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It will be a Merry Christmas for 7.9 percent of the 9,406 people who applied early to Harvard, and the largest group of early admits were Asian Americans.

Even though the normal admissions deadlines aren’t until Jan.1, the early admits were announced at Harvard this week.

For the Class of 2026, Asian Americans were 25.9 percent, up from 23.4 percent from last year.

African Americans were at 13.9 percent, down from 16.6 percent.

Latinx students were at 10.5 percent compared to 10.4 last year.

Native American and Native Hawaiians were at 3.7 percent up from 1.3 percent.

Those are the numbers. Sense any overt discrimination against Asian Americans?

In fact if you want to see Asian Americans at Harvard, read the Harvard school newspaper, the Crimson. One story this week on the Covid surge on campus was written by two Asian Americans, and nearly every source quoted in the story was an Asian American.

The most read story in the paper is by a Filipino American editor on colonization in the Philippines. Another story is about a new piece of matter in quantum physics discovered at Harvard, the quantum spin liquid, where a particle is connected despite spatial separation. The writer of the story? Another Asian American student.

Before you fall prey to the argument that Asian Americans are discriminated in admissions at Harvard, the truth is quite the opposite.

They get in. They are part of the community, and they are thriving in 2021.

That’s a far cry from my experience more than 40 years ago, but that’s good. That’s called real progress.

That’s why it’s hard to imagine what’s more frustrating: The Harvard admissions process itself, or the ongoing saga of people suing Harvard over the admissions process in the name of Asian Americans.

You’ll recall some Asian Americans are being used by a white conservative group to fight the legal consideration of race in admissions at Harvard.

These white proxies were essentially used as human shields in the battle against what some call “affirmative action.”

In national polls of Asian Americans, the community is overwhelmingly in favor of affirmative action.

But when you get rejected from Harvard and think you’re qualified, you change your mind. The claim is you’re being discriminated against on the basis of race.

Considering Harvard now routinely admits classes that are around 25 percent Asian, it’s hard to make such blanket claim. Where’s the discrimination?

But the white proxies persist. They lost in the district court, lost again in the federal court of appeals, and now they’re asking the Supreme Court to take up the case.

Before hearing it, the court asked the Biden administration to submit a brief, apparently to buy time. When you have a 6-3 conservative majority, the court is giddy with rollback fever. Abortion rights, voting rights, civil rights. The dance card is filled. Affirmative action, take a number.

The Biden administration has since come up with the brief that backs up the lower courts’ view of Harvard’s admissions that Asian Americans have not been discriminated.

Yet, the new claim of the white proxies is that Asian Americans are now scapegoated because of the failures of the educational system. Hmm, Asians Americans were scapegoated by Trump over what he called the “China Virus.” This is a new twist. Now Biden is scapegoating Asian Americans trying to get into Harvard?

The thinking is if a 4.0 Asian American doesn’t get in, then is it fair if another person of color with lower grades gets in? (Incidentally, Harvard just followed the path of other top schools like the University of California to eliminate use of the SAT/ACT).

The proxies really believe that admissions should be totally numerical. Rank by grades, top scorers get in. If that’s 100 percent Asian American, so be it. Fair is fair?

But didn’t the fight for equity begin when Harvard was 100 percent white?

100 percent Asian may work in an Asian country, but not America.

Harvard’s admissions actually follow the guidelines set by previous court precedents that state how race can be used in conjunction with other factors. Race is not the sole factor, and neither are just grades or just test scores. Or your violin solo.

And quotas are always illegal.

Admissions at Harvard complies with the law, which has been considered settled for so long. Like Roe v. Wade in abortion. But the disgruntled keep filing lawsuits. And now the court is 6-3 wrong in their favor.

So, the fight continues, only the white proxy Asian Americans are going full-victim now by using in their rhetoric that term “scapegoat.” They believe that Asian Americans are being punished and blamed for doing well because they perceive others less qualified (white, Black and Hispanic, but mostly the latter two) are taking their rightful space at Harvard.

Get over yourselves. And ask what’s the harm? The application fee? Get a refund. Then take your Harvard rejection and your 4.0 to UC Santa Barbara and be the world beater you were meant to be.

Stop seeing education as if it were a Hermes bag. The H on the label means nothing. And UC Santa Barbara is no Harvard knockoff. Plus, there’s the beach.

Just remember, after all these years, beating Harvard in court isn’t the answer. Not to end educational disparities, or inequities up and down the diverse rainbow.

And no one is being scapegoated.

You’ll understand all this when you finally realize how Asian Americans are being used by conservatives as their white proxies. And that, more than admissions or affirmative action, is what’s more racist and disgusting about this never-ending legal battle.