3 ms·
In my opinion, Harvard needs to just be straight about why they're doing what they're doing. If it's race-based quotas for the sake of class diversity or long-t
by dokein 8y ago
In my opinion, Harvard needs to just be straight about why they're doing what they're doing. If it's race-based quotas for the sake of class diversity or long-term societal benefit, then just say it outright and we can have a discussion as a society as to whether that's ok. I personally think this is bad (with medium confidence), but understand that there are arguments for why it may be necessary.
What they shouldn't do is try to say: Asian people have worse personal characteristics, when evaluated by our admissions committee, even though no such deficit is found by the face-to-face interviewers. That's not propping up one race for well-intentioned reasons, but rather suggesting that a specific race is timid, not leadership qualities, worker bees, and many of the other negative stereotypes assigned to Asians.
Can you imagine what the newspapers would say if Harvard just said that Jewish people, on average, had worse personalities? Say, less honest and forthcoming than other ethnic groups?
- allenz 8y agoRacial quotas are illegal, so Harvard cannot say it outright. Harvard says that race is considered as a factor in their holistic evaluation.
- hn_throwaway_99 8y agoYep, and it is the US Supreme Court responsible for this semi-nonsense. At the end of the day, looking at a statistically large enough population, "one factor in a holistic evaluation" ends up looking exactly the same as quotas.
- famil 8y agoActually that's exactly what happened in the 1920s onward. Harvard’s admissions committee began using the euphemistic criteria of “character and fitness” to limit Jewish enrollment. From: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/opinion/is-harvard-unfair-to-asian-americans.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/opinion/is-harvard-unfair...