Supreme Court Fight Against Discrimination: 80-20 Files Amicus Brief In Support of the Petitioner in "Fisher v. Univ. of Texas"

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 80-20 National Asian American Educational Foundation (80-20) shall jointly file an amicus brief with Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights (Brandeis Center) on May 29, 2012. The brief supports the petitioner in "Fisher v. Univ. of Texas."

80-20 shall hold a press conference:

Time: May 30, 2012 (Wednesday) from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Location: National Press Club (Murrow Room), 529 14th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20045

Under the current race-conscious college admission policy, Asian American (AsAm) students are severely discriminated against. Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade reported in his 2009 book: "To receive equal consideration by elite colleges, Asian Americans must outperform Whites by 140 points, Hispanics by 280 points, Blacks by 450 points in SAT (Total 1600)."

AsAms are not just good test takers.  For example, in 2006, they were 27% of Presidential Scholars, who are chosen based on scholarship, service, leadership, and creativity.

80-20 sponsored a neutral and open survey of Asian Ams on its website a month ago. 47,000 Asian Americans (AsAms) took the survey.  When offered a choice of "Against" or "For" a race-neutral college admission policy, they chose a race-neutral policy by a 52 to 1 ratio. For details visit http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/projects/colleges.asp.

S.B. Woo, former Lt. Governor of Delaware (1985-89) and President of 80-20 said, "Given this mandate, we filed an amicus brief advocating a race-neutral college admission policy. Our brief gives a superb account of why the discrimination against AsAms, caused by a race-conscious admission policy is wrong. It also calls the Court's attention to SIMILAR discrimination against Jewish American students in the past."

Kenneth Marcus, President of The Brandeis Center and a former staff director of the federal Civil Rights Commission stated, "It wasn't right for the elite colleges to limit Jewish students then, it's still not right to limit Asian Ams students now."

Alan Gura, attorney for the joint filing said, "Every facet of the discrimination that Asian Americans face today in college admissions has been reflected in the Jewish experience. Read my brief."

An electronic copy of the brief and/or a list of name/city/state of the 47,000+ AsAm survey takers will be made available.

The survey clearly revealed an overwhelming AsAm consensus for a race-neutral college admission policy. Any AsAm organization taking a different stand is only speaking for themselves, not the community. 80-20 challenges them to do a similar survey to prove 80-20 wrong.

80-20 Educational Foundation is a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt organization. It is devoted to furthering equal opportunity in the workplace and equal justice for Asian Americans. It has the same goals as 80-20 Initiative, Inc. with an overlapping Board. 80-20 Educational Foundation focuses on political education, it does not take political action such as endorsement of political candidates.

Contact
S.B. Woo
80-20 National Asian American Educational Foundation
302-366-0259 or 302-740-0050 or 310-435-5570
[email protected]
http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org

SOURCE 80-20 National Asian American Educational Foundation