From: georgew@hspice.portal.com (George Wu)
Subject: Re: What is real racism? (Re: Was: Why rish asians should vote Republican)
Organization: Meta - Software
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 03:03:05 GMT

In article <BxvLMz.EF8@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:

>A QUALIFIED Asian is far more likely to be turned down for admission to 
>a university than a far less qualified black, or even than a somewhat less
>qualified white.  The same holds for jobs.

     There are those who would argue this is simply because the black man
has had far more obstacles to overcome merely to become qualified to apply
for admission.  That, of course, doesn't justify turning away the Asian,
merely helping the black man overcome societal/institutionalized obstacles.
Unfortunately, one implies the other.

>There are far too many unqualified people in important positions as it is.

     Damn right.  For example, Clarence Thomas was chosen by the Bush
administration solely because of his color.  Bloody Republicans!!!!  :-)

>In 1950, when there were real barriers against blacks, I would have had no
>hesitancy in trusting a black MD or PhD.  The major barriers in the academic
>community came down around 1952 for competent ones.

     Perhaps the overt barriers are gone, but are all of them?  There are
very harmful stereotypes against various minorities, and often one finds a
person holds that stereotype subconciously, or at least denies he holds it
at all.

>The unsuccessful minorities do have a legitimate complaint, but it is not
>the one they are making.  Their complaint should be against those minions
>of the miseducational establishment who will not allow the students who
>can and are willing to get the quality education which the Asians are able
>to get in their schools, because their children are all willing and their
>culture considers education first.  Any community which considers its
>athletes as more worthy of respect than its scholars will put obstacles
>in the way of its children becoming scholars, wittingly or unwittingly.

     The black community turns to athletics because they see there are
more opportunities because of racial barriers.  If I thought there was
very little likelihood of my children becoming an engineer, I'd encourage
them to pursue some other career.

     Consider the implications of the recent Boston Federal Reserve study.
This study evaluated loan application according to race.  The study explicitly
attempted to rule out all other factors.  That is to say, they compared
applications which in all respects were identical except one was for a white
and one was for a black.  They study found blacks were 60% more likely to be
turned down for a loan, and the only factor was race.

     Consider the effect this would have on precollege applications.  If a
black man is 60% more likely not to get a house loan, he's far less likely
to be able to send his kids to college.  He won't be able to buy the house
in the "good" school district, where they teach Calculus AB.  His kids will
remain in the ghetto school, where the district allocates it's funds not to
precollege courses, but to metal detectors and substance abuse programs.  His
kids won't make friends with professor's kids and look up to the doctor next
door.  They'll hang out with kids who's aspirations peak at beating a rival
gang for sales territory.  Instead of putting money into owning a house which
will hopefully appreciate, serves as a tax break, and against which he can
borrow college funds, that black man will be paying rent, money which he'll
never again see.

     I've long been on the fence concerning affirmative action.  Nowadays,
I think I'm falling off.

							George


-- 
----
George J Wu,  georgew@hspice.portal.com or georgew@metasw.com
Meta-Software,  1300 White Oaks Road,  Campbell, CA 95008,  (408) 369-5400
Never be the first to believe.  Never be the last to deceive.  ---  Chess
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american