SUMBLOG 7

The institution of education and the problem of race and ethnicity within it really intrigue me.  Especially the part we discuss in class about letting people of a certain race get into a particular school base on just that, their race.  This is done mainly to boost the diversity in said school.  Schools in my mind try too hard to send the message of diversity in the schools; so much so that my high school dedicated a whole week for it to increase the awareness of it.  Don’t get me wrong as I believe that diversity is a good thing, but sometimes it just goes too far.  This really remind me of the time where I was a junior in high school.  At that time the colleges around Wisconsin bombarded my mail with their brochure.  On those brochures they often feature some sort of photo with some of the students that are attending them on it.  There is this one particular detail that I noticed on the photos when looking through a few of them.  The photos more often than not show a group of happy diverse friends on it.  I find this funny because I eventually got a chance to go tour some of these colleges, and find that the brochures are misleading.  As I observe the surroundings, I noticed that there is not much diversity at some of these colleges.  However, when I do see diversity within the colleges everyone is well segregated.  Rather if it’s done intentionally or not, but looking around this campus the same observation can be made.  Although the brochures are misleading about the environment of the student body, it’s nice that they are pushing for diversity within the system.  Below is a clip from the TV show The Office, which goes to show how silly pushing for diversity can sometimes be.

SUMBLOG 5

One of the categories on attitudes and actions that we discussed about in lecture I’ve always enjoy learning about is the concept of stereotype.  Being a minority (Asian-American) in society I experienced many stereotypes growing up.  However I don’t usually get offend by them, and I actually find them somewhat funny.  I say this because most of the time some stereotypes turns out to be true.  One such stereotype that I often heard is that all Asians are good at math.  I find this funny because I actually fit in this stereotype.  I remember in junior high, the class was assigned this really long and somewhat difficult take home algebra test.  Knowing that we can help each other out, we started to form groups after class.  I was thinking of doing the test together with my friends who are also Asian.  Little did we know that we were in high demands for other people, especially with our Caucasian classmates.  I think it’s due to the stereotype that all Asians are good at math that caused this to happen.  I was reluctant at first but ended up joining a group with one of my Caucasian friend, on the promise that he’ll give me 5 Pokémon cards of my choice.  We got it done and got a decent score due to my guidance.  The group that has one of my Asian friends in didn’t do too good as his whole group just put down whatever he put down.  This particular friend unlike me is not really bright at math.  But at the end of the day we both got our Pokémon cards and that is all that matter.  The moral of this story is that don’t assume that all stereotypes are true because it can either help you or hurt you.  This video clip from Wong Fu Production does a good job at showing this; but instead of the all Asians are good at math stereotype, it’s about the all Asians know martial arts one.  Enjoy.