华人作为群体应如何对待大学录取上种族问题

    藤校平权系列    

张迎潮  04/12   16227  
5.0/2 




~~有些华人家长似乎认为孩子再好被藤校拒了，总归是自己的原因，或者表达不够强，面试不够好，体育不够好，没有得大奖等等。

对于这些家长，我想说：I respect and admire your calm and rational analysis of your own children when it comes to your own children not being accepted by top schools.  The question in my mind is, do you truly believe if your children were a non-Asian minority, their chance of getting accepted to Ivy League would be higher.  If you believe it won't change a thing, I respect your judgement.  In fact, I have quite a few personal friends who hold the same belief, and I say it's good for them not to get frustrated but take it more positively.  

At the same time, based on my personal interactions with relatively large number of Asian American families, who went through college applications and admissions, including Indians and Koreans, much higher percentage of them strongly believe their chance of getting to the Ivy League schools are limited compared to other ethnic groups.  Now, some think it is acceptable to give the chance to the disadvantaged groups that don't focus on education as much as Asian Americans do.  Many think it's not fair to consider race factor in the admission, but should be only based on individual qualification and economic & social status to give the disadvantaged ones a higher chance.  

On the flip side, I've yet to find complaints from the other minority groups on the ground of racial quota.  Therefore, the complains from the Asian American group is worth being investigated from civil right's perspective.

In summary, we can divide ourselves into three groups: (1) People who don't believe there is race based quota.  To them I say, I really appreciate your positive thinking, and you should continue to do so.  (2) People who see the racial quota, but think it's natural and acceptable.  To them I say, I admire your spirit of sacrifice, truly.  That decision should be individual based, though, so please don't speak for others. (3) People who believe there is a racial quota, think it is wrong, and want to remove it.  The last group's motivation can be based on (a) individual concerns of their own children, (b) collective concerns of our ethnic groups, and (c) the betterment of the entire society and country for the high universal value of social justice and equality.  

I belong to the 3rd group, and am concerned less with my kids (I encourage them to go to good schools with advanced programs of their interests, much more so than the names of the schools), but more concerned with points (b) & (c).  

As I said, I respect the people in groups (1) and (2), many of them are my personal friends, and I don't intend to change their opinion.  I expect the equal attitude from them not trying too hard to change my view point as well.  Historically, not all Jews saw the quota limit for them.  Further back, not all African Americans, spcially in the south, appreciated Lincoln during the civil war.  It's quite normal for a group of people to hold different opinions on almost any issue.  We can still be friends and at peace with one another. 

Interestingly, for the perceived missing qualities of the Asian students, such as passion, leadership & outspokenness, the leaders of the lawsuit & complains are actually showcasing these qualities IMHO for our children to follow and learn. 李春燕 has been extremely involved in the local community beyond just Chinese Americans, and she was our spokeswoman during the ABC incident on the CNN interview.  赵宇空 has been a newspaper columnist and book author for years in the mainstream media.  叶帆 as a typical 理工男 has accomplished something rather atypical for us Chinese American - becoming an expert in American judicial systems.  

Sure, they all have their own temperaments and perhaps shortcomings, but who is perfect?  Can we focus on the positive impacts they bring to our community and the entire society more?  Have we all kept on saying that we Chinese Americans need to cherish individuality more, and get involved more?  On that note, I personally *strongly* believe that, the best way of helping our own children is for us, the parents, to get more involved in the local social and political activities, and truly become an integral part of the society and American culture, for which Asian culture is a part of.  Yes, we are new comers to this land of opportunities, but there is no reason for us to hold back and not to get involved more deeply and contribute more positively to make this country an even better place than today.

作为个人我同意给孩子选择适合的学校，并且会劝导他们一旦被拒绝应该接受。但是作为群体，如果有很大比例的过来人感觉不公平，群体的领袖们应该介入、研究、付诸行动，否则就是“想了也没用”了。我完全同意冷暖自知，所以希望大家同情、理解和支持那些感觉孩子们受到不公正待遇的家长们。即使不支持，也没有必要猜测一定是他们自己有问题，因为只有他们自己知道。比如学生在学校感觉受到bullying待遇，他们可以跟负责 HIB老师控告，没有人可以不让他们控告。HIB 老师必须做调查，判断到底是不是，主要听取两方意见，参考目击者意见（如果有的话）。而不熟悉具体情况的第三者没有发言权。
http://www.state.nj.us/education/students/safety/behavior/hib/

在美华人的不足之处，值得大家深思和改进。但是我不赞同给自己的族裔套上"简化模式”，即使在统计上有一定原因 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_East_Asians_in_the_United_States 。看看我们这些第一代移民，在中国大都是理工科，现在做的职业其实已经比较多样了，相信我们的下一代职业会更多样化。至于从政，我个人觉得勤奋自敛的所谓 '标准'华人如果有朝一日做成美国总统，绝对不会比历史上任何其他总统差。应该自省，不必自恨，两者之间只有一条细线。下面前一半是一位朋友的帖子，后面 是我的想法。'1，家长对娃娃的教育理念体现在择校择专业的意愿上；2，自己娃娃最适合什么样的学校；3，各族裔是否有相对平等的被藤校录取的机会和机 制。是三个不同命题，不好掺和到一块儿说事儿吧。' 对于1&2，希望家长们更加注重孩子心灵志向的培育，让孩子选择自己喜欢的学校、专业、职业。对于3，应该坚决推进，最终去除任何形式的种族歧 视，这不仅仅是为我们自己的孩子，更是做为负责美国公民促进美国不断进步的义务和责任。”

转“我想，慢慢的，亚裔爬藤的热情会渐渐趋向冷静和理性，但是上不上是一回事，是不是因为被贴上亚裔标签而没得到同等的录取标准是另一回事。前者是个人的选择，可以讨论；后者关乎公平和权利，不可妥协。”