<p>@geletactics We Asians “whine” about affirmative action because it is unfair to us. Why are we kept down in admissions even more than whites? Why are we some kind of separate category that colleges do want too much of, much like the Jews in the late 1800s? Why is it so much harder for us?</p>
<p>Is it that we suffer from no discrimination? I can tell you, from my experiences on the local basketball courts and in social life, discrimination against Asians is real. I had to come with friends every time if I wanted “next” because no white or black kid was going to pick me up despite the fact I was on the school basketball team. No Asian will even be the “popular kid” in school. Look around you. Despite the fact that Asians are the most high-achieving race, there is a weirdly low number of them in top positions in Fortune 500 companies and in politics. Is this not discrimination? Please.</p>
<p>If you want to get into history, well, Chinese exclusion and Japanese internment should do it for you. It isn’t exactly on the level of slavery, but it is a negative thing that happened to us. We have the dubious distinction of being the only race to ever be banned from immigration and the only race to ever be imprisoned based on race. That is about is discriminatory as it gets.</p>
<p>Because of these difficulties that Asians face, it might be reasonable for us to argue for affirmative action for ourselves. But we do not. We just want a level playing field.</p>
<p>We have the dubious distinction of being the only race to ever be banned from immigration and the only race to ever be imprisoned based on race.</p>
<p>I am not negating the interment camps, but you are familiar with population numbers in actual prisons, right?</p>
<p>@emeraldkity4 I think there should be a distinction between official discrimination and informal discrimination. And it is a fact that blacks do commit more crimes than other races due to their socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>@geletactics I actually believe it’s socioeconomic status. Race bias might be part of it (see very little) but it’s really just the fact that blacks are poorer as a whole. Poverty is what causes crime, and crime causes arrests. Arrests lead to imprisonment. I don’t want to argue about this though, because literally every study known to man about this subject points to poverty being the biggest influence on prison population demographics.</p>
<p>I dont find that disparity humorous, geletactics, do you?
I am more concerned about the rate of sentencing.
A disproportinate number are sentenced for drug crimes, at a time when most Americans feel we should be more lenient and that cannabis should be legal.</p>
<p>I have sat back on this thread long enough. @geletactics, there are various factors that go into black poverty. Please do not declare that the sole reason that a large number of the black population is impoverished is due to what happened during the Reconstruction era or a similar time period. There is more than the past that goes into black poverty. </p>
<p>The fact may be that race has far less impact in admissions than some people think. But until applications stop asking for race and until students are assigned a number so adcoms can’t guess their race from their name or their parents’ names, we will never be sure it is eliminated as a factor. And until it is eliminated, people will make inaccurate assumptions about people. </p>
<p>I’m sure it is solace for the math team and other overachievers applying to Harvard that, despite barriers to attending the college of their choice, they benefit from more lax sentencing on drug offenses. </p>
<p>Also geletactics, lumping all white people together is no better than lumping all blacks together. Same for Asian Americans, Hispanics and whatever else. Thinking you didn’t read the whole thread.</p>
<p>The problem all those math teamers have starts with the sheer number of kids applying to H. And, sorry, their frequent attitude that their stats, math team and some other hs title is enough. And then all the assumptions built on that, that it really is enough and, by gummy, if it just weren’t for AA, they and their 20,000 some counterparts with stats, rigor, math team and some other hs title (not to mention “passion” for heaven knows what,) would all have a seat in H’s freshman class. As if.</p>
<p>Lookingforward, I was responding to the specific argument about how being lax on drug offenses is just compensation for not getting into college. </p>
<p>G, still suggesting you read the whole thread. Get that perspective. Or else you represent anger, sheer anger- which some here felt justifies the very attitudes you complain about. Again I’ll note, there has been rollicking arguing on both sides in threads called “Race and College Admissions.” It’s up to version 11, I think. If you don’t get some perspective on this thread, you may be inadvertently supporting some crap dished out here. </p>
<p>“until it is eliminated, people will make inaccurate assumptions about people.”</p>
<p>People will continue to make inaccurate assumptions about people even if all admissions become race-blind. Racism is a whole lot older than affirmative action. People made lots of inaccurate assumptions before it was invented. They continue to do so at university systems with race-blind admissions (like public schools in MI, CA, TX, etc.). Racism does just fine even when no one can point to affirmative action to justify it.</p>
<p>Well naturally, Hannah, but the topic at this juncture is AA because it was revealed that the project was done in response to a Crimson article about Affirmative Action. No one is saying AA is the sole source of racial antagonism. But AA provides an envelope to wrap it in.</p>
<p>Again, these comments run the gamut. Some are definitely nasty.</p>
<p>Regarding a good number of these: Asking questions which reflect a lack of knowledge of the world, of history, geography, or linguistics reveals someone to be poorly-educated and untraveled, not deliberately insulting. Shaming your un-informed classmates for expressing an interest in you and or trying to learn more about you and your culture is in poor taste and counterproductive to producing an atmosphere of respect and acceptance at Oxford. This type of rude behavior is no better, and possibly worse, than that about which you are complaining. Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to kindly answer your peers so they may be delivered of their ignorance, rather than mocking them? Did YOU honestly know everything there was to know about life in the UK before you arrived there?</p>
<p>And if someone rudely asks you if you engage in unsavory behavior, you just might consider the possibility that personal grooming may have had more to do with that question than your skin color. </p>
<p>This thread makes me cringe. I’m reading a lot of “well, why did you choose to allow yourself to stay in a racist situation” instead of “wow, that really sucks that you were stuck in a racist situation and that situation needs to be fixed ASAP.”
People are being blamed for not removing themselves from something they shouldn’t have to be removed from. Like if people want to go to a prestigious school and not experience racism, why are they being blamed for not wanting to experience racism?</p>
<p>“No one is saying AA is the sole source of racial antagonism.”</p>
<p>If you say “until we eliminate X, we’re going to get Y,” I can only take that to mean that you think eliminating X will do something to prevent Y. But it seems we agree that Y will occur with or without X, so, good.</p>
<p>Yes, I think eliminating AA will do something to change the perception URM’s may have been admitted with lower credentials, and that assumption has been interpreted as racially insensitive. It will not eliminate other types of insensitivity, however.</p>
<p>frohawking, have you read the whole thread? The issues discussed were more whether all the comments were racist and therefore deserving of outrage than anything else. I, for one, did not advocate inaction, but rather firm, polite personal conversations during which the offended individual addressed the offense and/or educated the ignorant. I felt that this would be a more productive and peace-producing way of dealing with the problem, especially since some of these comments were more stupid than deliberately insulting. </p>