On Asian-Americans, the new Jew...

We live in a fairly well-to-do, diverse neighborhood, with a number of renown universities and teaching hospitals close-by. The neighborhood is pretty vibrant, with good schools and alot of family-friendly activities for kids.

A few months back, I got an email rousing interests of all Asian parents to a gathering to discuss the future of Asian-Americans, in our neighborhood and in America as a whole. It piqued my interest, and off I went. There, I learnt that the only non-white Chinese-American just got voted off from the School Board, after having been serving for years, leaving no representation of minority interests on the Board at all. It's quite obvious that the few organizers did not know what the next steps might be, or what the larger Asian community has wanted to do (with no representation on the School Board), or whether the Asian community cares about this at all.

I also learnt a few things:

• The Asian community (and it's not just Chinese-Americans, but other Asian ethnicity like Japanese, Korean, and Indian) does care about this. They don't like this, because given their relative big clout in academic sector and all, it's almost outrageous that the only Asian rep did not get enough votes to stay on.
• But most everyone seems ambivalent about being too vocal, lest the comparison with stereotypes like "the angry black man." Chinese and Indians seem to be more forceful, but Japanese and Koreans are normally more reserved and deferential to opinions of the local Americans.
• There were discussions on Asian-Americans, as a more generic group, being over-achievers. Interestingly, the son of one of the organizers (who is college age) made the remark to gently remind all the parents that the mental health issue of Asian-American kids should not be neglected. That's perhaps one of the epiphany to me from that meeting, because this is perhaps one of the issues I tend to overlook when I'm dealing with my kids. (I have come to secretly remind myself, time and again, after that meeting, to not overlook this issue on my kids.)
• When it comes to discussions of the next-steps and what to do next, there's almost a paralysis since there's no consensus on what should be done.

Since that meeting, I've come across this article on colleges redlining Asian-American kids, so much so that they are now the "new Jew." I was pretty peeved when I read it. For all the talk of meritocracy in America, the bar is artificially set higher on a particular group, all in the name of maintaining diversity? Do we tell our kids, they have to be at least 30-40% better than the next black or hispanic kid in order to get in the college that they want? How, as a parent, do I explain that and expect the kids to understand what fairness means?

But then, I look at the mix of ethnic groups in the kids' school, and realize that more than 40% of them are Asians, with the rest coming from various European countries, leaving maybe less than 20% of them who are truly "local" Americans (including African-American). If this is the mix of America, going forward, why is it that we're forcefully and artificially changing that mix in colleges? Afterall, more than 60% of graduate students in America are Asians too (locals and foreign). It just doesn't make sense to me.

I know this will not sit well with alot of people, seeing a very real possibility that over-achieving and smart Asian-Americans taking over America. In a diverse, immigrant driven society like America, that kind of dynamics will always be a constant push-and-pull, much the same way the growing population of hispanics is taking hold in some of the southern states.

I can only hope that the melting pot in America will work its magic again, in assimilating not only the Europeans of old (eg. Irish, Italians), but newcomers like Asians and Hispanics. But if, in the name of maintaining diversity, we lower our standards and expectations of our kids, all hope will be lost, because then, the Asians in Asia (who excel, with no holding back) are going to step in and take over the world leadership.