Systemic Racism: Students Downplay Stereotypical Asian Hobbies To Increase Chances Of College Admission

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Asian American applicants go to extraordinary lengths to conceal their race, The New York Times reported on Friday, stripping their applications of activities and achievements that might come across as stereotypically Asian.

Students interviewed by The Times said they downplayed their interests in chess, violin and piano to avoid being rejected on racial grounds.

“It’s kind of sad now that I think about it,” Harvard University student Marissa Li told The Times. “I wasn’t really able to talk about the activities that meant the most to me.”

Other students said they chose not to declare their race for fear of incurring an admissions penalty, a practice that has gone on for years. In 2004, test prep society Princeton Review advised Asian test takers to conceal their racial identity.

It is now common for university advisers to advise against activities considered stereotypically Asian. Shin Wei, the founder of IvyMax, said he tells students to choose an instrument other than piano or violin. Sasha Chada, the founder of Ivy Scholars, said he was doing the same.

“I don’t enjoy telling ninth graders that there are musical instruments they shouldn’t play or academic activities they shouldn’t engage in because it’s going to make them look bad. because of their ethnicity,” Chada told The Times.

The escapes reflect the widespread feeling, reinforced following recent court battles, that affirmative action policies discriminate against Asian students. A 2009 study found that Asians needed to score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites and 450 points higher than blacks to have equal admissions chances. The lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University unearthed similar data, which could prompt the Supreme Court to ban affirmative action when it decides the case next quarter.

A major point of contention in this case has been Harvard’s “personal grading,” which admissions officers base on essays, recommendations and interviews. Asian applicants consistently receive lower personal grades than applicants of other races, which Students for Fair Admissions says is a backdoor for racial discrimination.

The dynamic has drawn comparisons to Ivy League Jewish quotas in the 1920s, when schools like Harvard worried that having too many Jewish students would dilute their brand.

“The same stereotypes used to downgrade Jewish applicants in the 1920s, that they were nerds or grinders, that they would spend too much time studying to be ‘well-rounded’ are used against American applicants from Asian descent today,” Mark Oppenheimer, who hosts a podcast on Jewish history in the Ivy League, told The Times.

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