A discussion on The View led Sunny Hostin to ask Sara Haines if she thought affirmative action was discriminatory against white people.
According to Decider, the panel began a divided discussion over if affirmative action was discriminatory, with Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg saying that it could put Black and Brown students in jeopardy of being turned away from colleges. Sara Haines, on the other hand, claimed that affirmative action was detrimental to Asian American students.
She was seemingly drawing from the idea Harvard University has stated, claiming that affirmative action discriminates against Asian American prospective students
This is despite many Asian Americans online saying they support affirmative action, as it also helps them have a more equal opportunity of being accepted at traditionally white, socially elite schools.
Hostin said the argument Harvard has put forth is "intellectually dishonest" because of the statistics that show "the majority of Asian Americans support race-conscious admissions."
As she said, “[L]et’s not try to pretend that this is about Asian Americans being discriminated against. This is actually a concerted effort by a name named Edward Blum who has been backed by dark money by the far right.”
According to CNN, Blum is the director of the Project on Fair Representation who believes that affirmative action is racist against Asian American and white students and unfairly favors Black and Brown students.
Haines argued against Hostin, saying that she read a Pew Research poll released in April outlining major support for college admissions without race or ethnicity as factors.
She also claimed that many Harvard students are from wealthy families, something Hostin retaliated against, saying many of those students were allowed to attend solely on legacy. Hostin also said that Blum’s supposed activism on behalf of Asian Americans is “not true.” She asserted that Blum is using any demographic he can to make this argument stick.
"He first started with white women, that didn't work. Now he's trying with Asian Americans. I think that is going to work." She also said that this attack on affirmative action is a "a right-wing attack on our rights, and it's a concerted effort."
Haines and Hostin continued to go back and forth on the issue about if affirmative action was actually racist towards Asian Americans, with Haines seemingly feeling that it did harm Asian American students. When Haines alluded to the idea of affirmative action going against the Civil Rights movement’s mission to not discriminate on the basis of race, Goldberg said, “That’s not what’s happening.”
Hostin added, "Unless you're saying white people are discriminated against."
This is when Haines pulled back a bit on her statement, saying, “No, I’m saying Asian Americans in this instance.”
The View is known for having hot-button issues as discussion topics like these, and as the state of democracy gets more and more dire, the more we will see the panel having these types of circular arguments.
