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AAA History
Rejection gave birth to the Asian
American Association. During first-year orientation week in
1976, two Asian American women decided to attend a Minority
Freshman Banquet sponsored by the university, but were barred
from entering and were turned away. Harvard did not recognize
Asian Americans as a minority, despite the legacy of legal
discrimination and social prejudice they share with other
minority groups. Asian Americans were acknowledged as minorities
by the federal government and by Harvard in enrollment reports
it filed in order to receive federal affirmative-action funding.
But the administration embraced the racist notion of Asian
Americans as an assimilated, financially secure "model
minority" and therefore not a true "minority."
Furious, Asian Americans and other minority students pointed
out the inconsistency in Harvard's policy and demanded recognition
of Asian Americans as minorities. Twelve different student
groups submitted a letter to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps
III later that month. In response to a petition filed by 27
students in October 1976, Epps decided to include Asian Americans
in minority programs but rejected the claim that Asians are
"oppressed." According to a November 1976 article
in The Harvard Crimson, Epps's reaction had "several
ramifications. Many Asian-American students now find themselves
in limbo, unable to identify with the white majority, but
separated by definition from the minorities on campus,"
The Crimson reported. This feeling of isolation culminated
in the establishment of the Asian American Association, which
Fred Ho '79, a sociology concentrator, and other students
helped found and spearhead. AAA launched an extensive campaign
against the administration in seeking minority status for
Asian American students. The organization grew out of the
Coalition of Asian American Students, an early activist group
formed during the Vietnam War to oppose the U.S. war effort.
The coalition dissolved after the war ended, but served as
a precedent for the founding of AAA in 1976. The orientation-week
incident was the catalyst for the new group. Through protests
and discussions, Asian Americans gained increases in admissions
and recruitment trips to the West Coast and publication of
an Asian American recruitment pamphlet. Still, Harvard denied
recognition of Asian Americans as minorities. The Coalition
of Asian American Students joined with the Black Students
Association, La Organizacion and other minority groups circulated
a platform flier declaring that "Asian American minority
recognition is an essential fight to expand the gains won
by minority students and the democratic rights to self determination
in their affairs." After extensive confrontations and
information campaigns and a sit-in in University Hall in which
students vowed not to leave Epps' office until acceptance
was accorded, the administration formally acknowledged Asian
Americans as minorities at the end of 1976.
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