Jared Taylor and Paul Kersey analyze Judge Allison Burroughs’ incoherent decision. They also discuss “Rumors of War,” “Angels Unawares,” yet more ICEcapades, the latest interracial crime stats, Sarah Jeong, Lori Lightfoot, Afghans in Greece, and what happens when you try a hunger strike in Japan.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL SHAIN

Mayor de Blasio is throwing in the towel but Richard Carranza, shown here at the ribbon cutting for a new elementary school in Jackson Heights in September, is not toning down his rhetoric about the need to dump the entrance exam for the city’s elite high schools.

Harvard University gate entrance. JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF/FILE/GLOBE STAFF

A federal judge ruled unambiguously this week that Harvard University’s race-conscious admissions process was legally sound. But the closely watched decision left a crucial question unanswered:

source: The World University Rankings

Find out all about China’s top universities, and explore their world university ranking performance.

source: Channel News Asia

Screengrab from YouTube of a video posted by Molly Zhao Yusi where she explains how she got into Stanford University.

BEIJING: In China, as is throughout most parts of the Asia-Pacific, many parents harbour an Ivy League fantasy for their children.

source: Inside Higher Ed

Some issues are similar to those in Harvard case, but Chapel Hill's status as public university -- and some differing strategies -- could affect outcome of the case.

source: Commentary

This article is a second draft. I had originally set out to write an essay defending meritocracy in the United States. I was responding to New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, who had just proposed a two-pronged plan aimed at getting more African-American and Hispanic students into the city’s eight highly competitive elite public high schools. His proposal pivots on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), which is the sole means these institutions have to grant entry to students.

source: CT Viewpoints

I am concerned with the content of the article written by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas [Dec. 10, CTMirror.org, “Increase in Minority Teachers Not Keeping Pace with Influx of Minority Students”]. The article advocated hiring more racial minority teachers, by means including lowering the required teacher qualifications, as a measure to boost the performances of racial minority students. While its intent was probably benign, it looked at the wrong direction for a solution.

source: The Harvard Crimson

Seth P. Waxman '73 and William F. Lee '72 speak to members of the press outside John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse immediately following the conclusion of the three-week-long Harvard admissions trial. Photo: Amy Y. Li

The high-stakes and high-profile Harvard admissions trial may stretch well into 2019, per new details announced in a Wednesday court order.

The trial, the latest development in a four-year-old lawsuit brought by anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions, kicked off in a Boston courthouse on Oct. 15 and wrapped up three weeks later on Nov. 2. But it's not entirely over —

source: CNN

Harvard admissions case could end Affirmative Action

Shan Wu is a former federal prosecutor who also served as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno. His Twitter handle is @ShanlonWu. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN)Asian-Americans and all fair-minded people should be angry about several of the allegations made in the lawsuit against Harvard regarding its admission practices. Harvard denies engaging in any discrimination against Asian-American applicants, claiming instead that the lawsuit is really an effort to force universities to adopt racially blind admissions standards.

But the so-called "personal" score is especially offensive. If, as alleged by the plaintiffs, Harvard regularly scored Asian applicants lower than white applicants in such personality traits as "likeability," "integrity" and "courage," then that is dictionary definition racism.

Don't believe me? Here's the Oxford Dictionary definition for racism: "The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races."

source: The Unz Review

This last week trial began in Boston federal court for the current lawsuit in which a collection of Asian-American organizations are charging Harvard University with racial discrimination in its college admissions policies. The New York Times, our national newspaper of record, has been providing almost daily coverage to developments in the case, with the stories sometimes reaching the front page.

Last Sunday, just before the legal proceedings began, the Times ran a major article explaining the general background of the controversy, and I was very pleased to see that my own past research was cited as an important factor sparking the lawsuit, with the reporter even including a direct link to my 26,000 word 2012 cover-story “The Myth of American Meritocracy,” which had provided strong quantitative evidence of anti-Asian racial quotas. Economic historian Niall Ferguson, long one of Harvard’s most prominent professors but recently decamped to Stanford, similarly noted the role of my research in his column for the London Sunday Times.

source: Politico.com

Scott Eisen/Getty Images

For years, reporters have been trying to get elite universities to be more transparent about their admissions process. It might take a court to pry it all open — with unforeseen consequences.

source: the Federalist

When privileged Asian-Americans argue race-based discrimination is acceptable, they allow themselves to be used as a wedge group.

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The long-awaited Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) lawsuit against Harvard University went to trial in Boston’s federal court on Oct. 15. This is a case filed by a group of Asian students and parents alleging Harvard’s undergraduate admissions process intentionally discriminates against Asian-Americans, by limiting the number of Asian-American students who are admitted in order to increase admission of less-qualified students of other races.

Back in June, both sides filed their findings and motions to the federal court in Boston. SFFA hired Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono to perform an analysis based on data extracted from the records of more than 160,000 students who applied for admission over six cycles from 2000 to 2015.

Arcidiacono found that, despite Asian American students scoring higher than students of any other racial or ethnic group on academics, extracurriculars, and even alumni interviews, Harvard admission office always “rated Asian-American applicants lower than others on traits like ‘positive personality,’” likability, courage, kindness and being “widely respected … often without even meeting them.”

Calls for Admission Reviews at All New York Colleges and Universities that Receive Tax Dollars.

New York-October. 18: Shocking testimony revealing that Harvard University discriminates against Americans of Asian descent in its admission policies demands that all New York colleges and universities receiving public dollars immediately reveal if such practices are occurring here, New York gubernatorial Marc Molinaro today said.

Harvard admitted this week that Americans of Asian descent are required to score higher on SAT scores than Americans of other ethnic backgrounds in order to be considered for admission.

“What’s been happening at Harvard, and other universities possibly, is rank discrimination and that’s wrong

source: Fox News

# Trial reveals Harvard has different SAT standards for each race

Harvard University's dean of admissions has testified the Ivy League school applies different SAT score standards to prospective students based on factors such as race, but insisted the practice is not discriminatory.

Students for Fair Admissions, a group headed by legal strategist Edward Blum, sued Harvard in 2014 claiming Asian-Americans, who have the highest academic records, unfairly receive the lowest admission rate at the elite school.

Regardless of the outcome of the three-week, non-jury trial in Boston that began Monday, the lawsuit involving affirmative action and backed by the Trump administration is expected to reach the Supreme Court.

William Fitzsimmons, the 30-year dean of admissions, who oversees the screening process of about 40,000 applicants and narrows them down to 2,000 acceptance letters that are handed out each year, testified that African-Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores out of a possible 1600 combined math and verbal, are sent recruitment letters with a score as low as 1100, whereas Asian-Americans need to score at least 250 points higher – 1350 for women and 1380 for men.

“That’s race discrimination, plain and simple,” argued John Hughes, a lawyer for SFFA.

“It is not,” Fitzsimmons shot back, adding that the school targets certain groups to “break the cycle” and convince students who normally wouldn’t consider applying to the Ivy League school.

Supporters attend the "Rally for the American Dream - Equal Education Rights for All," ahead of the start of the trial in a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 14, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder - RC17E56B19E0

He said Harvard will admit white or unknown students with SAT scores as low as 1310 from states with more sparse populations, but not Asian-American students in the same area with similar scores.

source: Wall Street Journal

Asian-Americans would comprise 43% of the freshman class if admission hinged solely on academics

BOSTON—Were admission to Harvard based solely on academic merit, Asian-Americans would comprise 43% of the freshman class, while African-Americans would make up less than 1%, according to an internal Harvard report discussed at a trial here Wednesday.

Lawyers representing a nonprofit that has sued the school alleging intentional discrimination against Asian-American applicants dug deep into the internal 2013 study in court. In the process, they highlighted whether some criteria Harvard uses to assess candidates put Asian-American candidates at a disadvantage and how little the admissions dean did with the data when he received the report five years ago.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs will decide after the three-week trial whether Harvard’s admissions practices violate federal civil-rights law.

The internal study, conducted by Harvard’s Office of Institutional Research and labeled as preliminary, simulated what the admitted class would look like depending on which factors Harvard’s admissions office considered. The upshot: Asian-Americans fared best when the class was crafted based on academics alone.

The share of Asian-Americans shrinks to 31.4% when recruited athletes and the children of Harvard graduates are factored in.

source: Time

The trial over the use of race in admissions at Harvard University — brought on behalf of Asian-American students — only started on Monday, but experts already anticipate it will become a landmark case, affecting diversity in higher education and affirmative action policies across the country.

The lawsuit — brought in federal district court in Boston — alleges that Harvard discriminates against Asian-American applicants, holding them to a higher standard than students of other races and using an illegal racial quota system.

Harvard denies that any of its practices are discriminatory and has defended its “holistic” admissions process.

source: The New York Times

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Copley Square in Boston on Sunday to protest Harvard’s admissions practices. A trial begins on Monday that will examine whether the university discriminates against Asian-American applicants.CreditCreditKayana Szymczak for The New York Times

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 a hundred counterprotesters, many of them Harvard students or employees, marched through Cambridge, Mass. Their signs read: “Asians Will Not Be Tools for Your White Supremacy.”

source: The Washington Post

Demonstrators against Harvard University's admission process hold signs and American flags during a protest at Copley Square in Boston, on Sunday. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg News (Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg)

BOSTON — Lee Cheng, son of a librarian and a bookkeeper from China, graduated a quarter-century ago from Harvard University with a life story that represents an immigrant version of the American Dream.

source: The Heritage Foundation

# Description

Starting in the 1920s, Harvard University discriminated against Jewish students to limit the number of Jews enrolled at the university, with university president A. Lawrence Lowell saying they would “ruin the college.” Today, Harvard University is limiting the number of Asian American students at the university, according to an internal report commissioned by

source: The Washington Post

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William board of supervisors and Republican candidate for Senate from Virginia. (Mike Morones/Free Lance-Star/AP)

Virginia Republican Corey A. Stewart courted Asian American voters in his struggling Senate campaign Monday by vowing to champion efforts to stop selective universities and colleges fromusing race as a factor in admissions.

During a news conference in Falls Church, Stewart said that if he unseats Sen. Tim Kaine (D) on Nov. 6, he would introduce legislation prohibiting institutions of higher learning from considering a student’s race if those schools receive federal money.

Justice Department accuses Harvard of racial bias

“I don’t think that anybody should be punished because of their race,” said Stewart, surrounded by about 20 mostly Vietnamese supporters inside the Eden Center, a Vietnamese American mall in Falls Church. “We know that quotas are illegal under the Constitution.”

sources: dailysignal.com

Asian-American parents are concerned, even angry, because they suspect affirmative action prompted a suburban Maryland school district to overhaul admissions to its programs for gifted and talented students.(Photo: Ingram Publishing/Newscom)

About 100 parents, largely of Chinese-American descent, gathered on a recent Saturday afternoon inside an elementary school near Washington, D.C., to hear Heritage Foundation scholar Michael Gonzalez speak against racial preferences in school admissions.

Gonzalez, a senior fellow in the leading conservative think tank’s Davis Institute for International Studies who has written on the subject, delved into the roots of the affirmative action crisis that has frustrated many Asian-Americans for years.

He argued that affirmative action is the byproduct of the racial identity politics of the left.

“Merit is the antidote to racism,” Gonzalez said, to the applause of the crowd.

source: American Thinker

A lawsuit against Harvard has revealed in recent court filings troubling evidence of racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in the admissions process. More damning are the findings from Harvard's own internal investigation conducted by the Office of Institutional Research (OIR). Harvard denies any wrongdoing.

Does Harvard discriminate against Asian-Americans? To an institution whose mission is pursuing truth and whose motto is "Veritas," the question is of paramount importance.

source: Quillette

On July 3, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama approach to race-based college admissions. This returns the U.S. to the philosophy of George W. Bush’s White House, which argued that race should not be a significant factor. The Trump initiative may have no immediate impact since the Supreme Court upheld race-based admissions policies in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin in 2016. But an impact is surely coming. Consider that Justice Scalia died before he could vote against affirmative action in the Fisher case. Now Justice Kennedy is retiring and Trump’s Supreme Court will certainly tilt against the policy with dissenters like Justices Roberts, Thomas, and Alito. Previously, Justice Thomas asserted that, “a State’s use of race in higher education admissions decisions is categorically prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause.”

source: The Harvard Crimson

Photo: Isabella Aslarus

Asians may be called the “model minority,” but it doesn’t seem like we’re actually wanted in schools. We are implicitly accused of taking up too many spots in elite New York City high schools, so the mayor’s new plan proposes to scrap the admissions exam in favor of less objective criteria. At the same time, we are fighting elite universities like Harvard in court over charges of unfair discrimination.

source: The Daily Sigal

In 2015, the nonprofit group Students for Fair Admission filed a lawsuit against Harvard University that alleged Harvard directly discriminates against Asian-American applicants during the university’s top-secret admissions process. On Friday, documents previously reserved for attorneys’ eyes only were made public, providing substantial evidence of Harvard’s discriminatory practices.

source: China News

According to the report of the United States World News, the U.S. Federal Ministry of Education announced on the 8th the 161 winners of the 54th Presidential Scholar Award (US Presidential Scholar Award). This is the highest honor for high school students in the United States. This year, 28 Chinese students were awarded, which accounted for 17%, of which 4 were arts awardees, including Natalie Choo, an Ohio soprano and tennis master.

By Jianyu Hou, Freelancer based in Cleveland, OH., USA

One of my American friends told me that there was a Chinese student in his class when he was in high school. In his first year at school in the United States, he couldn't understand English and just knew the alphabet.