Dumb and Dumber: Counting Asians

EARLIER this summer the University of California at Berkeley released figures on affirmative action that make clear the degree to which Asians, and to a lesser extent whites, are being excluded from that university. Berkeley’s estimates of what would happen to white and especially Asian enrollment if affirmative action were done away with are quite conservative. Yet they yield the following indications: Asians would go from 40 per cent to 55 per cent of die student body. Whites would go from 30 per cent to 35 per cent. Hispanics would go from 15 per cent to 5 per cent. Blacks would go from over 6 per cent to under 2 per cent.

Such an outcome makes clear the extent to which Asian-descended students are currently discriminated against. Why, then, did Berkeley reveal the truth?

PS

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Peter Shaw

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EARLIER this summer the University of California at Berkeley released figures on affirmative action that make clear the degree to which Asians, and to a lesser extent whites, are being excluded from that university. Berkeley’s estimates of what would happen to white and especially Asian enrollment if affirmative action were done away with are quite conservative. Yet they yield the following indications: Asians would go from 40 per cent to 55 per cent of die student body. Whites would go from 30 per cent to 35 per cent. Hispanics would go from 15 per cent to 5 per cent. Blacks would go from over 6 per cent to under 2 per cent.

Such an outcome makes clear the extent to which Asian-descended students are currently discriminated against. Why, then, did Berkeley reveal the truth?