One of the problems with fame it appears is that your family & friends (in some cases) try to ride your coat tails to the bank. Luckily for Mindy Kayling - producer, director, comedian, actress and author, her brother chose a different path and has written a book that focuses on how in 1998 he posed as a black man to successfully apply to medical school (should I underline luckily). Now for those of you who don't know who Mindy Kayling is, she is the protagonist in The Mindy Project and was in the US version of The Office, both of which she also wrote scripts for.
Her brother on the other hand is a [left blank so you can make your own assertions] and has written a book Almost Black, which shares his experience of how he used affirmative action policies to get into medical school with a 3.1GPA. Vijay Chokal - Ingam supposedly classified himself as African American on his medical school application and states that to maintain the illusion whilst at Louisania State Medical School he continued to pretend to be so. He argues that the 11 schools who invited him to interview did so because he was black and they wouldn't have done so as an Indian-American. Although he doesn't substantiate if he sent more or less (with relevant parts changed to support ethnicity) identical applications in, or if the 'Indian' applications were rejected. Vijay uses this as an example of why affirmative action is a bad thing.
His argument is similar to others (see his blog post on almostblack.com) it doesn't help those who really need it. Rich kids utilise the quotas, the truly underprivileged kids those who may not have access to good schools, need financial aid etc etc are missing out. And I'm sure this is the case as Vijay is probably not the only person who has taken advantage of the system. But
if affirmative action as it stands isn't the answer what is; because it's clear the groups that it helps to give access women, certain ethnic groups and the disabled are still underrepresented in the top jobs, best schools and or some cases just in college at all. Do you really think Sheryl Sanderberg would set up Lean In if all was well.
The other day I read an article about non-white women who worked in the STEM sector in the US, which shares research into the experience of men/women and then non white women working in those sectors. Women suffered discrimination but for non- white women it was even worse and this wasn't just in the workplace this was also whilst studying. Let's just say if you'd spent thousands of dollars on a science degree, masters and PHD that balance is going to be way above that glass ceiling you're trying to break. I also recently read a headline that said that in 16 states in the US more black men were in jail than college! College isn't for everyone, but in my opinion prison is a place you should never have to visit unless maybe for peaceful protesting.
Dealing with how to give people an equal footing needs policies and processes that help the truly disadvantaged, and Vijay is probably right African, WASP, Indian or green - American with the advantages he had (good schools, wealthy parents) maybe a 3.1 GPA wasn't good enough to get into medical school. Or if you look at it from a completely different viewpoint maybe the admissions staff had other biases that meant that even for an advantaged black man a 3.1 was where the bar was set.
