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Asian American Discrimination in Harvard Admissions [pdf]

(public.econ.duke.edu)
376 points undefined1 | 1 comments | 25 Apr 20 00:54 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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petilon ◴[25 Apr 20 02:22 UTC] No.22975004[source]▶
It is weird how racial diversity is given so much higher weight than other forms of diversity.

We are different in economic and social class, religion, politics, urban/rural, interest in sports, interest in music, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and race.

And yet, when we talk about diversity race trumps all other forms of diversity. It is the most visible (other than gender) form of diversity. All other forms of diversity requires getting to know the person.

When it comes to discrimination, again, the most visible form of difference is the most common basis for discrimination.

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1. fapjacks ◴[25 Apr 20 02:57 UTC] No.22975180[source]▶
Totally, and it's unfortunate. When people talk about diversity in the workplace or whatever, they aren't talking about diversity in foot size. Diversity is invisible. I wish it weren't the case that so many people use race as a proxy for the kind of diversity that provides the greatest breadth of experience and worldview that lets us benefit in things like problem-solving. Many of us unfortunately live in cultures where it's acceptable to interpret a person's silence as tacit support one way or the other, and so people are under pressure to signal their political affiliations to their peer groups. And since there's been a really poor proliferation of the tools, training, and education necessary to even really identify what people mean when they say "diversity", and using race as a proxy is so easy to do, it's what the vast majority of people reach for first when they need a quick and low-effort signaling mechanism. And in gaining traction as a signaling mechanism in this way, it became the status quo, adding even more pressure to signal using this proxy, in a kind of feedback loop. It's super lazy. And worse, as with any kind of status quo there are also a lot of groups and individuals who've staked significant investment in it (political will, money, their careers, various kinds of relationships, etc.), who may in fact support diversity concepts and initiatives but because of their existing investment and their varying levels of desire to defend this investment (or out of a sense of sunk cost), they will actually in the end be working against diversity. Not to mention using race as a proxy just ends up reinforcing existing prejudices (or creating new ones) on many levels, from individuals to entire systems. It's unfortunate.