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Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

nytimes.com

11–20 of 27 posts

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#11

Leave Asian Americans?? Asian Americans have the highest income of all groups of Americans.

So to resolve issues of Asian poverty, should the poorer Asians appeal to their richer peers? Is this the path forward for racial progress in the US? What should poor white or black people do?

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#12

I'm no fan of judging people by the color of their skin, why not use family income? This way it's apparent who is getting high scores due to tutoring and who is naturally gifted.

They already do that too, but it can't solve the racial distribution problem which colleges care a lot about: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/1995-SAT...

Originally I was against the idea of affirmative action but I've came around to it, but I still don't understand the need to solve for racial distribution rather than socioeconomic distribution.

In my mind affirmative action's goal should be to break the cycle of poverty, where smart kids have poor/uneducated parents which holds them back and they grow up to be poor/uneducated themselves and so on.

It's my understanding that this problem disproportionately affects minorities (in particular black people), so solving for socioeconomic would "self select" (I don't know the proper term) for black people and avoid the issue of "Asian kid with poor/uneducated parents passed over for black kid with richer/educated parents" right?

Or is that just not a real issue? The article seems to mention pluses and minuses (e.g. "two college-educated parents (minus) from a major American city (minus) with aspirations to study either computer science (minus)") so it could be that the above hypothetical would never happen.

I don't know, I'm just struggling to understand why colleges would care more about solving racial distribution rather than socioeconomic distribution.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#13

they got rid of affirmative action in california. the asians were the only minorities to see growth in the number of acceptances to uc. however, it was no where near the rate of growth of their population demographic. most of the new spots went to foreign students. once again the faculty went back to being exclusively white male. also all state government jobs hiring practices were no longer scrutinized for discrimin…

This is why so many white-centric right wing groups very much want affirmative action abolished, because it is a massive advantage to the politically powerful and connected, who are mostly white in America.

Lets just say its hardly like they are out for justice for all races...

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#14

they got rid of affirmative action in california. the asians were the only minorities to see growth in the number of acceptances to uc. however, it was no where near the rate of growth of their population demographic. most of the new spots went to foreign students. once again the faculty went back to being exclusively white male. also all state government jobs hiring practices were no longer scrutinized for discrimin…

This is why so many white-centric right wing groups very much want affirmative action abolished, because it is a massive advantage to the politically powerful and connected, who are mostly white in America. Lets just say its hardly like they are out for justice for all races...

"Politically powerful" are obviously mostly white because the population of the US is mostly white.

There is about 10% of black reps in the House which is well in line with the overall population.

And we also just have had a black president.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already do that too, but it can't solve the racial distribution problem which colleges care a lot about: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/1995-SAT...

Originally I was against the idea of affirmative action but I've came around to it, but I still don't understand the need to solve for racial distribution rather than socioeconomic distribution. In my mind affirmative action's goal should be to break the cycle of poverty, where smart kids have poor/uneducated parents which holds them back and they grow up to be poor/uneducated themselves and so on. It's my understand…

why not both? income and race. suddenly poor white men will become a protected class. for the uninitiated, this should make you realized that affirmative action only helps the wealthy members of each demographic. we also should add a citizenship criteria.

i do think a better way of measuring wealth is needed. maybe the amount of money you are deducting from your taxes. nobody who knows finance, aka the wealthy, has a large amount of taxable income.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#16

Leave Asian Americans?? Asian Americans have the highest income of all groups of Americans.

> Asian Americans have the highest income of all groups of Americans. Amazing how people in the United States nowadays are sensitive to stereotyping and racism ... except when it comes to Asians.

And caucasians.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#17

I'm no fan of judging people by the color of their skin, why not use family income? This way it's apparent who is getting high scores due to tutoring and who is naturally gifted.

They already do that too, but it can't solve the racial distribution problem which colleges care a lot about: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/1995-SAT...

  They already do that too,
At Harvard, the acceptance rate for legacy students is about 33%, compared with an overall acceptance rate of under 6%.

If you think they're discriminating in favour of low-income families I'm afraid you've fallen for a PR campaign. For all that the article talks about "the tireless efforts of places like the Harvard admissions office to change the face of elite society in America" their actions do not evince that.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#18
These are clearly driven individuals who will excel anywhere. In fact when you consider grade inflation, they'd be better of going taking a scholarship from a flagship state university. Especially for STEM majors.

Affirmative action is an attempt to break the cycle of educational under-performance for certain groups in America. It's a blunt tool that needs to be improved, not discarded.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#19

I'm no fan of judging people by the color of their skin, why not use family income? This way it's apparent who is getting high scores due to tutoring and who is naturally gifted.

Well-off parents will simply have more incentive to disown their child.

The overall goal of affirmative action is to allow smart children, regardless of background, to break through the socio-economic glass ceiling regardles of the parent's decisions and abilities.

Although it can be seeing as a noble action, it is to wonder whether too much incentive on one side distorts the market too much, forcing well-off parents to spend higher % of their income to compete with Affirmative Action, including in gray and not so gray areas.

Re: Where Does Affirmative Action Leave Asian-Americans?

#20
post #18

These are clearly driven individuals who will excel anywhere. In fact when you consider grade inflation, they'd be better of going taking a scholarship from a flagship state university. Especially for STEM majors. Affirmative action is an attempt to break the cycle of educational under-performance for certain groups in America. It's a blunt tool that needs to be improved, not discarded.

Either that or given the current state of higher education, it's used as a way to take advantage of those desperate to better their lives under the false pretense that any degree they receive will land them a job that will afford them to pay back student loan debt.
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