Week 2 - Anna Le, sect. 4

In Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again, Nancy Chung Allred called into question whether affirmative action is beneficial or harmful to Asian Americans, and thus concluded that "[a] system that looks beyond simply class or race to combine these factors -- to look at race, class, and the myriad of factors that remedies disadvantages -- is preferable... [If] applied correctly, the diversity rationale should not hurt Asian Americans" (83). However, I wonder how a multi-factor affirmative action would look like today, especially with the rise of social awareness and justice. Although race-based affirmative action doesn't exist in UC systems today, many are calling for its return. In my observation of current events and personal experiences, the rates of which African Americans are still pretty low which enforces the statistics in the article where enrollment dropped 40-50% for African Americans and 5-15% for Latinos (83).

Before I was admitted to UC Davis, I came to visit the campus to get a feel for my belonging. I was raised in Vallejo, a place you would consider ethnically diverse, accounting for approx. 30% of Whites (Non-Hispanics) and 22% African Americans, Latino/Hispanics, and Asians (wikipedia.com). I shouldn’t have been surprised since the narrative from home was that Davis is full of Asians and Whites. I should have known, and yet I felt out of place because I was used to being with other diverse ethnic groups. By the time I was enrolled, I noticed for every 200 person class, I saw only four to five Black students. However, my observation only sustained half of the statistics claim that enrollment for African Americans is substantially low. The other half is that of Hispanics who make up about 22% of UCD population (ucdavis.edu). It seems to me that African Americans are not well represented here at UCD (4%), but yet UCD claims to support diversity and inclusion. The student ethnic diversity seems to be well-represented within other ethnic groups according to their 2017 census, except African Americans. Why is that?

My question is: why are Black students not attending UC Davis?
Is it due to a lack of affirmative action, or other factors, such as school selection/choice?

References:

• Allred, N. C. (2007). Asian Americans and Affirmative Action: From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again. Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository,14, 57-84. doi:10.15779/Z38JS23
• [GIF of cartoon with subtitles.]. (2013, May 3). Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/27-things-you-had-to-deal-with-as-the-only-black-kid-in-your
• Vallejo, California. (2019, January 07). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallejo,_California#Demographics