To Get A Leg Up, Be Sure You Have A Leg Of The Right Color
"Diversity" punishes Asians and poor whites and lots of others, writes Russell K. Nieli on Minding The Campus:
When college presidents and academic administrators pay their usual obeisance to "diversity" you know they are talking first and foremost about race. More specifically, they are talking about blacks. A diverse college campus is understood as one that has a student body that -- at a minimum -- is 5 to 7 percent black (i.e., equivalent to roughly half the proportion of blacks in the general population). A college or university that is only one, two, or three percent black would not be considered "diverse" by college administrators regardless of how demographically diverse its student body might be in other ways. The blacks in question need not be African Americans -- indeed at many of the most competitive colleges today, including many Ivy League schools, an estimated 40-50 percent of those categorized as black are Afro-Caribbean or African immigrants, or the children of such immigrants.As a secondary meaning "diversity" can also encompass Hispanics, who together with blacks are often subsumed by college administrators and admissions officers under the single race category "underrepresented minorities." Most colleges and universities seeking "diversity" seek a similar proportion of Hispanics in their student body as blacks (since blacks and Hispanics are about equal in number in the general population), though meeting the black diversity goal usually has a much higher priority than meeting the Hispanic one.
Asians, unlike blacks and Hispanics, receive no boost in admissions. Indeed, the opposite is often the case, as the quota-like mentality that leads college administrators to conclude they may have "too many" Asians. Despite the much lower number of Asians in the general high-school population, high-achieving Asian students -- those, for instance, with SAT scores in the high 700s -- are much more numerous than comparably high-achieving blacks and Hispanics, often by a factor of ten or more. Thinking as they do in racial balancing and racial quota terms, college admissions officers at the most competitive institutions almost always set the bar for admitting Asians far above that for Hispanics and even farther above that for admitting blacks.
...Most elite universities seem to have little interest in diversifying their student bodies when it comes to the numbers of born-again Christians from the Bible belt, students from Appalachia and other rural and small-town areas, people who have served in the U.S. military, those who have grown up on farms or ranches, Mormons, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, lower-middle-class Catholics, working class "white ethnics," social and political conservatives, wheelchair users, married students, married students with children, or older students first starting out in college after raising children or spending several years in the workforce. Students in these categories are often very rare at the more competitive colleges, especially the Ivy League. While these kinds of people would surely add to the diverse viewpoints and life-experiences represented on college campuses, in practice "diversity" on campus is largely a code word for the presence of a substantial proportion of those in the "underrepresented" racial minority groups.
Since university admissions are no longer fair, what would be fair for students to do? To be "judged by the content of their character" and their educational merits alone, do Asian and poor students need to take measures into their own hands, and claim on their applications that they're African American? No, this wouldn't be a lie. After all, technically we all are African, according to Steven Pinker. In The Blank Slate, he writes, "Men are not from Mars, nor are women from Venus. Men and women are from Africa, the cradle of our evolution..."
P.S. If anybody's African-American, it's Charlize Theron.
My wife was the HR director of a small defense related software firm in the mid-west. In order for them to be able to bid on defense jobs the company had to have a certain percentage of "minority" employees.
The company was then audited every quarter and a diversity official would appear at their doorstep to take inventory. My wife would trot out the large number of naturalized Asians and Indians that they had working at the company. The auditor, who was always a black female, would glare at my wife and say: "but how many blacks do you have working here?" It became quite clear what "minority" really meant.
It wasn't as if her company was racist. They were desperately trying to find black technical recruits ... but they were so few and far between that her small company could never attract them. The big companies would throw huge salaries at them so that they could fill out their own "minority" portfolio.
AllenS at August 3, 2010 6:27 AM
Government (and by extension, entities that follow the government's lead here) can only give that which it takes from someone else. I can't help feeling it would be like the government taking Michael Jordan's car and giving it to me, because he's a better basketball player.
I'm sure a professional grievance monger can come up with a reason why one is fair and not the other. I'm also sure I don't care. I've got a car that I bought for myself. I wouldn't be happy knowing I was driving someone else's car. I wouldn't be happy knowing I took someone else's place at school, either. All don't share my scruples. Too bad for them, because self respect is worth a lot.
MarkD at August 3, 2010 7:21 AM
I was thinking about just this issue last Sunday night when I uncharacteristically turned on the ESPN baseball game. Normally, I can't stand to listen to ESPN's baseball announcers any more, but I was too tired to mess with the satellite radio. And during the game, they mentioned this interesting bit: Ozzie Guillen, who is known around baseball as an ethnicity-baiter, had made some disparaging remarks about Asian players that day. He was whining about how Japanese players often get translators assigned to them, while Hispanic players often don't. Of course, most non-native Hispanic players are from the Dominican, where they have been in contact with English-speaking scouts and player agents since their teens, but never mind. Anyway, announcer Joe Morgan, who is known around baseball as a race-baiter, jumped in and basically told Ozzie to shut up, because everyone knows that black players have it much harder than Hispanic players. And it reminded me of Joe's on-the-air rant from last year about how it was unfair that Hispanic players were pushing black players out of the game. Of course, Joe's answer to that was to get rid of white players.
So that got me to thinking that it would be snarky-fun to run a Web site that consists entirely of an identity-group scoreboard. It would be updated daily or weekly to show which groups are most and least favored by the ruling class and its fellow travellers. People could track the movement of their favorite groups up and down the scoreboard over time, and maybe even make friendly wagers. Here's the scoreboard, with commentary, as I see it right now:
1. Gays. They're making all the right noises to claim top victim status with the Left. Actually having a couple of legitimate grievances is a plus.
2. Illegal aliens. The darlings of the league. Everyone loves them, as long as they know their places while maintaining the lawn and the pool.
3. Hispanics. The fastest-growing team, in part due to their working agreement with the illegal aliens. However, if the aliens decide to terminate that agreement, this group could be in trouble.
4. Blacks. Used to be #1, but the once-dependable race card is now old and dog-eared, and everyone at the table knows who has it and when it's about to be played. Their last match, vs. Andrew Breitbart, ended in a draw.
5. Muslims. They're #1 with a bullet in Europe, but culturally ignorant American hicks aren't getting hip to that beat. Short-term prospects uncertain.
6. Women. As an identity team, they really don't seem to get the point of the contest. Some are playing to win, but some of them have dis-identified in order to join other teams, and some just don't seem to be very into the game.
7. Jews. Moving down the scoreboard in part due to self-inflicted injuries. They are gaining support from the conservative/libertarian group, but that's actually bringing their score down further; see below.
8 (tie). White males. As they used to say about the Washington Senators: "First in war, first in peace, last in the National League."
(tie). Asians. Actually have fallen below white males on campus, but still maintain slightly higher scores in other areas.
10. Conservatives/libertarians. Will remain here as long as they persist in not playing by the rules. (Unless they succeed in changing the rules.)
11. Fathers. In the process of being relegated. Only question is who the rest of the league will beat up on after they're gone.
Note that most players who are eligible to play on multiple teams will automatically be credited with the scores of the highest-scoring team for which they are eligible. However, membership in the conservative/libertarian team and the fathers team makes a player ineligible for any other team.
Cousin Dave at August 3, 2010 7:33 AM
Cousin Dave: You left out, Handicapped. I'd put that team at # 4.
College ar champions of diversity, except diversity in thought, politics, and religion.
Joe at August 3, 2010 10:36 AM
I always ask the lefty "liberals" who say AA is the way to be, what exactly am I supposed to tell my boys? Because I've been raising them with the principle that skin color is not something to take into consideration, ever. But I get proved wrong about this all the time. They're Irish/Italian/Germans - your basic white Americans, and male. God help them when it's time to apply to college or for a job. They'll learn fast that skin color is sometimes ALL that matters.
And then people will stand around scratching their heads wondering why the hell racism still exists.
DUH.
Which brings me to my second point...
We live in a society where more and more people are marrying between ethnic and racial groups. Which is wonderful! This is the USA, we're the melting pot! my kids have several friends who are half white and half black. Or half white and half latino.
So now these kids grow up and get married...and now we have kids who are half white, a quarter black, and a quarter latino. So....um....what are they? Are they minorities? And just how much of something to you have to be to claim minority status? 50%? 25%?
Eventually, this has to stop.
UW Girl at August 3, 2010 2:36 PM
When I got hired by the school board in my county, they told me I had to answer the question about my race. When I said I prefer to leave it blank, they told me that wasn't possible and that the computer needs something entered to complete the process.
LL at August 3, 2010 4:35 PM
Say "human" race next time.
Martin at August 3, 2010 7:04 PM
I work with a black, single mother. She is totally incompetent. (i.e. I could pick up her job and do it after three months -- just by casual exposure -- and it isn't my area to work.) She's been there three YEARS.
But she already has a lawyer lined up for the day she is fired.
It totally sucks.
Jim P. at August 3, 2010 7:17 PM
What about those racist policies of those islamic asians in predominantly islamic asian world, who bestowed themselves special privileges to unfairly manipulate and discriminate unfairly against disadvantaged nonislamic world?
WLIL at August 3, 2010 9:34 PM
If you can't answer none, simply pick one at random and then dare them to explain in court why it matters.
Robert at August 4, 2010 3:08 AM
Asians in the United States are discriminated against more than any other group.
It's done by academia because thay are too successful.
David M. at August 5, 2010 6:36 AM
Asians, Jews, and Men in general with white men more specifically.
But discrimination today does not stop the driven and the talented.
Robert at August 5, 2010 12:21 PM
Asians should not boast too much about their socalled success in the western world that was created originally by western civilisation. The asians can always go back to their asians world if they are still not satisfied with their socalled success in the western world.
WLIL at August 5, 2010 6:03 PM
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