Where exactly is the fine line between discrimination and diversification?

James Kim
ASA 2

In "A Quota on Excellence?" by Don T. Nakanishi, the chapter essentially provides statistical evidence for how the Asian American community has become more and more prevalent in higher education and prestigious public and private universities across the U.S.; but this raises the question: Exactly how many Asian identified students should universities accept in order to maintain an ideally diverse population? Ordinarily, I am a strong advocate for diversity on any campus and I understand the unfairness behind admitting more Asian students who generally have more privileges than other minority groups; however, not all Asian Americans possess the same amount of privileges as the stereotypical wealthy and well-educated Asians society labels us by. I know I definitely don't have it all. My dad's a liquor store owner who's currently facing bankruptcy. My mom's a laundromat owner in the sketchy parts of Anaheim. I definitely would not have the money to afford the tuition at Davis if it weren't for my scholarship and financial aid and I certainly did not have the money or time to invest in after-school tutoring during high school because I was always helping my mom out at the store. I was rejected from nearly every UC that I applied to despite my 3.9 weighted GPA and 1950 SAT score and I was wait-listed here at Davis, not because I was incompetent as a student, but because I did not meet the criteria of a standard privileged Asian American. I felt like I was automatically marginalized and stereotyped as "just another Asian" regardless of the circumstances I had to deal with while attending high school. It was as if, no matter how hard I tried, it was impossible for me to go to any Ivy League university or have the capacity to reach this level of success that others with time and money could. My point is that, yes, diversity is good; but higher education has stereotyped the Asian American community as one, huge and generally privileged unit and, in the process, forgot people like me who do not possess the same luxuries as the well-endowed.

How has the college admission system affected and determined your eligibility and academic competence? How did you feel about being forced to conform to a system that marginalizes and discriminates against you? What do you think we can do to rid admissions within higher education of systemic oppression?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaUV25Ezf5A