Reply to Asians are suing Harvard and UNC - Chapel Hill for use of quotas

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This whole concept kind of puts Whites in a pickle.  For decades, Whites have argued that test scores and the like should be used as the key standard for admission.  That is because they knew that they held the “advantage” in regards to AA and Hispanic students.  Now that Asians are beating them based on the test score rubric, they now want to embrace the holistic approach to admissions – something that URMs have advocated for decades.  Now that Whites are in danger of losing spots based on the same standards that they have pushed, the other standards now have merit?

Well, I will say this and I have said this MANY times.  If Asians are successful in this endeavor, those spots will not come from the AA or Hispanic side of the ledger.  The people most at risk would be the White students who are mediocre compared to other Whites – the lower end of the White totem pole.  
[/quote]

No, you are making an assumption that there is one homogenous set of "whites" on this issue, and your assumption is wrong.  There's one set of "whites" (usually more liberal, tend to run the universities) who have traditionally thought that test scores should not be the primary factor and that URMs should get a leg-up.  That's me, that's pretty much everyone I know.  Now, we are consistently still saying that that should be the case.  (I'd also add the socioeconomic status ought to count -- and at many schools does count.)  Whether that takes spaces away from white students, which it probably always has, is not determinative of my view.  Whether it takes spaces away from Asian kids is also not determinative of my view.  No change, no inconsistency.  
Then there's a second set of whites who have traditionally been anti-affirmative action.  Those tend to be more conservative.  They now still probably think it ought to be that way, where it's just test scores and the like.  They also tend to be rich whites who don't like giving up slots to anyone else.  Maybe they'll start to turn on the Asians, but haven't seen that yet.
The basic fact is that Asians are not underrepresented in higher education.  They're overrepresented.  (Simply measuring percentage in higher ed versus percentage of the population.)  That's true for whites as well.  Thus, I don't think they need an advantage.[/quote]

Asian Americans may be "over-represented" when compared to the percentage of high school age group. (Approximately 17 to 18% for Ivy League schools versus approximately 10% of high school age group). However, that does not mean there is no racial discrimination. Common argument is the Berkeley/UCLA/Caltech argument of showing that these schools have approximately 45% Asian American student population (far more than 18% average Asian American student population of Ivy league schools) since they supposedly do not discriminate against Asian Americans even accounting for the fact that California would have more Asian American teenagers (probably around 16 to 18%) compared to the national figure. [/quote]

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