I've Got Beef with 80-20's "Powerful Fax"

80-20 posted a fax that was sent by Dr. Huang to members of the State Assembly.  The tout it as a "Powerful Fax" when in fact, it's just a cheap shot.   

Here's the text of the fax. 

"Dear AsAm Legislators in the California Assembly,

Please vote NO to SCA5 in the Assembly.

The senate passing of SCA5 with the support of all three AsAm senators
had sent shock waves through the AsAm community across the nation,
turning ordinary citizens into an army of political activists. . . .

Do NOT underestimate the resolve of ordinary people. The day of
reckoning will come this November. As a California resident, I will join in
hand with millions across the nation, and with the AsAm voters in your
districts, to make sure the AsAm politicians are accountable to their
constituents. The days, when AsAm politicians can take the money and
the votes from their community, and then do whatever that suit their
personal ambitions, are over. We will see to it that such politicians be
defeated in the next election cycle.

If the Democratic Party leadership doesn't bent on pushing forward SCA5,
they will lose their Super Majority in the California legislature. The
recent mayoral election in the City of San Diego will serve as a warning: a
Republican candidate prevailed in an overwhelmingly Democrat city.

SCA5 is a "Yellow Peril Act", a 21st century version of the "Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1882", aimed specifically to impose a quota-like ceiling on
the AsAm students. . . . Therefore, there can be no illusion, no matter
how SCA5 is sugar-coated, that it is a bill aimed squarely to limit the AsAm
enrollment through a reverse "racial preference" treatment, under an
argument that "the college enrollment should reflect the population".
Fortunately, such a "proportional representation" argument has been
consistently rejected by the US Supreme Court in all precedent cases to be
in violation of the "Equal Protection Clause" of the 14th Amendment of the
United States Constitution. . . . .

SCA5 cannot hide under the disguise of "equal opportunity". In fact it is
the antithesis of "equal opportunity" because it demands "equal outcomes"
despite of "unequal qualifications and efforts". It is Communism in
essence because all resources are to be divided equally, depriving the
citizenry of any incentive to excel, dragging down the US competitiveness
in the long run. . . . . Rewarding or penalize an individual based on
his/her skin color is morally repugnant. . . . With your help, we shall
overcome.

Thank you for your attention.

Dr. Haibo Huang
A deeply concerned California resident.

As I've discussed in my post spotlighting 80-20, 80-20 does have the resources to mobilize against individual Assembly members, so Dr. Haibo Huang, who serves on the Board of Directors, is not making an empty threat.

But here's why I take issue with Dr. Huang's letter and why it's anything but a "Powerful Fax" - when your organization files amicus briefs in the Supreme Court and you yourself are conducting investigations "for 80-20 regarding the impact of race-conscious college admissions on Asian American applicants" (see 80-20's bio of Dr. Huang), you don't get a pass for making misleading and inflammatory arguments. 

If 80-20 claims that it stands for Asian Americans and wants to be taken seriously, then 80-20 has a responsibility to make respectable arguments. 

Let's be clear: SCA-5 is a measure designed to insert affirmative action back into higher education.  Dr. Huang knows exactly what that entails.  But rather than even using the term "race-conscious," Dr. Huang knowingly and deliberately chooses to compare SCA-5 to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and "quota-like ceiling."  The Chinese Exclusion Act was an explicit, race-specific ban on Chinese immigrants which is clearly illegal and the United States Supreme Court has consistently held that the use of quotas in higher education are not legal.  80-20 and Dr. Huang also know that the issue is not "proportional representation" or college enrollment "reflecting the population." 

Let's have a debate about whether affirmative action has a place in California's public universities without having to resort to invoking the specter of Communism.  I think the Asian American community deserves that much.