Too asian?

[terriko]

A few weeks ago, Macleans (a popular Canadian weekly news magazine known for, among other things, its yearly university rankings) published an article claiming that top universities in Canada had become "too asian" and as a result other (white) students were feeling intimidated to apply. It's a pretty typical case of "meritocracy is great up until the white majority folk start losing out, in which case it's time for crying and wringing of hands!" QQ.

I only heard about it because I happened across an asian blog... and I don't normally read those, being not particularly strongly identified as asian. But I think it's worth sharing some quotes so you can get up to speed on this dubious piece of journalism and stereotypes:

Although university administrators here are loath to discuss the issue, students talk about it all the time. "Too Asian" is not about racism, say students like Alexandra: many white students simply believe that competing with Asians - both Asian Canadians and international students - requires a sacrifice of time and freedom they're not willing to make. They complain that they can't compete for spots in the best schools and can't party as much as they'd like (too bad for them, most will say). Asian kids, meanwhile, say they are resented for taking the spots of white kids. "At graduation a Canadian - i.e. 'white' - mother told me that I'm the reason her son didn't get a space in university and that all the immigrants in the country are taking up university spots," says Frankie Mao, a 22-year-old arts student at the University of British Columbia. "I knew it was wrong, being generalized in this category," says Mao, "but f–k, I worked hard for it."

You can see the original article and some commentary here.

The commentary includes a succinct description of one big problem stereotype:

It's an interesting read, though I find myself completely annoyed by the part that makes Asian students sound like joyless, socially-isolated, singularly-focused drones under the command of overbearing immigrant parents. Not to say that there aren't Asian students like this, but there's definitely an underlying current of fear and concern in this ridiculous too-many-Asians anxiety.

Just how many Asians are "too many" Asians? It always seems like when you've got a lot of Asians gathered in one place, somebody finds this disruptive to their existence

Macleans made an apology... sort of. You can read commentary on their non-apology here.

For those concerned that the article was based on actual Canadian policy, one should note this:

The Macleans suggestion that there are private whispers or discussions of adopting race-based admissions for Asians in Canada is not only irresponsible journalism through unsubstantiated insinuation, but an outright lie.

They raise a red herring (Canadian universities considering U.S. policy) and then use the word "perhaps" to say we should “perhaps” not consider it, but there is nothing that is being considered (or dismissed) that they themelves have not invented out of fantasy.

I love the title of this related article, "Asian, whatever that means"

And there's some great thoughts about fitting in that I think people who aren't racial minorities maybe don't have to think about so much:

The other point being the question that everyone always asks: “Is everyone in the class Asian Canadian?” And it's almost exclusively “white” people who ask me that. It seems that to a lot of “white” people, what it means to be Asian Canadian is perfectly clear. It has to do with a phenotype. Is it that easy to tell? People could be biracial. There is such thing as “passing.” What's more, because because no one stops to question the category of asian, no one stops to question the fact that not even everyone in the class is Canadian.

Because everyone is so obsessed with the phenotypical questions about what it means to be “asian”, they don't ask questions about what it means to be Canadian, about citizenship itself, or writing as a practice.

Since people constantly ask me about being asian, I actually spend a lot of time thinking about what it's like to be Canadian. And ask me about how my haircut changed how I "pass" if you want to learn some about my experience being biracial.

Here's a piece that should sound a little familiar to some of my feminist friends:

He says, “If you don't work hard, the jobs that you were going to have are going to be off-shored to China.” It's hard not to see what Maclean's is saying in the article, when it cites a parent going up to an “asian” student and saying “You stole the spot of my kid.” And the student says, “I worked hard for it.”

In a sense Maclean's is saying, “It's a meritocracy and you should work hard, because there's this group that works harder than you and you will lose out to these people.” It's a xenophobic angle that's pointing to a kind of a crisis: “white” folks are worried that they're resting on their laurels and being too decadent, having too much fun. And at least, this is what this tone is speaking to, perhaps a “white” anxiety-- Are we having too much fun? Are we working hard enough?

And finally, the succinct response I liked best:

Too competitive? Psshh. You need to put down that Jager shot, pick up a book, and suck it up.

Comments

[thorfinn]

I need to blog about this topic at some point. I recall making an active choice at uni to go hang out with the "white" side of the University crowd... Oddly enough a decade after leaving, I grew the beard partly to be more Asian but also partly to tap into the stereotype reaction for work purposes...

[terriko]

I'd love to hear what you have to say on the subject if you get time to blog!

I've been on a minor kick as far as reading asian-* comics & media thanks to Secret Identities, and I'm noticing that hanging with the white crowds and trying to fit in are pretty common themes. Makes me feel better about my own fascination with playing chameleon vs drawing attention to myself.

It's interesting that you mention it being a convenient stereotype for working... I was actually planning on cutting off my "you don't look that asian" highlights in time for my next on-site interview. I just need a haircut and think it would look weird unless I divest myself of them completely, but I wonder if I'm unintentionally doing myself a favour when it comes to assumptions? It's been occasionally convenient that the asian stereotypes cancel out the female ones wrt math. :P

[thorfinn]

At the time I grew the beard, I was pretty sure I was about to start doing short term contracting myself out as a software developer as opposed to having a permanent staff job. Dressed in a suit with just a ponytail, clean shaven with the Asian Smooth Skin, I just looked too young to be taken seriously, despite being over a decade into my career at that point. The beard took that same outfit from "too-young" to "wise asian dude", courtesy of approximately a billion kung-fu movies... I think it did subsequently help when interviewing for contracting roles - my resume was impressive enough anyway, but physical impressions do count, even if they're not supposed to.

The beard took about six months of concerted laziness to get anywhere useful though. :-) I'm not likely to get rid of it any time soon because of the lag in re-growing it. Unfortunate, because I do like the androgynous look on me sometimes, but it's kinda impossible to look androgynous with a full beard.

As far as the haircut thing goes, yeah. Stereotypes exist in people's minds, unfortunately, and making use of them in your favour is at least useful to you. They're still annoying though, especially if you're having to trade one against another, and neither really sits comfortably alone, identity-wise. :-/

Sort of

[dnivie.livejournal.com]

I think it's almost entirely a question of how you approach the subject. On one hand, it's easy to agree that the best-qualified students should be prefered, regardless of what race or sex they are.

On the other hand, if a certain race or sex is systematically over time under-represented, it may be worth looking into the reasons for it. Afterall, we did when women where for a very long time under-represented in higher education. We didn't just lean back and say: "guess women must suck, they should make an effort." instead we looked into *why*. Today women are over-represented among students at all levels except perhaps the very highest, and even that seems scheduled to change over the next decade. (makes sense to me that it takes time for effects to "trickle up", that women reach parity about bachelor-graduates before they do among masters before they do among ph.d-students before they do among professors.

Thus, *if* (I have no clue if it's true or not) "white" (whatever that means) students in Canada systematically do poorer than other groups, it'd be worthwhile looking into why. And just proclaiming "cos they're lazier" does seem close to racist to me. If that explanation ain't considered adequate for explaining why (for example) blacks underachieve in many areas of american life, I think it should be considered inadequate even if the group in question is "whites" rather than "blacks".

Re: Sort of

[terriko]

The key here is that big IF. As far as I know (corroborated by the second article I linked), this supposed problem was entirely invited by the magazine, and that's the biggest issue with the whole article. My impression is that they just interviewed a few lazy students and then pretended this was a race problem rather than a problem that some kids aren't willing to work hard at the postsecondary level.

Re: Sort of

[terriko]

s/invited/invented/

Re: Sort of

[maco]

Though I would wonder if a "I'm in the majority, thus duh, of course I should be getting in" sense of entitlement could lead to more laziness.

Which week?

[unregisteredpseudonymspls]

I'm often confused. Is this the week when universities are turning into valueless degree mills for the lazy, or the week when universities are hyper-competitive manufacturing facilities for compliant technocrats? I forgot to enter it into my calendar, but it changes so often.