藤校毕业生万字长文:华人家长痴迷哈佛耶鲁,却并不明白它们真正代表什么
预计阅读时间:23分钟
前言:本文由“心声项目 (The WeChat Project) ”成员撰写,心声项目由年轻的美国华裔领导,致力于为海外华人传播进步观点。
当华人家长绞尽脑汁的希望将孩子送进像哈佛这样的顶尖名校时候,有没有想过哈佛的精英地位可能来自于它与“白人”的紧密联系。进入学校需要面对的挑战来自于试图进入美国的白人统治阶层。虽然, "任人唯贤 "的录取制度可能会让更多的亚裔进入哈佛,但更高的亚裔比例会使学校的声望降低,甚至让进入哈佛时的初衷落空。作为一名同样来自藤校的毕业生,作者棣华这篇万字长文认为美国华人家长对大学排名的痴迷(以及由此产生的对平权行动的对抗)不仅是错误的,而且完全没有领会美国 “名望”的本质。
律师手举标语牌合影,标语上写道“我是亚裔,我也有梦想”,图源:Harvard Crimson, Amy Y. Li
关于有种族意识的招生政策是好是坏,是公正还是不公正,对亚裔有帮助还是有害的争论似乎从未消失过。不管你是支持平权还是认为它伤害亚裔利益,你很可能听过所有支持和反对平权的主要论点。每次平权出现在公众议题中,这些论点就被拿来辩论和重复。例如:平权行动帮助了很多非华裔的亚裔美国人;基于种族的制度没有考虑阶级差异;真正的精英制度会以分数高低甚至抽签方式来录取学生,而不是通过论文录取;学生们在多样性的课堂环境中成长得最好等等。
但是,通过阶级晋升而成为“白人”的努力在司法上久未兑现。1878年至1952年间,在52次关于亚裔公民入籍审理案中,有51次亚裔原告把自己归类为白人,而不是黑人,来争取自己的权利,尽管划分为“黑人”可能更容易说服法官,因为黑人在1870年已争取到美国公民身份。科希写道,“颇有讽刺意味的是,这些当事人遭拒绝是自取其咎,用他们自己的话,‘非白人代表道德和文化的堕落’,而他们被划分为非白人。更讽刺的是,主审法官常谴责绝望的当事人,因为他们认为法律暗示了只有上等种族才有资格获得公民身份。毕竟,黑人有资格获得公民身份,有多少人能说亚洲人不如黑人?”
哈佛大学一角,图源:college.harvard.edu
假如哈佛大学招收更多亚裔美国学生,它会有何得失?回答这个问题有多种角度。如人们观察到的那样,缺乏多样性限制了学生的视野,无法了解真实世界,反而不利于学生的发展。还可能有人说,哈佛要培养世界级领袖,刻苦学习的亚裔美国学生“缺乏个性”,无法成为哈佛培养目标。
最简单的角度可能是简单设想这样一个可能:一个亚裔学生占40%或50%的哈佛大学,类似209号提案后加州大学各所分校,或者史岱文森高中(Stuyvesant)和纽约其他精英高中。我们还可能想到加州大学的一些笑话。当我和朋友说起我在写关于平权的文章时,她马上说,“哦,就像加州大学洛杉矶分校UCLA是‘你看到很多亚洲人’(you see lots of Asians)的缩写?”。
我们能想想权力的表象,生活在一个仍然主要由白人主导和管理的美国,我们不难想象权力应该是什么样子。
我们再来聊聊哈佛大学对申请人的看法。公平招生组织认为哈佛大学用内部种族配额限制每年录取的亚裔学生的人数,而这样做是违法的。但是,不管是否使用配额,平权行动和哈佛的录取过程都涉及将学生分为以下几类:校友子女(legacy),第一代,运动员;科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM),人文,艺术;亚裔美国人,拉丁裔美国人,黑人。大学收到大量申请,它的使命是培养多元化学生,无论多元化如何配置,大学对学生进行分类都是难以避免的。只要有一个选拔学生的标准或基准线,这种分类就是必然的。
我们可能会认为常规学生是白人、非校友子女、非运动员、非第一代和非低收入。(再次引用谢丽尔·哈里斯:“白人性是排他的”。)学生分类并不是说肯定会出现刻板印象,而是会看到申请人所代表的群体:申请人既被视为独立个体,也被视为某个群体的代表。在这种制度下,亚裔美国学生永远无法摆脱他们亚裔美国人的身份。他们能做的,只能是试图证明自己不是人们刻板印象中的亚裔美国人。
也有些支持平权的人说,亚裔美国人本身并不想反对平权行动,这样做对亚裔本身没有什么好处。他们说,反对平权的亚裔美国人是被公平招生组织(Students for Fair Admissions)的领导人爱德华·布鲁姆(Edward Blum)这样的白人保守派利用了,布鲁姆这样的人在少数族裔间挑拨离间,推翻平权这项主要伤害白人利益的政策。
支持者又引用64%的亚裔美国人仍支持平权行动的数据(尽管自2014年对哈佛诉讼以来,华裔美国人对平权运动的支持率大幅下降),把这一诉讼与二战后“模范少数族裔”迷思相提并论。即“模范少数族裔”说亚裔美国人是模范公民,他们已爬上阶级阶梯,在美国取得成功和繁荣(换句话说,他们在资本主义制度下取得成功),而模范少数族裔的产生是为了诋毁黑人和其他少数族裔。有了“模范少数族裔”作为比较的基础,其他少数族裔的“失败”可归咎于他们的内在劣势,而不是系统性种族主义的结果。
尽管这个观点谈到历史和多种族因素,它却忽略了参与诉讼的亚裔美国人的影响,间接地免除了他们破坏平权行动的责任。将亚裔美国人视为制造分裂的“楔子”,让我们以为诉讼方只不过是实现布鲁姆目标的工具人。
徐华在接受美国国家公共电台(NPR)采访的报道
这些学生并不是没有意识到他们的胜算不大。像常春藤教练(Ivy Coach)这样的公司,提供高中生进大学的咨询服务,强调亚裔美国人需要在匿名的黄皮肤人群中脱颖而出。常青藤教练在博客上发表了一篇题为《为什么我们的亚洲和亚裔美国学生能如此频繁地获得录取通知书》(Why Our Asian and Asian American Students So Often Earn Admission)的文章,宣称“(虽然)有些人可能会被冒犯到,但当很多亚洲和亚裔美国申请人来咨询我们时,他们向我们展示了绝大多数亚洲人和亚裔美国人申请大学时选择呈现的活动和课外参与活动...而这个游戏在于突出差异。
Why Our Asian and Asian American Students So Often Earn Admission 文章
换句话说,这个游戏是作为一个亚裔美国人,却不能表现得像亚裔美国人。你甚至可以说这是一种背叛:对自我、对文化、对真实的背叛。那些真正想成为医生和律师的学生,那些真正喜欢数学和科学的学生,那些乐此不疲地把业余时间花在网球、钢琴和小提琴上的学生呢?亚裔美国申请人在努力获得常青藤大学录取的过程中,发现自己被要求抛弃任何和所有的刻板特征,甚至那些可能与他们的经历相符的特征,而选择一种在各方各面都能反常规的形象。即便如此,有些人还是觉得这还不够。
心声网站:thewechatproject.org
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