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<p>By the way, do we have numerical data on the racial and ethnic/religious identification of the college applicants with the highest SAT/ACT and GPA combos? If not, what a racist presumption by this person. Who is he?</p>
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<p>Does “the public” in fact have this perception? Or is it merely a segment of “the public”?</p>
<p>Fabrizio said:</p>
<p>“If you want points of view, then select on ideas, interests, and talents. Don’t select on racial classification unless you want a campus full of wealthy individuals of different colors who share the same views.”</p>
<p>Fabrizio,</p>
<p>I admit I’m a bit slow-minded. I don’t understand what that means. Could you explain? Does it mean that if my high achieving working class, 1/2 Hispanic, Christian son chose to attend an Ivy League school over Caltech, he would find people who all share his views? His views on what? Race? (If that’s what you’re referring to, you would be incorrect in my son’s case) Culture? Science? Math? Religion?</p>
<p>I probably shouldn’t jump into this thread since I am not particularly intelligent. Nonetheless, I’d love my questions answered.</p>
<p>Ok, so in looking again, Fabrizio, do you mean that if a person selects a school based on racial classification (and in my example, if someone chooses not to attend Caltech because it has a small percentage of blacks and Hispanics), are you saying that person will automatically attend a school of wealthy people who all share the same view?</p>
<p>Thank-you.</p>
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<p>I’d be happy to. My impression comes from a link that tokenadult first introduced in an earlier version of this thread, several years ago: [the</a> reading list of the Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sica/reading.htm]the”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sica/reading.htm). It is clear to me from looking at the books listed and reading their descriptions that if you attend the Summer Institute, there is only one acceptable view to hold on racial preferences: “we simply must continue race-conscious admissions policies” (direct quote in the description to The Shape of the River).</p>
<p>I have never attended and have no plans to attend, but I would bet you a Romneyesque $10,000 that for a Summer Institute that probably uses the term “diversity” hundreds of times throughout the week, there is painfully little diversity of thought with respect to racial preferences. But perhaps it does not follow that admissions officers who cannot see why anyone would oppose racial preferences cannot craft a class full of people with genuinely different ways of viewing the world (pardon the double negative).</p>
<p>Here is a picture of Roger Ebert with his wife, on the left. </p>
<p>[Roger</a> Ebert - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert]Roger”>Roger Ebert - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Ok, got it. Thank-you for the explanation. I’m sure if my son attends the Ivy to which he was accepted (not Harvard and he had no desire to apply there), he is hoping for a great diversity in thought regarding racial preferences and lots of other things, too.</p>
<p>Not sure if this article fits this thread but it’s a good read, IMO.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19102[/url]”>http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19102</a></p>
<p>And this one (but you’d have to pay for it or wait for it to archive):</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19104[/url]”>http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19104</a></p>
<p>The oft quoted Espenshade teaches at Princeton.</p>
<p>[Thomas</a> J. Espenshade](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/~tje/]Thomas”>Thomas J. Espenshade)</p>
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There seems to be two lines of thought in terms of college admission; one is based on a common standard for all and the other is to have a flexible standard depending who the applicant is.</p>
<p>Look at the human odyssey of Euan Blair, for example. By the British definition of merit, he was not qualified for Oxford. He simply did not score high enough on his national exams. The fact that his dad was the British Prime Minister and an alumnus, and that his mother is a close friend of the President was irrelevant.</p>
<p>[Euan</a> Blair misses out on place at Oxford - Telegraph](<a href=“http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1405237/Euan-Blair-misses-out-on-place-at-Oxford.html]Euan”>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1405237/Euan-Blair-misses-out-on-place-at-Oxford.html)</p>
<p>A few years later, the same Blair became “brilliant” and won a scholarship to graduate school in Yale even though he only managed a 2.1 (high second class). The fact that his dad was the Prime Minister of a nation that strongly supports the US made him more than qualified.</p>
<p>[It’s</a> not how Euan got his scholarship, but why - Telegraph](<a href=“It's not how Euan got his scholarship, but why”>It's not how Euan got his scholarship, but why)</p>
<p>The difference in the definition of merit is stark.</p>
<p>On a “lighter” note, the pogroms in Indonesia has resulted in a large number of Chinese-Indonesians returning to China in the late 1950s and early 60s. Since a number of them were ranked players, they brought with them Indonesias national sport- badminton.</p>
<p>Looking back, it was probably the beginning of the end of Indonesian domination of the sport, much to the chagrin of Indonesian authorities. Those athletes, many still in their teens, became Chinas first international players, and later, national coaches. By 2008, the Chinese have captured 3 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze in five events in the Olympic games, comparing to 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze for Indonesia.</p>
<p>I expect the results from the London games will be even more one-sided.</p>
<p>[Some</a> blacks insist: ‘I’m not African-American’ - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/blacks-insist-im-not-african-american-181257715.html]Some”>http://news.yahoo.com/blacks-insist-im-not-african-american-181257715.html)</p>
<p>Asian-Americans should get rid of that hyphenated title, as well. Asians complain that they are treated like “perpetual foreigners,” yet the way they identify themselves is a constant reminder to other people that Asians came from somewhere else that is not America, and implies that they consider themselves something other than just American. </p>
<p>Signed,
A White (don’t call me European-American!!) American</p>
<p>I never called myself Asian. Somehow the stupid government classifications seem to expect me to adhere to one.</p>
<p>I tend to believe those cartoons running around the rest of the world about American impression of what the various countries in the world are with labels. </p>
<p>How does the government of a country with 300 million people classify a group of people as Asian when they frigging represent more than half the world’s population of 6 Billion or 7 billion or whatever that number is these days?</p>
<p>^Probably because “Asians” in America never insisted on being called something else.</p>
<p>I will put down caucasian on my next census form.</p>
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<p>I already have. See my post #619: “American of Asian descent.” Why don’t you join me by shunning “Asian-American” as well? Unless you want to use it, which brings us to…</p>
<p>…the logic you used to defend Americans’ of Asian descent being viewed as perpetual foreigners. To the extent that some blacks prefer to identify as African Americans, why does their self-identification NOT serve as a “constant reminder to other people that [blacks] came from somewhere else that is not America, and implies that they consider themselves something other than just American”?</p>
<p>texaspg, I never understood that, either.</p>
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<p>It does. I don’t like African-American either, for the same reason. I always liked “Black,” with a capital B, but its not really for me to decide.</p>
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<p>I don’t follow you, fab. I’d prefer not to call Americas of Asian descent that or “Asian-American,” because I can tell you as a non-Asian-American it makes me think of Asia and America. “Black” doesn’t do that, neither does White, or Caucasian or Latino or Hispanic (but that is getting close). I don’t think it is my decision to make, however. I do think I am entitled to input about what others call me, so every time someone refers to me as a “European-American” I ask them not to call me that. I would respect others’ requests to do the same.</p>
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<p>Fair enough.</p>
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<p>So black and white don’t make you think of “[Africa] and America” or “[Europe] and America,” respectively? They only make you think of America? But there are many non-American blacks and non-American whites in the world, are there not?</p>
<p>And “Caucasian” literally refers to a person from “the Caucasus,” which is not in America. Moreover, “Latino” refers to a person from Latin America, which is outside of the United States. So I fail to see why those terms don’t make you think of “[something else] and America.”</p>
<p>I never said those terms made me think of America. They make me think of a person’s race. They also do not make me think of any other country, because people of those descriptions are found all over the world.</p>
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<p>Only to a certain degree. If a white guy wanted to call himself an African American or Native American, then no, he would not be entitled to input about what others call him, because it would be unethical and deceptive. In my opinion, the only people who can call themselves unhyphenated-Americans are Native Americans.</p>
<p>As far as Black is concerned, there are plenty of “Black” Indians, Sri Lankans etc. who are as black as African Americans.</p>
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<p>That is probably a popular opinion but it is not the law. College applicants and census responders are asked to self-identify, so they can check any box they want, so long as they are truthful about how they self-identify.</p>
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<p>In my opinion, anyone who is a USA citizen can call himself an American.</p>