Posing as a URM

[jason_perrlx]

"I think Japan is populated by 98% ethnic Japanese people, China doesn't trail much behind that."

Oh I think it may even be more than that.  Outside of Tokyo hardly any one is non-Japanese.  There's a chinatown in Yokohama, a few westerners in Osaka and some Koreans scattered about... but not much more than that.

Don't get me wrong, I love Japanese culture and I had a wonderful time there.  However, a multi-cultural society Japan is not.

[Ilovecheese]

"I think Japan is populated by 98% ethnic Japanese people, China doesn't trail much behind that."

Oh I think it may even be more than that.  Outside of Tokyo hardly any one is non-Japanese.  Don't get me wrong, I love Japanese culture and I had a wonderful time there.  However, a multi-cultural society Japan is not.

They probably do, the only extensive minority in japan I know of are Koreans, who are constantly being discriminated against, and they constituted about .3% of Japanese population.   And I know how much it sucks to be in a homogeneous society.  I lived in one, and it's not pretty; the stares that people who look different get, and how it always comes down to race.

[t L]

I was all "time to go home, Takeshi."

 

[parker_posey]

Admissions offices use affirmative action to put together their fruit baskets, and you're likely to be less picky about the oranges if you have enough apples in the cart.  I agree that socioeconomic diversity should be the focus for admissions offices, as opposed to race.  URMs are by and large members of groups that have suffered at the hands of U.S. history--but I don't see how race alone should be so closely connected to lower standards for admission.  You could say that American railroads were built with Chinese hands or that the atomic bombings of Japan by America did a real number on the population--how come Asians don't get a bump in admissions?  This brings us back to the example of the fruit basket...or the flying circus, for that matter.  I'm all for diversity and new experiences (I would hate if my fruit basket had only lemons), but why make it a policy to ensure that every color of the freaking rainbow gets represented in proper proportions every year at the lunch table?  That takes away from the allegedly merit-based nature of admissions.  Affirmative action rightly deserves a lot of the criticism it receives. 

[Matthew]

"This is why, for example, Asian Americans are penalized during the admissions process, despite the fact that they doubtless face racism as well.  They are not needed for ethnic diversity."

It is interesting how much Asian Americans are penalized.  Interesting and kinda terrible. 

http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2004/beat-reporting/works/beat1.html

I had worse stats than this kid and I got into all the schools that rejected him.  And I'm a white jew... like we're not way over-represented at Harvard or something...

Agreed. Getting a boost is one thing but to be penalized is just plain wrong.

But surely, in te admissions game, with its set number of slots, a boost to anyone is a penalty to anyone not getting that boost.

I understand the desire to have cultural diversity and to value overcoming socioeconomic hardship.  I just don't see race as a proxy for either of these things.  If a white and a black person are neighbors, go to the same church, same schools, have the same friends, the black person really won't have many perspectives different from the white person.  The fact that he's black does not bring diversity of thought, culture, or perspective, only skin pigmentation.  In the same way, he's likely not any more or less disadvantaged than the white person.

[t L]

If a white and a black person are neighbors, go to the same church, same schools, have the same friends, the black person really won't have many perspectives different from the white person.  The fact that he's black does not bring diversity of thought, culture, or perspective, only skin pigmentation.

You couldn't be more wrong.

While I agree that being a certain race is not necessarily a good proxy for diversity, the above statement is still false.

[jnb983]

If a white and a black person are neighbors, go to the same church, same schools, have the same friends, the black person really won't have many perspectives different from the white person.  The fact that he's black does not bring diversity of thought, culture, or perspective, only skin pigmentation.

You couldn't be more wrong.

While I agree that being a certain race is not necessarily a good proxy for diversity, the above statement is still false.

Seriously.  The perception of differences can be as/more important than any actual differences, as far as cultural experience goes.

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

If a white and a black person are neighbors, go to the same church, same schools, have the same friends, the black person really won't have many perspectives different from the white person.  The fact that he's black does not bring diversity of thought, culture, or perspective, only skin pigmentation.

You couldn't be more wrong.

While I agree that being a certain race is not necessarily a good proxy for diversity, the above statement is still false.

word...that was one of the dumbest things i've ever heard/read

[Eveman in Ingmarland]

Admissions is indeed a zero-sum game. Everyone who attends a school is, effectively, taking someone else's spot. That's true for Ghetto URM, OC URM, Hamptons Cracker, Coalmine Cracker,  Super-Rich-Tofu-Powers Asian, Mega-Poor-Wasabi-Powers Asian, you, Jose Wetback, Li Banana, Kwame Oreo, Uncle Tom, Garth White Trash, Viktor Euro Trash, Cletus Trailer Trash and any other flavor of socio-economic peculiarity you care to mention.

Is it "fair" that some people in the aforementioned hodgepodge get a boost over others? I don't know. But what, exactly, is fair? How exactly is admitting one candidate over another because he/she got 2-3 more questions right on a bogus standardized test justly meritocratic?

This is nothing new... AA is not some new-age bogyman sent here by God to disenfranchise the White Man and wreck your cycle. Is it a little arbitrary and problematic? Sure. But the same could be said of most things involving the admissions process. Complaining about it here is neither productive nor original... honestly, it's just sad and hypocritical.

[youallscareme]

excellent idea, everyone should do it. defeat the purpose of asking the question and make them focus on actual diversity instead of skin color