Monday, December 5, 2011

Half Asian Half White Students get around Discrimination by American Universities - check the white box

Do Asians have to hide their complete identity and change family names to be truly accepted as American?


Only Asians with surnames with Caucasian sounding name are able to get around the unfair system, not for those with Asian fathers.  


Being born in America in a family that has lived there for generations do not help them to be regarded as assimilated full-fledged Americans.  It is a mixed bag - some are more Asian and others more American / westernised. 


An Asian has to compete unfairly, requiring hundreds of points higher compared to other races.


Since discrimination clearly exists in education, it would not be far off the mark to guess that injustice permeates to other areas such as employment in the government and promotion prospects? High achievers being penalised, are victims of their success. 


It is a no-win situation. American universities that discriminate (including Harvard) will stand to lose out if mediocrity, purposeful discrimination by stereotyping form the guiding "principles".


Some amount of proactive and affirmative action to promote egalitarianism (not equality) is a commendable social policy. Reserving a small percentage for disadvantaged groups has been a longstanding policy of many organisations.


On the other hand, wealthy parentage and alumni connections will get a student ahead of the rest, overlooking scores in SAT.  So the egalitarian argument is defeated and biased elitism is exposed. The extent and pervasiveness of favouring some groups over others by some American universities is disgraceful. 

Quote :


For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it's harder for them to gain admission to the nation's top colleges.
Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges' admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.
The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.
Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications.
For those with only one Asian parent, whose names don't give away their heritage, that decision can be relatively easy. Harder are the questions that it raises: What's behind the admissions difficulties? What, exactly, is an Asian-American - and is being one a choice?

Immigration from Asian countries was heavily restricted until laws were changed in 1965. When the gates finally opened, many Asian arrivals were well-educated, endured hardships to secure more opportunities for their families, and were determined to seize the American dream through effort and education.
These immigrants, and their descendants, often demanded that children work as hard as humanly possible to achieve. Parental respect is paramount in Asian culture, so many children have obeyed - and excelled.


Of course, not all Asian-Americans fit this stereotype. They are not always obedient hard workers who get top marks. Some embrace American rather than Asian culture. Their economic status, ancestral countries and customs vary, and their forebears may have been rich or poor.
But compared with American society in general, Asian-Americans have developed a much stronger emphasis on intense academic preparation as a path to a handful of the very best schools.
Top schools that don't ask about race in admissions process have very high percentages of Asian students. The California Institute of Technology, a private school that chooses not to consider race, is about one-third Asian. (Thirteen percent of California residents have Asian heritage.) The University of California-Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race in admissions, is more than 40 percent Asian - up from about 20 percent before the law was passed.
Highly selective colleges do use much more than SAT scores and grades to evaluate applicants. Other important factors include extracurricular activities, community service, leadership, maturity, engagement in learning, and overcoming adversity.
Admissions preferences are sometimes given to the children of alumni, the wealthy and celebrities, which is an overwhelmingly white group. Recruited athletes get breaks. Since the top colleges say diversity is crucial to a world-class education, African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders also may get in despite lower scores than other applicants.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fearing-discrimination-asian-college-applicants-declare-ethnicity-article-1.986416

More readings :

http://www.asianamericanalliance.com/Statistics-on-Reverse-Discrimination.html



In contrast ethnic minorities in China such as Tibetan are given much leeway : offering lower university entry and generous scholarships. 


We wonder why Big Brother / Uncle Sam is still supporting exiled rebels who are westernised in their appearances and outlook and have lost much of their cultural heritage.

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