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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, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @06:54PM
You're just making Harris's point for him by pointing that out. Find me a violent extremist Jain (follower of Jainism). You probably can't. Even if you could, it would be impossible to reconcile their actions with recourse to their religion. If someone is committing violence in the name of Jainism, they're being a bad Jain. They're not acting in harmony with their religion's teachings. With Islam, it's a different story. There are times when violence is acceptable, even commanded, under Islamic teachings.
To the extent that Muslims are non-violent in these circumstances, it's because (like Christians and Jews) they've accepted that there are parts of their religion that must be ignored to bring them into alignment with modernity. Islam and Christianity both prescribe violent death for certain crimes, such as the stoning of adulterers. Christians have given up the practice. Islam is having a harder time letting go of such things.
Or, maybe it's not having a harder time letting go. One explanation, suggested by the late Christopher Hitchens, is that Islam is the youngest of the modern religions and still going through the process of transformation that Judaism and Christianity had to undertake in order to adjust to secular, pluralistic, society. There are doctrinal aspects to Islam that make this progression slower, more painful, and which cause temporary local reversals in progress. Islam is unique in that it claims to be the final solution to life, covering all aspects of the human condition. It also claims to be the last and perfect revelation from God. I don't think these are insurmountable difficulties, but they don't help.
Islam's older brothers had a head start, and in the fullness of time it will catch up. That moment can not come soon enough, but for tens of thousands of Muslims, it will have come too late.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2015, @07:57PM
Jaynists would have a field day with Jainists. The hero of Canton believes in grenades, guns, girls, and lots of them.