Universities or the judiciary: Which is more important?

[Prometheus]

www.yahoo.com/news/ted-lieu-erupts-mention-alleged-211911338.html

They are certainly separate issues, so I think I'll comment on both.

Asian [under]representation in the judiciary

Why does everything have to be proportionate to demographics? Once we're done making sure that the Judiciary is 5% Asian then we'll have to go through the whole rigamarole again to make sure that 1% are Native American/Alaskan. 1% are intersex. 11% have Mexican heritage. 2% have Puerto Rican heritage. And on and on and on until everyone is happy that we have just the right number of Hispanic transwomen (or whatever) within the judiciary.

I'm all for diversity but not just for diversity's sake. Judicial appointees need to have more qualifications than just demographics. If there's an actual case where an Asian didn't get appointed and you think you can prove it had to do with race, bring a suit. And if you think that it won't go your way simply because the judge isn't Asian then you have to examine the fact that our judicial system is broken at its foundations and appointing a couple more minority judges is NOT going to fix it.

Asian Representation in Universities

From a tremendous amount of personal experience (plus a plethora of anecdotal evidence), I can tell you that East Asians value education above all else. Good grades are all that should count. Having the name of the "right" university on your CV should be the only thing that matters when it comes time to get a job or promotion.

To them, life is all about having good grades.

Life disagrees and so do most colleges and universities.

Life is about creativity and forward-thinking. Colleges and universities are there to foster these things as best they can with the population of students at hand.

The problem for Asian students is that they are cookie-cutter replicas of each other. They all had great grades in school. They all had great scores on their SATs, ACTs, or whatever. They all studied piano, violin, or some other classical instrument. And they all wrote essays about their families or a personal, academic achievement.

Yes. There are exceptions. And those are the applications most likely to catch the eye of the admissions team. Those are the students most likely to get accepted.

If all that ever counted were grades, our universities wouldn't have enough space for the non-Asian students. As for college team sports, you can kiss that shit goodbye. Fine arts programs such as acting? Gone. Music programs for anything other than classical music? Gone. Even liberal arts programs would be reduced to a minimum while STEM programs boomed.

That may sound good to some, but probably not for the under-represented judiciary.

BUT, if we go back to the argument about the judiciary matching demographics then AAPI are OVER-represented in our colleges and universities.... WAAAAAY over-represented even before you add in international students.

Hell, there are some universities in the US where you might have to struggle to find a white or black face. OK. That's a bit of hyperbole, but only a bit. CalTech is 40-45% Asian at this point. Pretty much all of the UC campuses are 35% Asian or higher. MIT is 30%. Just about all the CUNY campuses are 30%.

But, goddamn that Harvard is only at 20%!

Pick an argument for representation and stick with it. You'll get a lot more Asian judges, but I'm afraid a lot of Asian students are going to have to learn how to flip burgers.