[habnds]

No but it might be possible that an African american with the same grades as an asian american is much more likely to be successful in the future because they got the same results from what is likely a much more difficult starting point. The context of someone's acheivements matters and race is part of that context.

[rohit2412]

But if it's starting position you're worried about, you'd be worried about class. You would give affirmative action based on economic status, not race. That I would agree with.

[Anechoic]

You would give affirmative action based on economic status, not race

But race also matters in terms of starting position.

[rohit2412]

Yes, a lot in terms of cultural differences. So Asian-americans are being discriminated against because their parents make them study hard?

[simmanian]

Isn't it interesting to see so many people being okay with Asians getting discriminated against? It's almost as if it's not institutional racism to funnel Asians to colleges that mass produce worker class people instead of leaders of tomorrow. People will almost directly say that Asians make poor leaders because all they care about is school grades, when in reality Asians are taught to work harder than their peers to overcome exactly that prejudice. Let's try evening out the playing field and see how many Asians flourish in all areas of life in America like they do in Asia.

Asians need to organize like people of other races and take bigger pieces of the pie.

[zhugeIiang]

Agreed, it is time to stand up for our rights.

[habnds]

My parents were really supportive of me in school; someone whose parents weren't as supportive of them, who got the same grades as me is probably a better student and will be more sucessful with a given set of resources than I would since they overcame more adversity than I did.

It's a little crude to use race maybe, but it probably isn't a terrible approximation. What would be great is if people had to disclose any paid preparation for the SAT or the hours their parents spent with them growing up but that's probably a long way off.

Overall, this issue is framed to be as controversial as possible by political interests but it really isn't that big a deal.

[rohit2412]

> who got the same grades as me is probably a better student and will be more sucessful with a given set of resources than I would since they overcame more adversity than I did.

Isn't that contradictory? Are you saying that african americans achieve the same as asian americans even though they did not have to study hard? Then why would affirmative action be necessary?

Affirmative action is applied to upgrade the scores of candidates with lower scores if they are of a disadvantaged minority. So, an asian american with higher scores (and who worked harder) will miss out on an opportunity to an african american with lower scores (who did not work as hard).

[sjg007]

I guess in the end, like life, it's not about grades... sadly.

[yourbandsucks]

And it would help their preferred races, too. But it wouldn't play nearly as well on HN or Twitter.