A lot of skepticism has been cast on the appropriateness of the reinstatement of affirmative action policy. As criticisms of racial preference increase in public universities in the past decade, Asian American students are finding themselves at the center of the debate. More specifically, the California legislature attempted to reinstate affirmative action through the Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA-5). SCA-5 proposed to repeal the consideration of race during school admissions. Subsequently, the Senate Constitutional Amendment-5 rekindled the debate on affirmative action in the state of California.
According to the 14th Amendment, no state should deny citizens within its jurisdictions equal protection at law. However, the insight of Baynes (2014) suggested that SCA-5 violated this constitutional amendment through its racist provisions. The position of this discussion is that race should not be a consideration for admission standards in higher education. The conversation taking shape in recent decades reflects Asian-Americans’ efforts to reclaim their identity amidst the push by SCA-5 to repeal race consideration in school admissions. Even as racial minorities seek to reposition themselves within the narrative, the reinstatement of the affirmative action policy threatens to rob them of their voice on public policy while denying them the chance of higher education on the basis of race.
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SCA-5 was originally proposed to amend Section 31 of the California Constitution by removing public education from the domains where racial discrimination and preferences were banned. This policy would have eliminated all state barriers to race-based admission at institutions of higher learning in California. SCA-5 was sponsored by majority party Senator Ed Hernandez. However, Vuong (2014) revealed that the push for SCA-5 was eventually shot down and withdrawn by its sponsor even as the Asian American community emerged as a force to reckon with in matters of racial preferences.
References
Baynes, T (Aug. 14, 2014) Asian-American Rift Over Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case, REUTERS . Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/14/us-supreme-court- fisheridUSBRE87D10V20120814 .
Vuong, Z. (2014) ‘Affirmative action’ amendment SCA 5 withdrawn for revision , Pasadena Star News. Retrieved from: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/social- affairs/20140317/affirmative-action-amendment-sca-5-withdrawn-for-revision.
