Here is also an amusing little aside:The image of Asian-Americans as a homogeneous group of high achievers taking over the campuses of the nation’s most selective colleges came under assault in a report issued Monday.
The report, by New York University, the College Board and a commission of mostly Asian-American educators and community leaders, largely avoids the debates over both affirmative action and the heavy representation of Asian-Americans at the most selective colleges.
But it pokes holes in stereotypes about Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, including the perception that they cluster in science, technology, engineering and math. And it points out that the term “Asian-American” is extraordinarily broad, embracing members of many ethnic groups.
But the idea that Asian-American “model minority” students are edging out all others is so ubiquitous that quips like “U.C.L.A. really stands for United Caucasians Lost Among Asians” or “M.I.T. means Made in Taiwan” have become common, the report said.Oh, and don't forget that U.C.I. isn't "University of California at Irvine," but really "University of Chinese Immigrants."Asian-Americans make up about 5 percent of the nation’s population but 10 percent or more — considerably more in California — of the undergraduates at many of the most selective colleges, according to data reported by colleges. But the new report suggested that some such statistics combined campus populations of Asian-Americans with those of international students from Asian countries.
OK, can I say something offensive? Let's consider the many reasons why there is a trend of high-performing Asian-American students. Could be it . . . a work ethic grounded in the culture? a work ethic partly born from that traditional reverence for education and hard work? Meanwhile, I find it bitterly amusing that in some circles, high-achieving Asian students are perceived as some sort of threat -- yes, we're taking over all the campuses, a plague of brainy nerds and geeks! How dare we excel! How dare we not moan and wail and make excuses for failure? Well, sweet, sweet success is the best revenge -- including the best revenge for stupid identity politics.
7 comments:
I heard UCI described as University of Civics and Integras way before the latter. Especially since the earliest large group of minority students were Vietnamese, well, OK everybody thought and still does, but they were actually Hoa.
I dated a Japanese girl who was at Duke for about 2 years, and through her, met a lot of Asian and Asian-American students at the school. (I was the "dumb" white kid who went to the state school down the road...the red one, not the other blue one!) They were pretty well scattered in their areas of study, though it seems like quite a few were in business or econ related majors.
I think that the big issue is the obvious one. Obviously the majority of Asian students in universities are the ones driven to succeed, for whatever reason. As a minority of the overall population of America, and of colleges in general, they will have a much higher percentage of highly motivated members of the college community. In the elite schools, their eliteness isn't nearly as noticeable when looked at in comparison to the student body as a whole. Because a larger percent of the US population is white, there is a much larger portion of the less motivated who are college students.
I think it is unfortunate that Asian students have congregated in a few specific schools, but a lot of it is name recognition. My ex and the majority of the people at her high school in Japan had never even heard of Duke, even though it is definitely a top school in the US. Her younger brother ended up going to MIT.
I for one welcome our new Asian American overlords.
And you, lumpenscholar, will be richly rewarded when I take over the world...
I majored in Civ II and Panzer General, plus various and sundry other strategic games, Sim City, etc., in my undergrad days, so if my well-honed skills in world conquest can be of any help in that final push, just let me know.
You 'fum' State, Greg? ;)
I lived in Durham near the Duke East campus about 10 years ago while working in RTP. Not far from the lacross players 'rape' scene in fact. Beautiful area.
I'm white, and I say, good for Asians! They should be fully rewarded for their efforts to climb up the social and economic ladder and achieve parity with the Western world in general!
Interesting about the clustering of Asians in the technical/scientific fields, though. Traditionally Chinese culture valued a highly literary and philosophic education as the qualification for a gentleman, and it's only recently that Asians have become big on science.
The reasons are simple - Asian societies were profoundly shocked by their collision with a scientifically superior West. It shook the very foundation of their traditional confidence and sense of superiority, and they made a culture-wide determination to achieve parity with the West as swiftly as possible, an aspiration that has yet to be realized by most Asian societies and remains a huge driving force in Asian life.
Since Western superiority seemed located in it's cultivation of technology and science, that is where Asians made the greatest effort to excel. It has been observed that an over-emphasis on technocratic education is a sure sign that a society is still "developing". In any event as Asians finally do achieve parity with the West they will probably return to their love of literature, poetry, and philosophy. Many highly intelligent white people become doctors, lawyers, writers, journalists, etc - if they were Asian they would most likely have been driven by cultural and parental forces to become engineers or mathematicians, etc. In a way, then, this cultural situation between Asia and the West, which probably won't last, frees up many whites to pursue their true loves and liberates them from the burden of filling often extremely dull and routine, but socially necessary, roles as engineers and writers of code, etc.
Amongst whites I am not aware of any sense of resentment against Asians for their work ethic or achievement - if anything, whites are appreciative, even affectionate, towards Asians.
I personally admire the Asian work ethic, understand where it comes from, and think Asians should receive the full rewards of the sweat of their browW
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