Simple solution: Put the whites in the back of the class. People of color will get better seats and it will prevent cheating on exams.

JW,
Can I assume then that your first comment was NOT a joke?

Your take on the professor’s argument can only work if she is ignorant of how affirmative action works (I doubt she is.)

Set-asides are illegal: You can’t say, for example, that Princeton will take 11% black and 12% Hispanic students each year. So the idea there are two tiers of admission, one for blacks and Hispanics and another for whites and Asians, is simply false.

But you can take make race a factor in selecting students if those students are from underrepresented groups. (That same factor also allows gives whites a relatively easy shot at getting into historically black universities.) Those gains for underrepresented groups must come from overrepresented groups and nobody is more overrepresented at Princeton than Asians (as I noted, whites are actually a little underrepresented there).

The only way to say that Asians are competing with non-Hispanic whites but not blacks or Hispanics would be to count Asians as white (in other words, to administratively erase the distinction between whites and Asians and count them as one group).

In summery, her basic argument seems to be that taking race into consideration is good if it means that you are taking places away from non-Hispanic whites and giving it to blacks and Hispanics but bad if you are taking it away from Asians.

(BTW, sorry about the late reply. I am still on vacation.)

Keep digging your own hole and showing your own ignorance.

BTW, studying for the SATs DOES help and is highly recommended. In my 11th grade English class, our teacher attempted to teach us the vocabulary words in the Barron’s study guide SOLD IN PUBLIC BOOKSTORES that were recommended study material for SAT takers. I already knew all the words. I had already studied and memorized them during the previous two summer vacations. While the rest of my classmates spent their vacations just staying home watching TV or goofing around outside, I studied an hour a day under the watchful eye of my parents and THEN played, and I am glad I did it. My older brother, who went through the same regimen as me, got a near perfect score on the SATs (I think he missed two questions), and it was because he studied PLUS had a thorough knowledge of Latin to derive the meaning of words and because he retained everything he read, including the meaning of new vocabulary words. Plus, they didn’t have enough math classes at our high school for us to continue to learn, so my brother actually had to attend the university nearby as a senior in high school in order to continue to learn. The American schools we attended couldn’t keep up with the studying we did in our own time. No one in our community was surprised at my family’s academic success because everyone knew we studied and worked hard. Plus, to the white and black members of the community, perhaps there was the prejudice (rightfully or wrongfully) they had that Asians were just brighter academically. I doubt we were “brighter”….we just studied harder. It got to the point that we knew more calculus than the calculus teacher, which says a lot about the American education system at that time.

So I have cheating skills because I’m a kyopo, huh? You’re pathetic.

And exactly how DOES one cheat for the SATs in America? It’s virtually impossible. Maybe, just MAYBE Matt, we kicked *ss in school and on our college boards because we studied. Does this truth hurt too much for you to accept?

There weren’t any gyopos in the room when I took the SAT, so who am I to judge your cheating skills?

So….you’re saying I and other Americans of Korean descent who did well on our standardized tests relative to the rest of our American peers did so because we CHEATED? Unbelievable. Maybe STUDYING had something to do with it! Ever thought about that??

I’m not sure how you drew such a quick conclusion like that. It MIGHT be because those of Asian descent (be they American or living in Asia) study harder for the SATs and in high school to GET into Princeton and other Ivy League schools. Ever thought of that?