Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Are there any people left in the U.S. who don’t believe that colleges and universities across the country lower admissions standards for members of certain racial and ethnic groups for the sake of “diversity”?
In addition to personal experience and perceptions, numerous studies reveal the existence of racial preferences, euphemistically called “affirmative action.” It’s an open secret that’s not discussed in mixed company. This government-sanctioned practice is embarrassing, unfair, and should be illegal.
Vijay Chokal-Ingam, an Indian and brother of actress Mindy Kaling, lied on his medical school applications to make the admissions process easier. Knowing that schools lower their standards for blacks, Chokal-Ingam made himself appear black and checked the “black” box on applications. With a 3.1 GPA, described as “mediocre,” Chokal-Ingam made the waiting lists at the University of Pennsylvania, Washington University, and Mt. Sinai University, and interviewed at Harvard and Columbia Universities. From Fox:
He eventually was accepted at, and graduated from, UCLA Anderson’s MBA program — as an Asian Indian-American.
Chokal-Ingam says he’s revealing his race ruse now because he heard that UCLA is considering strengthening its affirmative-action admissions policies. He says it’s a myth that affirmative action benefits the underprivileged.
He plans to write a memoir about his experiences, to be titled “Almost Black.”
“I got into medical school because I said I was black,” Chokal-Ingam writes in his blog, at almostblack.com. “The funny thing is I’m not. My plan actually worked. Lucky for you, I never became a doctor.”
St. Louis University Medical School boasts of being highly selective, and of its incoming students having an average GPA of 3.84.
Chokal-Ingam acknowledged that lowering standards “promotes negative stereotypes about the competency of minority Americans by making it seem like they need special treatment.”
I’ve said this for years, but as long as black Americans benefit from such policies, the implications don’t seem to bother them. Ideally, Americans of any color should want government out of the racial business. A government with the authority to discriminate can use that power to harm blacks.
