Asians at W&M

ttgiang15
Tue, 02 May 2006 01:46:23 +0000

I’ve considered slicing and dicing those points you presented, but it’s no use. I’ll limit myself to reconstructing solely from what I posted:

Consider what has been contended before I entered the discussion: that even though Asian-Americans (heretofore ‘AA’) are, on the whole, high achievers, the fact that they are represented at top, public Virginia colleges at comparatively low rates (against California) is due to lower number of AA applicants to William & Mary. The statistics presented attempt to show that AA are, in fact, well-represented if one considers the relative populations of AA in Virginia and California.

If I made any points or claims, they were restricted to the first post. The second post was dedicated to dispel the notion that the statistics used were in any valuable, and to reiterate the importance of demographic data (to support the claims stated in the first post).

So what was my main point? That though the statistics sugggest a compartively equal representation of Asian-Americans (heretofore ‘AA’) at colleges in Virginia and California, the failures to recognize the socioeconomic backgrounds of AA groups, in fact, create a disparity that shows discrimination at VA schools. This makes those attempts at quantifying the policies of admissions fruitless, of no value.

The following is how I framed my points and claims in the first post, in order of their appearance, of course:

By restating the problem at hand: “…some of you have tried to use statistics to explain the discriminative/nondiscriminative policies by the admissions office by comparing relative admissions data from two unique sites”

First point, given: “For a start, not all Asians are equal.”

Claims, after having identified different sub-‘Asian’ groups: “These conditions, therefore, make this less an issue of racial diversity, but socioeconomic diversity in college admissions.”

Critical question, framing further discussion as to how colleges choose students, in particular, the different groups of AA students: “The question becomes, just which Asian-American families are represented along the East Coast, in Virginia?”

Concluding point, after having drawn on efforts by UC system to award socioeconomic diversity, “In short, the colleges, themselves, help skew the data as a byproduct (of) differences in ideology of public education.”
-> This difference in ideology is the weakness of the VA system. The lack of recognition of backgrounds, within a given “race”, makes the “lumping” of groups significant and subject to interrogation. I detailed the conditions that showed why one group of Asian is more “disadvantaged” than another, but there exists no significant difference between the quality of life of a Scandanvian, Jew, Eastern European, or WASP so as to warrant further review. The inability of the VA system to look at the socioeconomic background, therefore, as pointed out in the concluding claim, “skews the data.” Again, I will repose the question already stated: "“The question becomes, just which Asian-American families are represented along the East Coast, in Virginia?” While a student with Chinese parents may not be discriminated against, a Vietnamese student like myself might very well be, indirectly, unknowingly, because of not taking into account socioeconomic backgrounds. Now, taking on the issue of mobility, which would one more commonly find in Virginia- the Chinese or the newly-immigrated Vietnamese? The “skewing of the data,” or their “irrelevance,” is due to the inability of those here to not consider the socioeconomic differences when making using general statewide and schoolwide data, for, because of the faulty data, the evidence would suggest that admissions practices at VA state schools are nondiscriminatory. Here, you should once again refer back to my “main point” identified above in this post.

Perhaps my responses could’ve been better phrased, but all of this was found in my original post, the only location in which my points and claims were made. In light of this, I can’t find where I was at fault. I do hope, however, that this has cleared some of the confusion.