Ilya Shapiro, '03: Fights Affirmative Action on Behalf of Asians
Son of Russian-Jewish immigrants fights affirmative action on behalf of Asians
Back in the USSR, Ilya Shapiro’s parents had to fight anti-Semitism to be admitted into universities that discriminated against Jews. Fast forward several decades and legal activist Shapiro has taken on a similar cause in the United States, campaigning to abolish the use of race in the admissions process at Harvard University.
The admissions policy is the subject of a court case scheduled to be argued in a Federal District Court in Boston on October 15 — only this time, the alleged discrimination is against Asians, not Jews.
In recent months Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, has actively campaigned for the right of Asian-American applicants to be treated equally during the admissions process at Harvard.
He has written articles and was interviewed on America’s National Public Radio about how Harvard University discriminates against Asian-American applicants based on subjective criteria like “positive personality,” “likability,” “courage,” and “kindness.”
Read more at Times of Israel