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The Los Angeles Times is running an article describing the challenges faced by Asian Americans as they apply for acceptance to top colleges.
The article describes the impact that their race and ethnicity has on their SAT scores:
Lee's next slide shows three columns of numbers from a Princeton University study that tried to measure how race and ethnicity affect admissions by using SAT scores as a benchmark. It uses the term “bonus” to describe how many extra SAT points an applicant's race is worth.
She points to the first column. African Americans received a “bonus” of 230 points, Lee says.
She points to the second column. “Hispanics received a bonus of 185 points.”
The last column draws gasps. Asian Americans, Lee says, are penalized by 50 points — in other words, they had to do that much better to win admission.
“Do Asians need higher test scores? Is it harder for Asians to get into college? The answer is yes,” Lee says.
A core tenet of the American philosophy, even from before the days of the Founding Fathers, is that through hard work and excellence one should be able to obtain success in life. But is this ideal even possible when certain underachieving groups are given artificial advantages, while those with the most merit are artificially held back?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @09:17AM
"Not a racist because not being a racist actually hurts those that I am racist about." This one is kinda twisted. Could be an actual point. So we keep blacks and hispanics out of colleges?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Marneus68 on Monday March 02 2015, @09:22AM
> So we keep blacks and hispanics out of colleges?
Yeah, but only the ones with shitty grades, you know, the way it already works for white people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @09:26AM
"I am not a racist because I want to keep whites out of college too!" Well, consistent, at least. But do you think SAT scores have anything to do with it?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 02 2015, @10:17AM
Whoa - I'm not sure that you've thought that through.
Okay - we got a pool of people applying for college. Some are black, some white, some hispanic, some asian.
Your black people get a nice huge bonus tacked on to their test scores.
The hispanics get a bonus too.
White people don't seem to get any bonus, and maybe a small penalty.
Asians get a HUGE penalty.
So - who gets in? Some qualified blacks, along with a lot of unqualified blacks. Some qualified hispanics, along with a handful of unqualified hispanics. Whites? Only the cream of the crop. Asians? Only the creme de la creme.
So, many qualified white people are disqualified and barred from top colleges just for being white. WORSE - Asians are just barred from college unless they are over-qualified for the various geek clubs.
Sorry, it isn't working out the way you describe at all. Whites and asians with great grades aren't getting a fair shake at all here.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday March 02 2015, @02:27PM
Stacking the deck against Whites and Asians with regard to college admissions doesn't prevent Google from hiring mostly Whites and Asians. [mashable.com]
If Google sees through forced diversity bullshit, chances are that others do as well.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 02 2015, @03:05PM
I'm sure that some others do. But - we still have quotas for all government agencies, for all government contractors, and for the vast majority of large corporations. Every company wants to hire a black female, regardless of her qualifications. Just so long as she has some degree - any degree - she is a valued asset to them. Give her an office, and a title, and they have their "token" female and "token" black all rolled up in one.
Ever wondered what it's like to BE that "token"? It must suck. NO ONE likes you, or respects you, I would imagine.
(Score: 1) by t-3 on Monday March 02 2015, @04:03PM
Well, any whites or asians qualified to work at Google have degrees right? So they are the best of whites and asians who actually got accepted to college, which has already been shown to discriminate against them. So Google is happy with discrimination at college because it makes their hiring process easier. None of this is actually true though.
Whites are the vast majority of the population, followed by blacks and asians. Hispanics are actually the second largest group, but "hispanic" is a pan-color term for the descendants of Spanish colonialism and their victims so it's not a racial distinction really worth making. In any case, whites have such an advantage in sheer numbers that any discrimination probably doesn't even show up statistically if it does exist. Maybe the stereotypical studiousness ascribed to Asians has led to discrimination by colleges? If the majority of asians are being pushed to study, they probably have better SAT scores on average but are not actually smarter or more creative than anyone else? The numbers seem to support this (pages 7-8, second url), and also show that a 50 point bias still puts asians on average ahead of everyone else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity [wikipedia.org]
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2013/TotalGroup-2013.pdf [collegeboard.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @09:25AM
No, moron, students with lower grades would do better going to colleges where they can be more competitive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @11:04AM
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday March 02 2015, @02:35PM
"I'm not a racist because I try hard to look like I'm not racist by spamming comments everywhere on the Internet."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday March 02 2015, @08:01PM
I am a racist, but an equal-opportunity one. It depends on how many bad stereotypes of a certain group I encounter in X period of time.
Here at the DMV now there are 3 primary groups - whites, asians, and hispanics. Only one of the three groups is bringing their crying babies in with them and allowing theIr older youngins to run around unleashed? Care to guess which one?
If you guessed the correct answer, you just might be a racist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @09:35PM
Let me guess. Fuck you.