Letters to the Editor: The ‘open secret’ of anti-Asian bias in college admissions
Liz Jones
I was surprised, to say the least, when I learned that more than one in three minority high school seniors, especially those who are the children of immigrants, have dropped out of high school.
How often we as a community must witness an increasing number of high school drop-outs as our young persons are confronted with the challenge of higher education. The college admission process is also, by its very nature, a high-risk behavior for people who are not college- and career-ready.
The most obvious difference in our communities when it comes to these two challenges is the ethnicity of the students and the schools. These schools and schools in urban areas are mostly not, unfortunately, predominantly white.
In this environment it is easy enough to accept that there are some kids who are simply smarter than others. That is one of the reasons why the high schools in this area are so rigorous.
But what happens when we as a community must accept that there are some schools, and some students, who are more likely than others to fail?
We must accept that there are some schools, and some students, who are more likely to fail because we as a community refuse to accept diversity in our schools.
It is in this environment that the numbers of students who are on the wait list and who have dropped out of high school are growing more and more each year.
We have to accept the role this plays, and the role this will play, in society. We have to accept the fact that some people are stronger, more academically prepared and more culturally competent than others, and those people, while being bright and talented as well, will need to be placed in schools that are less academically stimulating and that are less culturally sensitive and less culturally competent in order to succeed.
There are always going to be those who are able to succeed academically and those who are not. We as a community have nothing to do with that failure- but we have to accept that the failure of
