Kenneth Xu: Now is Not the Time to be Silent

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Kenneth Xu is a second-generation Chinese immigrant, writer, and a development officer at the Young American’s Foundation. Xu graduated magna cum laude from Davidson College with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Philosophy. While in college, Xu founded Davidson’s Young Americans for Freedom Chapter. Throughout his life, Xu has incessantly fought for American ideals. Additionally, Xu is an evangelical Christian, and his faith has taught him “the equality of all people” and how to speak up for himself.

Though Xu had been interested in debating ever since high school, his passion for race and identity politics started when he was featured as a keynote speaker in the Boston rally against the Harvard discrimination lawsuit. After this experience, Xu felt compelled to speak out and write more about current issues. However, Xu’s outspokenness was not without its challenges. At Davidson College, Xu experienced first-hand attempts to shut him down. During the student government elections, people actively discouraged students from voting for Xu by attempting to cancel him for holding unpopular views. Rather than succumbing to the pressure, Xu’s response was to defend his beliefs. And it ultimately paid off, as his YAF group in Davidson expanded from 5 students to over 50 students. Xu’s will to uphold his ideals drove him to create change. Now Xu incites Asian Americans to do the same, stating, “It’s our right and responsibility to pick something and defend it. When you stand by your beliefs, you can change things.”

"When you stand by your beliefs, you can change things."

As a race politics writer, Xu perceives that the most prevalent issue today is the dichotomization of race, with different ethnic subgroups placed into oppressed and privileged categories. Xu notices that the biggest advocates for this structure are embedded in the “diversity industry.” These advocates build their careers by propagating dichotomization and sowing division, as some college “diversity officers” make as much as 385k a year. Not only does this damaging concept reduce people into privilege and oppression, but it also promotes role-playing as the victim.

Xu holds that Asian Americans should reject this concept as they “don’t fit into either side.” He explains that Asian Americans “come from a discriminated background and have experienced historical discrimination in American society,” as Japanese Americans were forced into camps during WWII, while Chinese Americans were the only ethnic group to have a formal exclusion act held against them. Despite this, Asian Americans continue to have “higher incomes and greater levels of success” compared to so-called privileged groups. Although there is still a long way to go for Asian Americans to break into the American elite and leadership positions in governments and corporations, their stories prove that background and ethnicity don’t determine one’s future. Xu encourages Asian Americans to resist this mindset and “link [ourselves] to larger American ideals” of equal opportunities and meritocracy.

Though a growing number of people believe that America is a setting where only a privileged few can flourish, Xu argues that America has the best and most accessible higher education system in the world. The various opportunities to go to college and the diversity of colleges offer people from all backgrounds a chance to receive higher education. Furthermore, compared to countries like China and India, a successful career in the United States isn’t just achievable by going to a university, and there are plenty of other ways to live a fulfilling and successful life. Xu summarizes, “We are not privileged because of our skin color, we are privileged because we live in a country that has great opportunities, and we need to pursue our ideals from that gratitude.”

"We are privileged because we live in a country that has great opportunities."

America is the embodiment of a free society built on meritocracy and equal opportunity, which is an ideal that both of Xu’s inspirations, C.S. Lewis and Ronald Reagan, strongly believed in. Amid the rising anti-American sentiments today, Xu has taken a strong stand for American principles. Xu clarifies that, unlike other revolutions such as the French Revolution, the American Revolution was staunchly different: “The French Revolution was a movement for personal gain, which resulted in infighting and different elite representatives violently replacing one another.” In contrast, the American Revolution was the “revolution of citizens” and was a statewide revolution based on political ideals. Furthermore, he recognizes that unlike many other countries, America wasn’t founded based on a territorial claim but rather ideas written in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Contemporary America, however, is drifting farther away from these founding ideals. Once the beacons of free speech, colleges are now endorsing certain ideologies and are censoring students who believe otherwise. Moreover, as can be seen in the Harvard Discrimination Lawsuit, colleges today are valuing the diversity of color over the diversity of thought. Some may say that the current drift away from American ideals is just a phase and will shortly pass, yet Xu warns that this is only the beginning. To protect America’s ideals and inject ourselves back into current dialogues, Xu urges Asian Americans to “go out and express ourselves,” as he vigilantly requests, “Now is not the time to be silent.”