This is one of the times when I think treating Asian-Americans as a group does some of the most needy folks the most damage. Here in the Twin Cities, we have a large Hmong immigrant population. Some of the college-age Hmong kids spent their early years in refugee camps; many more of them were raised by families who spent a lot of time in refugee camps. This is not a way to get strong educational advantages. So for colleges to say, "Oh, we have plenty of Asians," because they have plenty of kids from more established families, say middle-class third-generation Chinese- or Japanese-American kids, totally misses the point of this kind of program in the first place.
Also the "overrepresented minority" idea reminds me of the years when they had an upper bound on how many Jewish kids they'd let into the Ivy Leagues, and that leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.
I can argue both sides of whether that means that we should do something else or whether it means we should tweak affirmative action principles a bit further. But I definitely think there's a problem with how it's implemented.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-08 12:36 pm (UTC)Also the "overrepresented minority" idea reminds me of the years when they had an upper bound on how many Jewish kids they'd let into the Ivy Leagues, and that leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.
I can argue both sides of whether that means that we should do something else or whether it means we should tweak affirmative action principles a bit further. But I definitely think there's a problem with how it's implemented.