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The root of this is the Harvard Jew Crisis of the early 1900s, which redesigned the admissions process away from merit. This is the basis of the modern practice
by NovaX 8y ago
The root of this is the Harvard Jew Crisis of the early 1900s, which redesigned the admissions process away from merit. This is the basis of the modern practice at the Ivy Leagues. It was not done secretly, publicized by the university's President in speeches, and had little backlash.
It is in fact a result of Asian Americans having many similarities to Jews that they are being discriminated against, but they were not the original target. It will be interesting to see if they were ever explicitly targeted, but so far it appears to be collateral damage as times changed but the process's foundation has not.
- divbzero 8y agoAs NovaX describes, “holistic” admissions had very ugly roots. It was specifically instituted as a way to limit Jewish admissions. Oddly enough, Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell justified the policy as a way to avoid antisemitism, reasoning that too many admitted Jews could provoke antisemitic sentiment. This was the same President Lowell who tried but failed to impose segregation on students. (“We owe to the colored man the same opportunities for education that we do to the white man; but we do not owe it to him to force him and the white into social relations that are not, or may not be, mutually congenial.”) [1] Still, as Judge Burroughs has pointed out, the ugly origins aren’t necessarily relevant to the current impact. [2] It will be interesting to see how well Harvard’s “diverse student body” argument holds up to scrutiny. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Lawrence_Lowell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Lawrence_Lowell [2]: https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/harvard-discrimination-jews-227842 https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/harva...