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Harvard Hit With Racial Bias Complaint
An anonymous reader writes: A coalition of 64 organizations filed a complaint against Harvard on Friday alleging the university discriminates against Asian-American applicants hoping to attend classes there. "Many studies have indicated that Harvard University has been engaged in systemic and continuous discrimination against Asian-Americans during its very subjective 'Holistic' college admissions process." One such study shows Asian-Americans had to score an average of 140 points higher than white students on their SAT test to have an equal chance of getting in. The complaint seeks a federal investigation and demands Harvard "immediately cease and desist from using stereotypes, racial biases and other discriminatory means in evaluating Asian-American applicants."
Remove the race/ethnicity indicators from the application forms altogether and don't make them a factor during interviews.
Fine with me. But people should be aware of what that will lead to. Caltech already does this. Their admission process completely ignores race. The result is that their student body is 60% Asian and less than 1% black, in a state were Asians and blacks make up a similar portion of the population.
Someone is about to learn about Simpson's paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
That's what this is really all about, isn't it? That Latinos and Blacks should be present in higher numbers for social equality reasons?
Everyone deserves an equal chance, but it happens that the Asian culture highly values education and family, and instills those values (Jewish culture is similar). It seems to work.
If Latinos and Blacks grow up in a culture that values these things to a lesser degree, they start off with a disadvantage. But giving them a free boost (artificially lowered admission standards via preference or however) doesn't seem right either (matter of opinion, that's my opinion), but more importantly, I don't think it's sustainable.
So what's the answer? I think as usual it's to work on the root cause. Make sure kids aren't disadvantaged by accident of birth. Now, that's a lofty aspiration, and very hard to accomplish. But in the end I think it's the only real and lasting answer.
Side note: I'm an MIT alum, graduated way back in 1970. At the time, MIT was trying to attract Black students who they thought could succeed. One of the administration's ideas was to guarantee a four-year full scholarship to such Black students.
Do you know who opposed that policy? The Black Student Union! The BSU said that help for the first year was a good thing, for the student to get started, but guaranteed help for four years sends the message that the Black student can't make it on his/her own, while other students can. My respect for the BSU was really, really high. They were straight shooters.
Indeed. We should make sure that black applicants are no longer called back 33% less often than white candidates with the exact same resume. MIT did the study, and the only difference between the resumes was the applicant's name.
Or how about how a white person who has spent time in prison is statistically more likely to get offered a job than a black person with a clean record.
Or the pay imbalance for blacks compared to whites for the exact same job, experience, and job rating?
How about black kids getting suspended or expelled at rates far higher than white students even when the offenses are the same?
How about states that instituted laws barring felons from ever voting again. They tend to be the same states that disproportionately target people of color, often trumping up charges as well. Also tend to be states that fought hardest to keep slavery and Jim Crow. Now they improvise to get around the Supreme Court decisions.
How about St Louis's (and many other cities') modern day debtors prisons. Oh sure, debtors prisons were outlawed⦠in name.
And on and on, round and round we goâ¦
But somehow giving preferential treatment for higher education is the biggest problem? Affirmative action is the great injustice? White folks are being held back en masse from greater wealth and success in this country? That's your stance?
(By the way, feel free to verify everything I've written. Jim Crow ain't over by a long shot.)