Week 3 - Joshua Vandermeyde

Joshua Vandermeyde

Week 3 Section A03

This week’s readings shed an interesting light on the acceptance process and affirmative action for higher education in America. Many people in America have misconceptions about the asian community, stemming from the “model minority” idea that all asian americans trying to receive higher education are high achieving individuals pushed by overbearing parents. Of course, like all stereotypes, there are many exceptions and nuances to these ideas. From my experience going through the college acceptance process, I was under the impression that affirmative action only applied to groups that we are frequently taught have undergone systemic oppression in America, such as the latino, black, and native american communities. This impression has influenced many other’s arguments against affirmative action by saying that it is not needed anymore. But the asian community is so large and diverse with so many different economic backgrounds and cultures that an argument grouping all asians into one category does not make sense. Also, when UCs implemented non affirmative action acceptance processes to law schools, asian americans did not benefit at all, contradicting the argument that affirmative action hurt asian applicants. In the article exploring the differences within the asian community in college access and choices, it shows how many different factors contribute to decisions made in education and that many asian americans are going to community colleges instead of high ranked institutions. Both of these articles help expose many misconceptions about asians in America, and inform about problems facing asian americans today.

Question:

Since there are such big differences within the asian community, would an affirmative action model with an emphasis on the underprivileged asian cultures make sense?

References:

Chung Allred, N. (2007). Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model

Minority and Back Again. Asian American Law Journal, 14(3). Available at

http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/aalj/vol14/iss

Poon, O. and Byrd, A. (2013). Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational

Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices. Journal of College of Admission

Retrieved from http://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=education _facpubs

[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2017, from https://www.feetremedies.com/common-misconceptions-plantar-fasciitis/