Previously, my somewhat-nebulous thoughts on this were: there's definitely a math/sci stereotype about Asians; don't read too much into stereotypes; but Asians really are disproportionately represented among the math/sci fields; what on earth would explain it if not a genetic and/or cultural bias? >cognitive dissonance<
As I said, nebulous; I hadn't really pursued the line of thought very far, just tangentially as it came up elsewhere. I hadn't known about the 1965 Act, and its existence and the above analysis just instantly explained so much so well and without reference to Asians somehow being magically different; just that the math/sci trait had been selected for within the Asian-American population.
Not that it rules out other explanations. But it's so blindingly obvious (in retrospect :) that the Act would have some effect along these lines, that Occam's Razor raises the bar for other explanations by a lot.
Thanks for the response. I'm very concerned about the state of education in inner cities, but often I see arguments that use IQ in relation to Asian Americans as a reason why students in the black/latino communities have not achieved.
I know about the immigration act's effect on the Asian American population because I was an Asian/Asian American Studies major. That your comment received so many upvotes explains some of why these beliefs are so pervasive.
Moreover, our curricula are incredibly tone deaf if this major shift in the American population isn't required knowledge for passing American history.
As an exercise, you might want to try to think of why other Asian American stereotypes exist, and how they may/may not apply to 2 billion+ people in Asia.
As I said, nebulous; I hadn't really pursued the line of thought very far, just tangentially as it came up elsewhere. I hadn't known about the 1965 Act, and its existence and the above analysis just instantly explained so much so well and without reference to Asians somehow being magically different; just that the math/sci trait had been selected for within the Asian-American population.
Not that it rules out other explanations. But it's so blindingly obvious (in retrospect :) that the Act would have some effect along these lines, that Occam's Razor raises the bar for other explanations by a lot.