
Harvard Begs to Discriminate - doppp
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/06/harvard-begs-to-discriminate.php
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timavr
The key question will be, what is the admission criteria?

The reason Harvard doesn’t want to disclose it, because a lot of admissions
are not performance based.

If family member is Harvard alumni and was donating really well during their
life, their kid having the same academic performance vs anyone else will have
an advantage.

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yuhong
I don't like the idea of anti-discrimination laws here in the first place.
They do still make sense for things like voting.

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chrisbennet
I think it comes down to whether you think affirmative action to achieve
diversity is good/fair or not. A policy that attempts to avoid a mono cultural
student body (rich white men) is going to discriminate against someone. Do you
exclude women from some jobs because there are more qualified men or does the
organization/team/society perform better overall by their inclusion?

“Harvard’s class of 2021 is 22.2 percent Asian-American, 11.6 percent
Hispanic, 14.6 percent African-American and 2.5 percent Native American or
Pacific Islander. That strikes me as a university that is trying to achieve
diversity. And it is no bad thing.”
[https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/does-harvard-
discrimi...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/does-harvard-discriminate-
against-asian-americans/)

~~~
gowld
Why do you say "rich white men", when the issue under suit is "Asian-
American"? Is there an Asian-American hegemony over wealth and power in the
USA?

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chrisbennet
Because diversity goals are usually designed to to keep rich white men from
dominating something. Also, by reframing it that way you get to examine
whether you think affirmative action to achieve diversity is a good thing
separate from whether you think it discriminated against Asians. Of course
affirmative action discriminates; and it is going to feel unfair to some
people.

 _”The landmark case that established a legal precedent for affirmative action
in higher education was University of California v. Bakke in 1978. Allan
Bakke, a white man, was in his mid-30s when he applied to 12 medical schools,
including University of California Medical School at Davis. After all of these
school rejected him, Bakke sued the school at Davis—which had rejected him
twice—because he argued that the school had discriminated against him by
admitting students of color with lower medical scores than his.

At the time, Davis’ medical school reserved 16 out of 100 spots in each year’s
new class for students of color. In that case, the question posed to the court
was whether the policy violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause
and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”_

[https://www.history.com/news/the-landmark-supreme-court-
case...](https://www.history.com/news/the-landmark-supreme-court-case-that-
upheld-affirmative-action)

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howlingfantods
I went to a predominately White/Asian high school in a wealthy, high-
performing school district where the criteria for entrance was having the
money to live in that district. I subsequently attended Harvard as an Asian
male and I felt that my experience was richer for having a wide diversity of
classmates. Personally, I am on the side of affirmative action, but I know
there are many valid opinions on this matter, depending on people's different
value systems and experiences.

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GhostVII
How is discrimination along racial grounds legal in university admissions?
Isn't race a protected class you can't discriminate against? If a store
refused to provide service to an Asian because they already had too many Asian
customers, surely that would be discriminatory and illegal, I don't see how
that is any different, unless Harvard requires diversity to function properly.

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timwaagh
you know my parents had enough money. and i had brains. but i decided i wanted
to be normal and did not pursue education abroad. i realize now that prestige
is everything. smart kid without a prestigious degree is just a nerd. smart
kid with a harvard degree is somebody. so i paid a very high price in not
pursuing this. but at least morally i did the right thing: who would want to
go to a school where the admissions criteria are about the color of your skin.
now as i am much wiser i care less about morality and i would not tell anyone
not to go. in fact, please go. but still. its pretty bad.

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akhilcacharya
As someone that didn’t go to Harvard, didn’t apply to Harvard, and wouldn’t
have gotten in if I had applied I really and truly do not understand the
thought process behind the individuals bringing on the suit. Do they feel
entitled to admission? Is not getting into Harvard specifically such a
terrible injustice that it deserves to be litigated in the court of law? What
did they lose by not gaining admission in a procedure that is a black box in
nearly all institutions?

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amarkov
Being incidentally rejected might not be worth a lawsuit. But the plaintiffs
claim, in part, that Harvard is specifically trying to discriminate against
Asian applicants to keep Asians out of the student body. I think that's worth
litigating over if it's true.

~~~
gowld
Astute readers will recall _100 years ago_ when Harvard had an issue with a
glut of over-performing Jewish students, and had debates that presaged today's
debates about discrimination and diversity. The old debate may even be _more_
illuminating than today's debate, since back then many of the racists were
shamelessly clear-spoken about their race-based hatred.

[https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/expose/book/cloak-
meritocrac...](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/expose/book/cloak-meritocracy-
harvard%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cnew-plan%E2%80%9D-admissions-and-%E2%80%9Cjewish-
problem)

~~~
mc32
This kind of thing also occurred in the USSR because the native Russians were
underperforming, so many elite institutions had implicit quotas such that one
might have answers struck down in qualifying exams for being “too right”.

It’s a hard political problem (both the discriminated against and the ones
benefitting from the quota have a valid argument). Obvs an unbiased solution
would be to admit the best, regardless, but for social reasons, it may not be
optimal.

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gowld
Mods, please change link from the snarky low-information re-blog, to point to
the original source the blog is copying:

[https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2018/defending-
divers...](https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2018/defending-diversity)

