The Supreme Court decision striking down race-based affirmative action in university admissions, based on the charge that Harvard discriminates against Asian Americans, actually obscures the more insidious and widespread forms of bias that many Asian Americans face.

Asian Americans are not underrepresented in university classrooms. Where they are underrepresented is in the boardroom and the C-suite. Among the Fortune 500, only 2.4% of CEOs are Asian, two-thirds of whom are South Asian. Many Asian Americans — and especially East Asians (with origins in China, Korea and Japan) — find themselves hitting a “bamboo ceiling.” It’s here, in the workplace, where affirmative action has an important role to play in the lives and livelihoods of Asian Americans — one that the Supreme Court has put in jeopardy. ···