<p>To Matt and Berkeley Dude: </p>
<p>On the Asian majority? Am I saying its detrimental? Absolutely not, what I was saying it is can be detrimental for some students, especially since the culture the students bring with them can set the tone for the university. It’s a fact that if the student culture is geared towards studying heavily, there will be lots of studying. If the student culture is set towards parties, there will be lots of partying and the university will adjust itself accordingly. Is what I said I being prejudiced? Perhaps, but that was not my intention. I’m just making notes on my observations. The inherent problem with a majority and claiming a diverse (if we are defining diversity by racial makeup) environment, means you can’t have a majority of individuals. One group may gain a slight foothold from year to year, however, there has to be a fairly even balance of races and cultures to keep diversity truly alive. Under the logic of diversity in its purest meaning – let’s say there are 5 main races, and please excuse my lack of political correctness: Whites, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics/Latinos, and Blacks. Now, under the racial diversity definition, the school should be about 20% for each. However, if you REALLY want to get deep into diversity, let’s say there is 50 major cultures in the world. That means, the school would have to accept 2% of its student body from each subgroup. Side note to Max: Relax – I know there are differences between the different cultures, however, Berkeley bills itself as racially diverse, at least when I applied. </p>
<p>Mainly for Berkeley dude and to come back to Matt’s point:
As far as being Jewish? It really isn’t much of a problem unless you run into an intolerant bigot. These people tend to be far leftist “liberals” or far right reactionaries. Note, that liberals is in quotation marks. A true liberal, regardless of whether they are libertarian or socialist leaning, should tolerate, if not accept everyone, regardless of race, culture, creed, religion, or belief. However, there are a few students (a small, but shrilly annoying and vocal minority) at Berkeley that seemed to have missed that memo. Back to your worries about being Jewish, I saw derogatory graffitti against Jews and things that have eminated from student’s mouths towards whites and jews that bordered on hate speech, but keep in mind, this is the exception (especially lately), and not the rule. I don’t abide racism in any form. </p>
<p>I should have clarified a few things when I wrote that piece, what is it almost two years ago? The piece was meant to be somewhat raw as well. If it offended or came off as a callous, close-minded, and crude, I apologize, but I did say, take everything with a grain of salt. My intention was to give people some idea what they are getting into. Honesty is sadly subjective. What I see as truth might be seen as a fallacy by another person. Of course opinions change, especially after you spend a year in Europe, and I very well may write a followup piece in the next couple of days.</p>
<p>And to Astro:
Yes, I am. Why do you ask?</p>
<p>…and I can’t believe this thread was dragged up from the dead.</p>