Back in 2013, as a senior in high school, Michael Wang sent a series of emails to admissions offices at the colleges that had rejected him. He asked how race played into their decisions, specifically for Asian American students like him. With near-perfect test scores, stellar grades, and a pages-long resumé of extracurricular activities, he wanted to know why he had been rejected from the nation’s most prestigious universities.
How good was Michael Wang '17? According to the Williams Record, Michael Wang ’17 was unsure about what he could have done better after rejections from Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. His high school resume was stellar, boasting a perfect ACT score, a 4.67 GPA, a founding role in his high school’s math club, and a piano performance at President Obama’s inauguration, according to The New Yorker.
Finding the boilerplate responses he received from the elite institutions that rejected him insufficient, Wang '17 filed discrimination complaints against three universities with the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Unknowingly, Wang helped set in motion the latest movement to end affirmative action on college campuses.
Wang was an unstoppable hero for American justice. This proactive freaking genius filed a complaint with the Department of Education when it became clear the responses to his email queries did not prompt meaningful relief. Soon, he got in touch with Edward Blum, the driving force behind opposition to race-based admissions. Wang showed commanding courage and self-confidence when he agreed to speak publicly about his own situation. Subsequently, Wang has spent several years challenging affirmative action. His specific complaint was that it entailed discrimination against Asian applicants.
As the Williams Record reported, Wang viewed affirmative action is necessary in principle but destructive in practice. “Someone has to give up spots for another; it’s a zero-sum [game],” Wang said. But when, in seeking to diversify a college class, another minority group is harmed, it is an indication that the system is broken.
“Affirmative action is a Band-Aid to patch up these issues,” Wang said. “The root cause is simple: we don’t have a good public education system.” Wang believes that affirmative action appears much too late, and by the time students apply to colleges, disparities have had years to solidify. “If you give everyone the equal tools to start with, you will ensure diversity,” he said.
This, of course, is nonsense. The best public education on Earth would still produce students who score higher or lower on objective tests. It could never make up for family dysfunction, teen parents, hostility to educational norms, or the long-term impact of single-parent families. Nevertheless, Wang's views on the supposed cure for inequality in college admissions are irrelevant. The most memorable aspect of his story is his uncommon courage. In this regard, he is a worthy leader and a blood brother of the military hero who made Williams College a reality, the beloved Ephraim Williams.
Check out this article from the Williams Record for a reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision ending race-based affirmative action from sources close to Williams College.
John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist and a former Williams College professor. He is an occasional contributor at American Thinker, Breitbart, Front Page, PJMedia, and WND.
