A federal official sent a racist joke to Harvard’s dean of admissions after investigating a row of Asian-American discrimination at the university. has revealed an explosive new court document.
Thomas Hibino deployed a series of Asian stereotypes suggesting that they normally weighed 132 pounds and dreamed of becoming a doctor in a memo sent to Dean William Fitzgerald, with whom he was a good friend.
The note, sent on Harvard admissions office letterhead, was dated more than a decade ago, but has only just been released after a judge tried to cover it up to protect Hibino’s “privacy.”
Harvard had been accused of favoring white applicants over Asian Americans who scored disproportionately lower on the institution’s “personal grades.”
As part of the prank, Hibino pretended to be an admissions officer talking about a fictional Asian-American applicant named Jose, reports the New Yorker.
A federal official sent a racist joke to Harvard University dean William Fitzsimmons, pictured, during an investigation into claims the institution discriminated against Asian-American applicants.
In 2018, the University was facing claims that it had unfairly demoted Asian-American students in their “personal grades.” The trial has resurfaced during a Supreme Court case brought by the SFFA
He claims he is the “sole breadwinner for his family of 14 since his father, a Filipino farm worker, was hit by a tractor.”
Hibino continued, “While he was California’s Class AAA Player of the Year, we just don’t need a 132-pound defensive lineman.”
The line appears to be a reference to the stereotype of the slim Asian male physique.
‘I have to discard the Nobel Peace Prize you received. After all, they also gave one to Martin Luther King.
“It is certainly another example of giving preference to minorities.”
He went on to call the fictitious applicant “just another AA CJer,” reportedly shorthand for Harvard admissions for Asian-American students who intend to complete a biology course before becoming a doctor.
Fitzsimmons allegedly believed the note was genuinely from a member of the admissions staff, who wrote “I am stunned.”
After realizing it was Hibino, Fitzsimmons wrote: ‘Let’s ‘deconstruct’ at lunch. Where should we go?’
The prank has sparked a cover-up row after Judge Allison Burroughs refused to reveal it and labeled Hibino a “gentleman”.
Hibino had previously worked in the Boston arm of the Office for Civil Rights, eventually serving as a regional director before retiring in 2014.
Before that, he worked in the League of Japanese American Citizens.
He was tasked with overseeing the federal investigation into Harvard decades ago, during which time he befriended Dean Fitzsimmons.
Exchanges between the two are reported to have involved joking about lunch dates and running races together. The racist memo was sent in 2012 when Fitzsimmons was still working for the federal agency.
The following year, the issue of discrimination came up again, with Hibino sending a memo to Fitzsimmons asking, ‘Regarding the impact of legacy on Asian-American applicants, what proportion of AA applicants are legacy and what proportion of white applicants? are they legacies?
‘Of course I’m happy to talk about this if necessary!’
In 2018, Students for Fair Admissions filed a legal challenge against Harvard due to its low admissions rates for Asian Americans.
The SFFA noted that Harvard gave Asian-American applicants higher academic and extracurricular grades, but had problems with their “personal grades.”
The agency alleged it did for an unspoken quota of Asian-American students.
The memo was discovered after Judge Allison Burroughs’ attempts to block its publication to protect the “privacy interests” of the “gentleman” who wrote it.
Burroughs ruled there was “intentional discrimination” in the university’s admissions process
Judge Allison Burroughs, who was appointed by President Obama, dismissed the argument, saying she found the disparity was caused by “racial inputs into the admissions process.”
These included high school letters of recommendation and the ‘underlying difference in qualities’ between white and Asian-American students.
She ruled that there was “no intentional discrimination at Harvard.”
During the trial, the judge often attended lengthy side discussions with both sets of lawyers.
He New Yorker requested that the details of those discussions be made public.
But Burroughs relented, claiming there was a “very poor, ill-advised and tasteless joke” which he chose to keep under seal to protect the “private interest” of the “gentleman” who wrote and sent it.
He later said that he wanted to give the press a “taste” of the comment, adding “without being really bad about it, I guess.”
The team representing Harvard also claimed that the move was “calculated to be delivered to the press” and “intended to embarrass Dean Fitzsimmons.”
The note was released now after the SFFA’s decision to ban the use of race in admissions processes.
It has shed new light on the 2018 case, with the Supreme Court requesting to see all the transcripts and the entire trial record.
WhatsNew2Day.com has contacted Harvard University, the Office for Civil Rights and Judge Burroughs for comment.
He New Yorker he sent calls and messages to Hibino that were not returned.
