New York City’s mayor proposed an admissions overhaul to admit more blacks and Latinos into elite city schools currently dominated by Asians.

In the 1980s, Chinese-Americans criticized a San Francisco public schools policy that required Chinese students to score higher than others to get into competitive Lowell High School.

The dynamics haven’t changed much. Asian critics of affirmative action feel demonized, and advocates are chagrined by attention to what they call minority-within-minority views.

But critics now sense an opening for change with a White House led by President Donald J. Trump.

A pending lawsuit against Harvard could wind up before a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court that only narrowly affirmed the use of race two years ago.