A Community Divided: The Ho Lawsuit and Chinese San Franciscans’ Search for Education Equality and Racial Inclusion

Abstract

The Brian Ho lawsuit in the 1990s, brought about by several school children of Chinese descent in the San Francisco United School District against the school district, state defendants, and the San Francisco NAACP, signified a shift in the understanding of education equality that spotlighted divergent views, motivations, and actions concerning race-conscious education policies among Chinese San Franciscans. This article examines the intra-community dynamics and conflicts in Chinese San Franciscans’ pursuit of education rights and racial equality in the 1980s and 1990s by reconstructing their various claims to education equality. These divergent yet analogous struggles for equal educational opportunities reflected varied racial attitudes and conceptions of Chinese American racial identity. What these disparate racial perceptions and identity conceptions embodied fundamentally was a range of arguments for racial inclusion and equality. The contrast and contradictions between these distinct views persisted, reemerging in Chinese Americans’ continued apprehension of their racial identity in the wake of the renewed debate about race-based education policies that was juxtaposed with the rising racial hatred toward Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.