White Students in CA Leaving Too Competitive, "Too Asian" Schools

<p>You folks who are confused by the different perpectives on the definitions of race and ethnicity and/or culture can blame the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It was that agency (under the Nixon Administration, I believe) that concocted the term “Hispanic,” for example. Many Latin folks have been upset about that for years. And yes, how we describe “jews” or jewish in America has been subject to debate among those community members.</p>

<p>As for the whole concept of “white” and “race” in general, many scholars/scientists, historians believe that there is no such thing. I mean, is White equivalent to caucasian? Are Turks, southern and eastern Russians, Persians or Arabs caucasian? Are they White? Something to think about.</p>

<p>“As for the whole concept of “white” and “race” in general, many scholars/scientists, historians believe that there is no such thing. I mean, is White equivalent to caucasian? Are Turks, southern and eastern Russians, Persians or Arabs caucasian? Are they White? Something to think about.” </p>

<p>Excellent questions, LakeWashington. Years ago, I either heard or read that South Asians (those from India and Pakistan) are also considered “caucasian”. At the time, I recall thinking, " What?! How can that be?" Many South Asians are considerably more dark- skinned than me, an African American—yet they are classified as caucasian? Of course, now science has come to recognize that the concept of race itself is almost entirely a social construct. Unlike many species of animals, human beings cannot be scientifically classified into racial subtypes, as we are just too genetically similar. Common gene pools, caused by geographical and cultural isolation over time determined similarities in the physical features that we identify as belonging to certain “races”, however, the differences are primarily and quite literally only “skin deep”. Interesting, isn’t it?</p>

<p>Well, to be honest, I haven’t read this thread… but I’m a white exchange student to Taiwan so I’ve been able to see firsthand for myself the extent of these stereotypes.</p>

<p>Firstly, I just like to say that Asian education systems put unimaginable amounts of stress on admissions tests, the smart seniors literally have zero free time here–they go to to school 6 days a week, 7am to 9pm.</p>

<p>Also, tests are much more clearly defined (scores) than ECs for example so it is easier for parents to blame their kids for not studying hard enough and in turn do scary things (physical abuse).</p>

<p>Secondly, teaching philosophy dictates intense repetition of everything, from studying the same paragraph in english all week to prescribing ways to answer every math problem.</p>

<p>I think in general, Asians have about the same ratio of dumb/smart kids that white people do it is just that in order to get from say China or Taiwan to the states, you have to be insanely smart, simply because the competition is that much more intense. In order to go to say UCI, you first have to be able to speak english fluently (not an easy task when you’re a native Chinese speaker), and score well on all placement exams (vs all of Chinese/Taiwanese) so you can get into the best highschools and have the opportunities to do the things that would distinguish you from the international pool of applicants.</p>

<p>My two cents</p>