Outrage over study misguided discourse on race

Instead of expressing concern that black students are switching out of STEM majors at disproportionate rates, BSA wants the University to say that all majors are equally rigorous? Come on. The fact that sciences are harder than humanities is the worst kept secret in higher education. I’ve loved the solidarity and outrage that black students, faculty and alumni have displayed in the past week, but I fear the conversation has devolved into a game of “Is It Racist?” while skirting the real topic. Let’s talk affirmative action. Institutionalized racial discrimination is alive and well, and it’s not being talked about. Most of the victims of this policy will never know that they are victims, and the fear of being alienated leaves many potential critics silent. Affirmative action thrives under the diction of “opportunity,” “diversity” and the ever popular “socioeconomic status.” Yet in practice it is none of these things. “Opportunity” is both given and stolen. “Diversity” is thousands of different ethnicities under the same option bubble. “Socioeconomic differences?” Please. My family escaped from communist China, landing in backwoods Arkansas with little more than the clothes on our backs and a rudimentary understanding of the English language. When I was applying for college nobody ever asked me if I grew up poor, or if I had ever experienced racism in my 12 years as a foreign national. The notion that any minority experiences economic pressure and racial prejudice more than any other race is wrong, and any policy based on that notion is racial discrimination.

MLK’s dream was rooted in the American Dream. I am an American Dream success story, yet I hope for a future where my children can apply to a university knowing they are not being held back by the color of their skin. A recent Princeton study with data from nearly a quarter million applicants shows that all other admissions factors considered equal, the average Asian applicant to a competitive private university needs a 1550 SAT score to compare to a black candidate who has an 1100. This disgusting discrepancy is undeniable proof that race is not a small footnote in admissions policy as they would have you believe, but rather that significant quotas to fulfill racial aesthetics are alive and well. Socioeconomic merits as an admission criteria need to be judged in a colorblind manner, or not at all.

Jimmy Zhong, Pratt ’12