l**d
发帖数: 472 | 1 只能说一句，too simple, sometimes naive.
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2014/03/why-i-suppor
I am lucky. In the lottery of life, I have hit the jackpot. I have scratched
off my ticket and won the prize of college-educated parents. I live in a
safe neighborhood, and I am fortunate enough to attend a local high school
that celebrates diversity of all kinds, fosters excellence, and supports all
of its students. Thanks to the diversity of the student population, I have
become a better student and a more informed citizen of California. That’s
why I support the Senate Constitutional Amendment Number 5 (SCA5).
SCA5 is the California Senate’s attempt to repeal parts of 1996’s
Proposition 209, which barred race-based admissions policies in California’
s public universities. The purpose of SCA5 is to increase the numbers of
Latinos, African Americans and other members of underrepresented groups on
California’s campuses.1 Unfortunately, SCA5 has stopped at the steps of the
California State Assembly. The Democrats in the state legislature have
given up their efforts to bring the issue to the voters in November.2
SCA5 raised the ire of some Asian American organizations who felt it would
hurt Asian American applicants by decreasing the available spots on college
campuses. Some, such as the 80-20 National Asian American Political Action
Committee, have gone so far as to say that “SCA5 is a ‘Yellow Peril Act’,
a 21st century version of the ‘Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882’, aimed
specifically to impose a quota-like ceiling on the AsAm students....”3
This sort of rhetoric might be effective in rousing up supporters, but it
both misrepresents the intended purpose of SCA5, which is to work towards
greater access for underrepresented groups in higher education, and
minimizes the ugliness and racism of some aspects of US public policy.
Let’s look beyond the inflammatory rhetoric at the numbers. What does a UC
campus really look like today? One of the jewels of the University of
California system is UC Berkeley, and my mom’s alma mater. In the fall of
2013, Berkeley’s class of first year students is made up of 14-15% of
underrepresented ethnicities. Within this group, there were 133 African
Americans (2.8%), 530 Latino/Chicano/Hispanic students (11.4%), 18 Native
Americans (0.4%), and 8 Pacific Islanders (0.2%). The 889 Chinese American
students represented 18.9% of the freshman class, while 249 Korean Americans
represented 5.3% of the entering class. Whites comprised about the same
number of Korean and Chinese American students combined, about 24.8% of the
class. Asian Americans represented almost 40% of the entering class in the
fall of 2013.4
UC Berkeley’s class of 2017 clearly does not look like California. This
year, 39% of Californians identify as Latino, 38.8% are white, 5.8% are
African American, and about 13% are Asian or Pacific Islander.5 This
incongruity leads to the question: will future generations of Californians
be equipped with the education to support the state’s health? Is keeping
higher education inaccessible to the majority of Californians an effective
way to ensure a robust future? According to the Institute for the Study of
Societal Issues at UC Berkeley, “college completion would represent far and
away the best investment return for both individuals and the state. The
next generation of college graduates will contribute significantly to the
future of the state and its residents….”6 If we don’t ensure that
California’s population has access to higher education, what will happen to
our state?
While the student body need not be an exact mirror of the state’s
population, as a state, we need to do a better job of educating students
from underrepresented communities while ensuring that all communities feel
heard and respected. Even within the Asian Pacific Islander American
community, we need to be doing a better job of providing representation for
Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians in higher education. At UC Berkeley,
the rate of admission of Pacific Islanders is even lower than the rate for
underrepresented ethnicities as a whole.7
Many opponents of SCA5 argue that fairness demands that university
admissions be based on merit alone. By merit, they are referring to
applicants’ grade point averages (GPAs) and standardized test scores. This
is appealing because it provides a simple proxy for intelligence and “worth
,” which works out well for some members of the Asian American community,
like me. I know what I need to do to meet these standards because my family
and teachers provide me with the information, means, and expectations to do
so. Thus, under this system, I have a clear advantage. And that’s why this
merit-based system isn’t as fair as it may seem. If you come from a family
of college-educated people, you have more knowledge about the college
application process. You know about the SAT, the ACT, and test prep courses.
You know about AP classes. You know how the system works. But if even
grades and test scores were absolutely fair, they would still fall woefully
short as they don’t account for a large portion of what students have to
offer, such as their life experiences and their ability to overcome
obstacles. While GPA and test scores are important (just ask my parents),
these numbers are inadequate measures of ability, character, and potential.
How do I know this? On a daily basis, teachers from many different
communities and perspectives expand my mind with ideas that defy simple
quantification. I sit next to students from various socio-economic,
linguistic, and religious communities that demand that I expand my outlook
beyond textbooks. At my school, 10% of my fellow students are Asian, 48% are
white, 25% are Latino, and 10% are African American; 22.9% are from
economically disadvantaged backgrounds; and 7.4% are English language
learners.8 I benefit in ways that I couldn’t if we were all from similar
circumstances, and when I eat lunch with my friends, fool around in the
hallways, and wrestle with my teammates, I share failures, plan schemes, and
dream big with them all.
Some might say that I am arguing against my own self-interest. But I -- an
Asian American of Chinese and Korean descent and a son of the great state of
California -- am actually a beneficiary of the type of community that can
be built by measures like SCA5. I am one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately,
thanks to the California assembly, students at our public universities can’
t say the same.
***
Jason Fong is 14 years old and a 9th grader at Redondo Union High School in
Redondo Beach, California.
- See more at: http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2014/03/why-i-support-affirmative-action-one-asian-american-perspective#sthash.XwpGRpUt.dpuf | p***r
发帖数: 1098 | | j********g
发帖数: 427 | 3 利用儿童的无知来搞政治，真是完全没有底线了
【在 p***r 的大作中提到】
: 14 years old...
| l*********1
发帖数: 936 | 4 这种自恨的小孩最好自我了断，为加州的diversity 做出贡献。
【在 j********g 的大作中提到】
: 利用儿童的无知来搞政治，真是完全没有底线了
| g*****e
发帖数: 87 | 5 He can give up his seat in UC system and picks out of state colleges. It is
as simple as that. |
|
