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I think the assertion that Harvard is liberal is a tad overstated..
At that level, it makes little difference anyway. Elite people don't get all hot and bothered about silly labels. Harvard is about money and connections...It's a ticket to the in-crowd.
It's only the peons that get all worked up about liberal this and conservative that like a bunch of clowns.
And that my friends is a 500ft. shot over the left field wall......if only more people "got it".
Neither does affirmative action policy for blacks and Hispanics. Check the U of M law school, where racial discrimination is still legal...Asians get the harshest penalty. And it isn't just Harvard. All the top tier schools are dealing with the "Asian problem" same as they did the "Jewish problem" 100 years ago. We have "enough of that type, we need more of another type."
Since Asians by and large kick every other race's arse on academic and economic achievement per capita, this now annoys everyone, not just Harvard.
America is only a meritocracy when you're still trying to succeed. America loves effort a la the little engine that could theory. Succeeding is where Americans get pissy, because you're no longer trying, but are successful, and now we cheer for your failure, you ungrateful lout!! And that's whyn discriminating against Asians in not just tolerated and ubiquitous, it's enforced federal and state law. They have enough success, the greedy buggers, so let everyone else have a chance.
And that's bigger than Harvard. That's everyone in America who looks at an Asian and thinks "they're LUCKY" or some other nonsense, as if race has anything to do with success.
Here's the dark secret white, black and Hispanic Americans do not want to admit - the most old school family culture going in America today is Asians. Not surprisingly, guess which culture has the most success. High expectations, delayed gratification, low divorce and out-of-wedlock birth rates, multi-generational homes, huge emphasis on academic achievement, etc etc. Same as Jews.
And it pisses off every lazy, entitled, FUBAR American who figures life is supposed to be handed to them, because Mom (and if he was there, Dad) have been coddling Special Snowflake their entire lives. The XBox generation is angry because Asian kids actually read books and do their homework...even without being told to!! And no shock, on percent_of_race basis, they kick everyone's arse.
My high school became a science/tech magnet school after I graduated. The year I graduated and it was a regular public school of open enrollment if you lived in the district, we had maybe a 2-3% Asian population. 4 years after enrollment became a grade/test score based meritocracy, the enrollment was 75% Asian, which of course led even my high school to "enhance the selection process" in order to lower the Asian enrollment.
Everyone loves the idea of a meritocracy until they are judged on their merits and found wanting. Then, meritocracies are unfair, cruel, blah blah. And it isn't just Harvard, or white people. Think your average black "leader" wants an end to affirmative action anytime soon? Nope, because they demand "justice" of dismantling the meritocracy and basing things on race.
And really....why even argue it. We live in a monarchy now, so it only matters if the King decides it does, but would King Obama stand up for Asians? Doubtful.
Spot on! What you mentioned applies to every minority that becomes successful. Thus far only the Jews and now the Asians are ascending. It's only human nature to suppress those that are doing well, but unfortunately there's a racial element to this. On the flip side at least the institutional racism against Asians in the US isn't as bad as all Southeast Asian countries with large Chinese and Indian populations where they have absolute quotas on East Asians and Indians.
As someone pointed out, in NYC they're trying to change the strictly merit based admissions to the magnet high schools to solve the huge Asian problem. The only thing blocking them from doing this is that it's mandated by NY state law that the admissions are strictly enforced by objective exams. Fifteen years ago they unzoned the highest ranked zoned high school in NYC located in a neighborhood with an ever increasing number of Asians and the national ranking quickly tumbled from a top 100 US school to around 700 now.
Actually Asian Americans have an unfair advantage in High School which inflates their GPA and test scores so I guess for most part this is part of the "normalization" process. 30 years ago Jewish kids had this advantage.
Back when I went to High School school as a typical white kid, I had my part time job, my Dad owned his own business I helped out at and I had tons of chores around the house. Pretty much after all that was done you squeeze some studying in. Paying tutors, SAT course or even being able to stay late at school for extra help was all out of the question. And of course playing sports and having friends were part of the HS experience.
Many of the Asian coworkers I work with have parents that greatly value school. It is common not to work in HS, attend "cram" school. Yes "cram" school. The guy I work parents every summer sent him to an intense summer camp where they did a compressed version of the next year of school to give him and advantage when it actually counted, he could get paid tutors, he could get SAT classes. Pretty much Dad or Mom whatever he needed to get great grades. Add in many of my Asian friends parents are Doctors and Engineers who can also help with homework unlike the blue collar parents many of my friends had it is no suprise they got better grades.
However, that does not make them smarter, and often they have group think. That can hurt a discussion as they have similar beliefs on things and think inside the box.
Also Diversity is important. A roomfull of Blacks, A roomfull of Whites, A roomfull of Asians is not diverse and discussion would be boring and learning limited.
Harvard is saying that a black kid from projects, a white kid who had a 20 hour a week job during college and played on sports teams with blue collar parents and an Asian rich kid whoses parents are Professors the GPAs are not the same.You have to curve them. A 3.4 CPA from someone living in a project with drugdealers is more impressive than a 3.9 GPA of a Doctors Son in a mansion in Great Neck.
The bolded shreads your entire argument. In NYC the Asians are the poorest group yet the highest performing academically. It's really awkward that you've never encountered any poor Asians living in filthy rich Long Island right next to NYC?
If there are too many Whites then there is a "diversity" issue.
You never hear about it when schools are majority Black or majority Hispanic do you ?
I once read an argument by a woman who decried the fact that her workplace was only 20% black, and thus, to her, "not diverse."
Someone tried to point out to her that 20% is actually more than the representation of black people in this country... by a margin of +5% or more.... yet to her, "diversity" meant, "equal percentages of everyone."
Forget the fact that this definition of "diverse" is impossible to achieve in the country --- or world, except in the rarest situations where a local population would be equally represented, equally educated, and with equal interests and cultural priorities.
I'll just say this, I went to business school with a lot of Asians. The ones directly from East Asia, not Asian- Americans, added virtually nothing to the classroom experience. They just sat there taking notes, they rarely engaged the professor. Life and leadership is a lot more than designing a cool Excel model.
I'm with Harvard in this particular case although I think they should drop the diversity drama. Find well rounded students and call it a day.
People aren't taking the larger view of this situation...they think it's as simple as "who has the highest SAT scores."
Anyone spending more than a day in college should know better, but folks are too wrapped up in the politics of this story.
Harvard can't possibly be fair to everyone that wants and qualifies to go there. And the "qualify" part is nebulous anyway. They're private and so exclusive that they can move the goalposts in any direction they want to move them in. No lawsuit can force them to do anything they don't want to do.
Why don't you go tutor some Indian high school kids? Why don't you go volunteer babysitting those Cambodian babies with working parents? Why don't you offer yourself sexually to the blacks in the hoods?
I do, I organized huge xmas parties forkids in the projects Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx. Did a program where we took children of welfare parents on tours of universities and to see a game on campus as there is a study kids who get to see a college and see what it is like as a child are more likely to attend. I did a lot of volunteer work after Sandy helping folks apply for grants and fill out Disaster Relief forms. I support Ronald McDonald house at their events.
I lived in the Bronx for 12 years plenty of hard working folks who just dont get the Asian Advantage.
The bolded shreads your entire argument. In NYC the Asians are the poorest group yet the highest performing academically. It's really awkward that you've never encountered any poor Asians living in filthy rich Long Island right next to NYC?
Poor Asians I know plenty. Their parents will spend their last nickle helping their kids suceed. They will work 18 hours a day, not have a car and sacrifice their own life goals to help their kids. I have worked with plenty of the kids of poor Asians.
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