<p>Wait a minute here. There is a difference between assessing someone’s chances and acknowledging that their race may be a tip, and saying “you only got in because you are black.” The former is no different than acknowledging legacy. The latter is monumentally rude, as well as presumptuous.</p>
<p>I have never wondered what a black person’s hair feels like. Never spent one second thinking about it.</p>
<p>I think that the people who are black at Harvard are the experts in what it’s like being black at Harvard. I’m not going to tell them that they’re doing it wrong. How in the world would I know, except by listening to them?</p>
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<p>That’s cool. Just leave other people out of it. </p>
<p>I’m not saying this is Niquii’s intention, but I refuse to worry about the “plight” of other races. Everyone should feel free to complain as much as they want, but it doesn’t mean I need to sit through MLK assemblies so I can listen to a bunch of Blacks rant about the White Devil. Exactly the same way that no one expected you to sit through an assembly for George Wallace in high school, no one should have to put up with that kind of crap. </p>
<p>Again, that’s not what’s going on here, but the themes are similar. It’s fine to raise awareness, I just worry that sometimes it evolves into shoving propaganda down the throats of high schoolers. </p>
<p>My son has kinky, curly, springy hair. People are attracted to it and want to touch it because it’s really cool…nothing wrong with having a tactile moment. Some of the cards are positive and flattering and some address obvious racism…can’t we separate out the negative connotations from the positive? To be so hyper sensitive that even a complement is perceived to be a racist comment is actually very sad and diminishes the wonderful aspects of any culture. I’m Irish…I’m offended it someone calls me a drunk, but flattered if someone thinks I’m a poet. My husband is Italian…he’s offended if someone assumes he’s in the mob, but flattered (very) if someone (me) thinks he’s a great lover. </p>
<p>*The people who don’t get it, aren’t the people who’ve been on the receiving end. *
There was a wonderful commentary once- wish I had the link- that said something like, those who aren’t subject to stereotyping , prejudice, racism have the wonderful liberty of dismissing it, saying it doesn’t exist, that they don’t feel it and so on. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s even appropriate to come on a thread like this and tell others to stop wallowing. At the very least, it’s judgmental. </p>
<p>If needed, call a ■■■■■ a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>How do you know I have never been on the receiving end?</p>
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<p>Sure, race may be a tipping factor in admissions, but bringing that up to a person is in bad taste, in my opinion. Truth is, the person you’re speaking to may not have needed the tip/left the race box blank. </p>
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<p>Seems like most posters on these forums significantly overestimate the effect of being URM on college admissions, even suggesting that it has a big effect at colleges where stated policy (including state law for state universities) says that those colleges do not consider it at all.</p>
<p>Pretty much everyone is in a group subject to some unfair stereotyping. Think back to Archie Bunker show. Those were real things. So everyone has some experience with it at some level–especially those over 50. </p>
<p>^^^
Was thinking the same thing. Couldn’t Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, all come up with signs as well? And to a lesser extent, how about the disabled, the obese, gays, transgender and transexuals? Or women who have endured discrimination/harassment in the work place for years? I guess it is all relative but most of us have been exposed to some sort of discrimination over the course of our lifetimes. Granted, some more than others.</p>
<p>^^^ Curious… the Asians who have expended the least amount of effort on exclaiming the horror of their victim hood are doing quite well. There is only so much energy each and every one of us had to expend on a daily/yearly/lifelong basis. Where you choose to put it will be exemplified in the end result.</p>
<p>Even if some comments roll off our backs, it’s still better to be aware of the impact words can have on another, and work on assumptions. I think we agree that just because it may be widespread doesn’t make it easy to have to bear. </p>
<p>Don’t forget the anti-semitism many Jews have been subjected to.</p>
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<p>Oh, I fully agree. I was thinking of the common situation here at CC, which was cited in the post to which I was responding: someone cites their stats and ECs and so forth and voluntarily provides their race, asking people’s opinion of their chances. </p>
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<p>Remember that immigration from overseas involves self-selection and selection for people of higher ability and motivation. People tend to have to be pretty motivated to move to a distant country where the culture and language is different from what they are used to. And the immigration system also favors people like PhD students, skilled workers, etc… So it is no surprise that such immigrants and their first generation American kids growing up with high achieving parents do well in school. While this may seem to be an “Asian” thing because Asian Americans include a relatively high percentage of immigrants, similar observations can be made for recent European and African immigrants, although they comprise a smaller percentage of European Americans and African Americans than recent Asian immigrants comprise of Asian Americans.</p>
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<p>This could not be farther from the truth. In fact, some think that it is precisely because people don’t talk about the struggles we face as ethnically-Asian Americans that we have the stats we do: 18% of Chinese men suffer from lifelong depression, twice the national average. Asian-American women are the most likely group to committ suicide. Something like 50% of Asian women experience domestic violence in their lives, significantly above the national average, and the %age of AAPI individuals in poverty grew faster than most other ethnic groups in the US.</p>
<p>And delegitimizing others experiences by attributing it to them “exclaiming the horror of their victim hood” is quite a problematic way of coping with decades of systemic influences.</p>
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<p>That’s not necessarily a thing of the distant past. </p>
<p>At several HS alum gatherings, I’ve encountered older alums and heard stories even from Jewish classmates in my class/younger classes who encountered anti-semitism from childhood onwards. </p>
<p>A few encountered this even at one Federal Service Academy which shouldn’t be too hard to figure out considering the news it garnered over this very issue not too many years ago. </p>
<p>Trust me, they’re anything, but silent about this and have been involved in protesting and decrying the BS they/their fellow Jews have had to deal with. </p>
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<p>A large part of that is that up until recently, the prevailing social climate in this country was much more strongly in favor of sweeping it under the rug and to dismiss, belittle, and minimize the experiences of those who encountered racism firsthand. </p>
<p>I’ve encountered that not only growing up in the 1980s when yelling racial slurs and violent bullying from racists was still widespread in many schoolyards, but even on other CC threads from some commenters who have exhibited tendencies to dismiss, belittle, and minimize those experiences. </p>
<p>One important change is that nowadays, there’s much more encouragement in more areas of our society for those who had such experiences to speak out and much more opprobrium against those who seek to dismiss, belittle, and minimize than even 15-30 years ago. </p>
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<p>Yes, they could. You might have seen earlier on this thread, on the first page, a similar project at Fordham university, that included Asian and Hispanics.</p>
<p>Haha Gourmetmom , my daughter has the same, springy hair. She gets it touched on a regular basis. For the most part she finds it flattering.,</p>