On Eve of Bias Trial, Harvard Rallies Mirror Asian-American Rift

BOSTON — Hundreds of demonstrators descended on Copley Square in Boston on Sunday to protest Harvard’s admissions practices, some carrying signs that read: “I Am Asian-American. I Have a Dream Too.”

At the same time, about 100 counterprotesters, many of them Harvard students or employees, marched through Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their signs read: “Asians Will Not Be Tools for Your White Supremacy.”

The dueling rallies — separated by 3 miles and the slim Charles River but oceans of generational and ideological difference — came on the eve of a trial that will decide whether Harvard has for years racially balanced its classes and discriminated against Asian-American applicants.

In many ways, the rallies dramatized the divisions between the two groups. The older Asian-Americans in Copley Square saw race-conscious admissions as a slap in the face to their work ethic and pursuit of the American dream of upward mobility.

The younger group in Harvard Square, already well on its way into the ranks of America’s elite, came to the defense of diversity efforts and a university intent on maintaining them.

One of the biggest applause lines at the Boston rally came from Jacob Verrey, 22, a Harvard senior studying cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology.

“Skin color is not a substitute for your life story,” he declared, to cheers from the crowd.

Verrey seemed to be touching on the frequent lament from supporters of race-conscious admissions that if they were not able to reveal their racial or ethnic background in their college applications, they would not be able to explain the core of their identity.

At the Harvard rally, meanwhile, protesters countered Verrey’s view, chanting, “We are more! Than our scores!”

The lawsuit says Asian-American applicants had the highest test scores and academic credentials of any racial or ethnic group, yet were passed over in favor of others. Harvard says it seeks to build diverse classes and must consider a fuller picture of applicants, not just their academics.

Still, many of the protesters who defended Harvard said they had been unsettled by the allegations in the lawsuit, in particular the argument — disputed by Harvard — that the admissions office had given Asian-American applicants lower “personal ratings.” The plaintiffs say admissions officials stereotype Asian-Americans as faceless, textureless grinds who work hard but lack exceptional qualities.

Jennifer Chiao, 20, a Boston College student from New York, said she was upset but not surprised by the claims.

“I think these things stem from stereotypes, which is problematic,” she said. “We’re rating people based on the biases we hold within ourselves.”

But she did not believe that the lawsuit, brought by a group that opposes affirmative action, was seeking to rectify this. The larger pursuit, she said, was “white supremacy.”

Leanne Fan, a research associate at Harvard, spoke of how the admissions issue had brought some stereotypes to light. “I call my boyfriend a textureless grind all the time now,” Fan, 27, joked.

She said she supported affirmative action even if it could work against someone like her. “As a person who is affected by that stereotype, it’s important for us to stay true to the preservation of other people’s humanity,” she said. “That’s not a reason to denigrate part of a process that could benefit others.” It has been sometimes vexing to explain why she thinks affirmative action is important when speaking with her father and other family members, she said. Her father is from China and owns a business. He works 12-hour days. “Talking to my parents, these have been fraught conversations,” she said. “We have to explain our own history in this country.”

Fan’s father may have been more aligned with the Boston protesters.

Monty Du, an engineer, and Feng Zhang, a hedge fund manager, likened admission to Harvard to playing professional football or basketball. Both were a matter of talent and hard work, they said.

“In the NBA, if you play well that’s the only criteria,” Du said. “Everyone can be of the same race, they don’t care. Academic admissions should be on merit too.” They said Harvard admissions reminded them of the Cultural Revolution in China, where having ancestors who had been in the ruling class was a permanent impediment.

Du said he and his wife had seriously thought of changing their last name so their son would not be hurt in his college admissions prospects.

Zhang said he had urged his son to apply to Harvard as a “gay Asian-American who fought with his parents over being gay,” just “as a social experiment” to see if he would get in. His son refused and did not apply to Harvard.

Du said he had stopped by the Harvard Square rally just to exchange ideas with the other protesters. It had not gone well. When he argued that college admissions should be based on merit, not race, he said, “one person told me this is Chinese thinking.”

“She’s Chinese!” he added. “She told me, ‘Oh no, race means character.’ So I cannot reason with her anymore.”

Du clarified, though, that he did not believe that applicants should be banned from bringing up their race anywhere, in their essays, for example. “I’m just saying a university cannot use race to screen the applicants,” he said.

The Copley Square crowd hardly seemed to notice when Edward Blum, founder of Students for Fair Admissions, the group suing Harvard, gave a speech. But the applause was thunderous when the organizers brought up a parade of small children who talked about what they wanted to be when they grew up, perhaps in a rebuke to stereotypes: a ballerina, an engineer who would invent a cooking robot, a chemist, an artist, an astronaut, a firefighter.

The rally in Boston was organized by Asian groups led by Yukong Zhao, a businessman and leader of the Asian American Coalition for Education. The Harvard Square rally listed a diverse array of campus groups as participants, including Fuerza Latina of Harvard, Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance, Harvard Black Alumni Society, Harvard Islamic Society and Native Americans at Harvard College.

Demonstrators on the Harvard side said it was inconceivable to them that Harvard would resort to quotas, given the legal prohibitions.

“That would be stupid in this day and age,” said Bin Zhang, 52, who graduated from Harvard.

Rather, Harvard was exercising a social conscience.

“I think all Ivy League schools are trying to balance taking care of the disadvantaged,” Bin Zhang said. “You have to promote social mobility.”

Not all of the Harvard supporters had luck getting in or getting their children in. Changyang Dai, 52, a pharmaceutical researcher, said her son had been rejected by Harvard and went to Vanderbilt. “It didn’t matter,” she said. “He was very happy there.”