<p>Umm... I'm not racist. I'm just saying I think it is ridiculous that half of a 23,000 campus is all Asian and my impression and the impression of many others I have spoken to all agree that the campus is pretty segregated. I probably shouldn't have posted in the first place, because I'll probably get a biased opinion since most the people on this board all probably like Berkeley.</p>
<p>^ I don't attend Berkeley nor did I have an interest in Berkeley when I was applying to colleges and I think you're racist.</p>
<p>If you have this much trouble with Berkeley's diversity problem, just go somewhere else.. Nobody at Berkeley seems to have a problem with living in "Shanghai."</p>
<p>I agree with KyleDavid... great post Viscissitudes (sp, sorry!)</p>
<p>And OP, you should consider another college.</p>
<p>It's up the individual to make the decision what he/she wants to do. There will ALWAYS be CLIQUES no matter where you go, even among the same race in the same country. I hang out with people from my own race that are in cliques, I hang out with people out of my own race that are in cliques, I of course also hang out with people that are diversified that are willing to hang out with anybody and everybody, then I hang out with some weirdos and freaks that are "outcast" from the society's main frame.</p>
<p>It's up to YOU to make your life diversified or simplistic, whether one is better than the other is completely debatable. What you should be doing, instead of blaming that Berkeley has too large of an Asian population, is realizing that Berkeley is not a fit for YOU, communicate with yourself and figure out a way to adjust your life according to your wants and needs.</p>
<p>Of course people are not going to agree with you. You're posting in the Berkeley's own sub-forum for pete's sake! Was that concept so difficult to grasp in the first place? Berkeley's a place where its students are proud of what the university stands for despite its flaws which are present in all institutions. Making a thread named "Why is Berkeley all freaking [A]sian" just goes to show that the Internet is full of clueless idiots. See how easily generalizations and stereotypes can be thrown around?</p>
<p>Ask your elders and they should be able to tell you that life consists of the results from all the various seeds you plant along the way. You should think about what kind of a life you want and plant your seeds accordingly.</p>
<p>There are many schools in this country that are 80%+ white. Maybe you should try to impose diversity on those schools as well?</p>
<p>Many kids who get in to UC Irvine for engineering also get in to CAl Poly. UCI isanother school that is heavily asian. It seems like the white engineering students go to cal poly and the asians go to uci. We were even told this at both schools by the students who show you around..</p>
<p>@nanday0: Exactly.</p>
<p>Why not try to bring justice to other schools that are not diverse?</p>
<p>What if I were to say in a school with a majority of blacks that "I feel like I'm walking in Compton?" "Why is this school all freaking black?" That's a racist thing to say and it's no different from what's stated in the original post.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Umm... I'm not racist. I'm just saying I think it is ridiculous that half of a 23,000 campus is all Asian and my impression and the impression of many others I have spoken to all agree that the campus is pretty segregated.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You are probably kinda racist even though you may not realize it. Why is it ridiculous when 50% of the students are Asian but not when 50% or more of the students are whites? If you are truly colorblind, then Berkeley is no less diverse than their peers--the largest group is 50%, the second largest group is 20-30%. The 3rd+4th group are around 15% and so on. If you can't rationalize why the largest group has to be whites in order to be called "diverse", then you should probably examine your own (racist?) mind.</p>
<p>Trust me, I'm not a racist. I just should of picked a different thread title. Berkeley also has 23,000 undergrads, so the little diversity that seems to exist seems more shocking. It's not like we are talking about Williams with less than 1500 students.</p>
<p>
[quote]
my impression and the impression of many others I have spoken to all agree that the campus is pretty segregated.
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</p>
<p>Ad populum arguments will get you nowhere. I'd say your impressions are somewhat skewed. As others have said, though, cliques will exist no matter where you are.</p>
<p>
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Trust me, I'm not a racist.
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</p>
<p>Your comments have undertones of racism. Why else would you say this?</p>
<p>
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I'm just saying I think it is ridiculous that half of a 23,000 campus is all Asian
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<p>Why is it ridiculous? Why don't you find schools that are 50+% white ridiculous? Or 50+% black? Or 50+% Hispanic? I realize that this is a Berkeley forum, and Berkeley doesn't have such large black or Hispanic groups. But why would you object to a ~50% Asian population at all? Why not continue on your way, having concluded that it's more or less like a school that is 50+% white?</p>
<p>What positively floors me is that people just like you are often the same ones who condemn schools such as Harvard and Stanford and Yale for discriminating against Asians (i.e. being harder on them), yet who also denounce schools like Berkeley that don't discriminate against Asians and thus end up with a large Asian population. I don't know whether you fit into this group of people, but I've seen such a pattern and it's utterly nonsensical.</p>
<p>
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so the little diversity that seems to exist seems more shocking.
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</p>
<p>What are you talking about? The black+Hispanic population at Berkeley is ~16%; at Harvard, it's also 16%. Harvard is ~45% white; Berkeley is ~45% Asian (though it also has a large white population, about 1/3). What's so different? On top of that, Asian groups are more visibly diverse than white ones; i.e. the Asian population at Berkeley encompasses Chinese, Japanese, Laotian, Cambodian, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Thai, Malaysian, and more. These very distinct cultures--which is what diversity is about, cultures, less so much skin color--will bring more diversity to the campus than will the 'white' group, which, while being composed of different European cultures, will for the most part bring little diversity to the campus. Let's face it: do the American people who are of German and French and Dutch and Irish descent have much to show for their cultures? Generally, no. However, the Asian cultures themselves remain distinct, and the ideal is that they mix with and influence others. While cliques do form, there is plenty of mixing.</p>
<p>+1 to kyledavid</p>
<p>and dont deny that you're a racist. its not just the title of this thread, its also the "hong kong" remark. thats a ridiculous thing to say and to then expect people to respect your first impression of cal.</p>
<p>@punkdudeus
South Asians are Asians.
East Asians and South Asians both represent 40% of the Asian population</p>
<p>The term Asian belongs to a South Asian as much as it does to an East Asian</p>
<p>Also keep in mind, basically all censi in America count South Asians as Asian</p>
<p>Yes, but as I have said, Berkeley is a different case because there are 23,000 undergrads and a lot of graduates. Half of the students are asian. This would not be surprising if Berkeley were in Asia. Figuring out why Berkeley was half asian was the basic intent of my post, and someone told me: merit based admissions. Thank you.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Trust me, I'm not a racist.
[/quote]
If you honestly think this, given the viewpoints you have expressed in this thread, I highly doubt you can get in to berkeley anyway.</p>
<p>Dudes, none of my business, I'm just posting here, but I think the OP is seriously not racist. He's just wondering why there are so many Asians on campus, and well I think the Hong Kong thingy is like a "running joke". We Asians can laugh at ourselves too =) </p>
<p>Er, lighten up?</p>
<p>
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Half of the students are asian. This would not be surprising if Berkeley were in Asia.
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<p>you don't realize it but you're already equating whitness as being true american-ness, and that's racist.</p>
<p>you hold that a college in asia should have lots of asian students. well, a college in america should have lots of american students.</p>
<p>berkeley has a lot of americans. a number of them happen to be descended from immigrants from asia. nearly all of them descend from immigrants around the world.</p>
<p>"Dudes, none of my business, I'm just posting here, but I think the OP is seriously not racist. He's just wondering why there are so many Asians on campus, and well I think the Hong Kong thingy is like a "running joke". We Asians can laugh at ourselves too =)</p>
<p>Er, lighten up?"
I second this statement. I mean come on it is kind of odd, when Asians make up 5% of the US population, but are 50% of a university. The OP was wondering why it is disproportionate. End of story. Nothing in his post implied racism. Jumping on him is not nice. I don't plan on applying to Berkeley or attend there, just my thoughts.</p>
<p>"Asians make up 5% of the US population, "</p>
<p>I believe it's more like 12 percent in California.</p>
<p>kyledavid80,,wow....ur deep.</p>
<p>Since Asian families stress academic acheivement, many asian students get in to Berkeley because of Califonia public schools' merit-based admissions duh.
LAX, I do agree that there should be more URMs at Berkeley, but it's wrong to set certain quotas just to promote " diversity". If you wish to bring more blacks to Berkeley, you should target black high school students not the Berkeley admissions.</p>