“Einstein’s travel diaries reveal ‘shocking’ xenophobia” (Guardian):
After earlier writing of the “abundance of offspring” and the “fecundity” of the Chinese, he goes on to say: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”
Einstein is kind of the secular Jesus in that people quote him whenever they want to justify a personal notion. Ivy League colleges are under attack for their policy of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, most of whom are of Chinese descent, in admissions. Will Harvard and Yale now start quoting Einstein?
Related:
- Discrimination against Asian-Americans in Harvard admissions
- All-Asian bad; half-Asian good (“never go full Asian” for college admissions!)
- College administrators: Why are there so many rich white and Asian people buying our $300,000 product?
- “Harvard Rated Asian-American Applicants Lower on Personality Traits, Lawsuit Says” (nytimes)
College admission is brutally straightforward for most courses in most colleges in Ireland: prospective undergraduates apply to the degree choices that appeal to them, then sit a standard national exam. For each course, all students above a threshold are admitted (one big computer batch job on the exam results).
Of course, some groups are under-represented at 3rd level (e.g. Travellers, the Irish version of Gypsies, or the children from families in the lower income strata, a small number of inner-city areas in Dublin, and non-females generally.). There are attempts to improve third-level access, but these focus on improvements to the educational pipeline, rather than tinkering with access criteria.
The Communist Chinese were of the same mind as Einstein on the subject, and instituted the “one child” policy limiting births.
Racism is the unfashionable belief that children are like their parents.
Anyone who has worked in special education has seen this one from Einstein:
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
This quote first appeared in print in 2004.
“Shocking” seems to have become a synonym for “True”.
LOL imagine a Harvard admin releasing a statement saying having too many asians around would be”unspeakably dreary”. At least that would be more honest than whatever their current position is!
“There are attempts to improve third-level access, but these focus on improvements to the educational pipeline, rather than tinkering with access criteria.”
This seems like a better approach than tinkering with college admission criteria. It’s too late, by college, for any meaningful remediation.