Sunday, February 07, 2010

Discrimination Against Asians

When you refuse to admit what your own studies tell you, what adjective do we use to describe you?

For example, as I noted here, Espenshade and Alexandra Radford noted in a recent article that

[c]ompared to white applicants at selective private colleges and universities, black applicants receive an admission boost that is equivalent to 310 SAT points, measured on an all-other-things-equal basis. The boost for Hispanic candidates is equal on average to 130 SAT points. Asian applicants face a 140 point SAT disadvantage.
(snip)

I bring all this up, again, because Prof. Espenshade steadfastly continues, either obstinately or obtusely, to acknowledge what is numbers, charts, graphs, and statistical analyses clearly reveal: that “affirmative action” as practiced by admissions officers at elite colleges results in massive discrimination against Asian-Americans.
I don't care what color or ethnicity our university students are. If I as a taxpayer am paying for someone else's degree, I want to pay for the brightest person regardless of what he/she looks like or where his/her ancestors come from.

It is my most fervent hope that someday soon, people will look back on these affirmative action policies with the same derision that we today look back on "coloreds only" drinking fountains and ask, "What were they thinking?"

2 comments:

Ellen K said...

The final question is do we want the best and brightest regardless of color or do we want diversity regardless of the possibility of mediocrity?

PeggyU said...

And you know what the irony of that will be? Asian students will become even more competitive because more is expected of them.