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I’ve long suspected widespread discrimination against Asian Americans students in the college admission process, especially by elite American universities. Here is an article shedding light on this shameful practice.

Some excerpts from the article:

Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges’ admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission…

…A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it’s 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.

You can read the full article here.

This practice flies in the face of meritocracy that is at the very core of American idealism. You let your fastest runners compete in the Olympics. You let your most talented basketball players become star NBA players. Why not let the brightest and most hard working students into the best universities?

This article deals with only racial discrimination at academic institutions. One can only surmise how much anti-Asian discrimination goes on in the workplace, where the practice is not as easily quantifiable.

If America insists on perpetuating this appalling practice and fails to recruit its best and brightest citizens– including Asian Americans– to its best colleges and companies, then it will risk being surpassed by other countries, especially Asian countries.

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You may have read about the recent death of a Canadian “aid worker” who was supposedly followed by Khmer men from an ATM and “bludgeoned, robbed, stripped of his clothes and left to die” in a Cambodian ditch by his assailants.

Well, as it turned out, the “aid worker,” Jiri Zivny, may have died from a simple motorcycle accident after a night on the town in Kompong Som, a popular destination for Western sex tourists and pedophiles.

As for the “humanitarian” organization which he “worked” for…

“The International Humanitarian Hope Society functions like a tourism business. Clients sign up and pay for tours that mix sight-seeing with visits to orphanages throughout Southeast Asia. The trips cost about $2,500 per person for airfare and accommodations. ” source

After the accident dozens of sensational articles were circulated about an “innocent” humanitarian who was savagely robbed, beaten and killed by the very people whom he came to “help”.

As the report below reveals, the real victim may be the Khmer motorcyclist hit by Zivny. The Khmer motorcyclist is still unconscious. It would be interesting to know the blood alcohol content Zivny when he was taken to the hospital.

I think the real tragedy is that Khmer people were falsely portrayed as savage ingrates by the news media, and I have yet to see any retractions of the inaccurate reporting by any of the sources.

Read article

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I am thrilled to learn that President-elect Obama has so far selected two Asian Americans to cabinet positions in his administration. These aren’t token appointments as in past administrations. They are exceptionally qualified heavyweights to add to the “dream team” Obama is assembling to tackle the enormous challenges that lie ahead.

General Eric Shinseki - Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs - Highly decorated 4-star general who was an early critic of the Iraq war, whose accomplishments include a bronze star and purple heart. Shinseki will be charged with the all-important task of taking care of American troops when they return from Bush’s costly and deadly hunt for phantom WMD’s in Iraq.

Steven Chu - Secretary of Energy - Nobel Prize-winning physicist and University of California Berkeley professor. He was an early advocate for scientific solutions to climate change. Global warming is an area largely ignored and even denied by the Bush administration. This is an extremely serious matter that is already causing desertification, famine, civil wars, and even genocide in various parts of the world and is threatening very survival of the planet. Having a science background myself, I’m glad that a scientist, rather than a politician, is selected for this post.

Also worth mentioning is Chris Lu, who will be Obama’s cabinet secretary. Chris Lu is Obama’s friend and former classmate at Harvard. Although the cabinet secretary is not a cabinet position, Lu who will have considerable behind-the-scenes power as one of the president’s trusted friends and advisers.

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I read a report today that some Hispanics are feeling betrayed by President-elect Obama choices for his top cabinet positions. Most of top cabinet positions have been filled by whites and Jews, with the notable exception being Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic. Obama is expected to name his once-bitter rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

By most estimations Obama’s choices so far is very close to perfect. He’s assembling a “dream team” of experienced and well qualified individuals to deal with the economic crisis and two wars abroad inherited from the Bush administration. His choices reflect his commitment to unity and getting-the-job-done over race politics.

I understand Hispanics’ feeling of betrayal since, like African Americans, Hispanics voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. At first glance, the racial composition of his administration may not reflect the “change” that he promised.

In his defense, however, the country is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and Obama simply cannot afford to appoint anyone but the most qualified and experienced people to the top posts. It just so happens that the most experienced people happen to be white and Jewish.

A major reason that there are fewer qualified minorities is that we seldom were given the opportunities to gain the necessary experience to fill the posts. Working under a black president, Obama’s white and Jewish cabinet members would be hard-pressed not to recruit minorities to their departments. These diverse and inclusive working environments, in turn, will enable minorities to attain the necessary experiences and credentials to become the leaders of tomorrow.

As a Khmer I would like to see at least one or two Asian Americans appointed to Obama’s top posts. However, even more important than Asian representation is that he or she is truly qualified for the job. I do not want to see Obama appoint an Asian just to show that his administration is inclusive of Asian Americans.

Tokenism is a deplorable arrangement that attempts to project a semblance of diversity while perpetuating the status quo. The token Asian appointments of past administrations have done little to advance Asian American concerns. Often, they were even less interested about Asian American causes than their white bosses.

Obama, on the other hand, is more concerned about laying the foundations for real diversity and real inclusion whereby all Americans would be given an equal opportunity to succeed. Far from betraying his minority supporters, I think Obama’s actions reflect incredible depth, foresight, and integrity in his thinking.

I’ve always been impressed by Obama’s exceptional intelligence and vision, and I think America is very fortunate that he, instead of one of the other candidates, was elected to lead the country out of the current mess.

Discuss this article on Khmercity.net

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A lot of people I know are still bewildered as to why I chose to return to live in Cambodia. They say that Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. They say that it is infested with corruption, lawlessness, AIDS, drugs, chaos, human rights abuses, and so on and so forth.

That may be true. I am not going to deny that these problems exist. Living here I can say that not only do they exist but are in some ways worse than outsiders could imagine.

Back in America I was making a good living, owned two cars and a nice house in an upper-middle class suburban neighborhood, and enjoyed a network of close friends and relatives who were (and still are) very dear to me.

But something was missing.

Although I spent 75% of life and most of my childhood in the U.S., I remained a perpetual outsider. I remember arriving in at the age of 9 years old in a foreign land speaking very little English. The other kids would taunt and harass me on a daily basis as I struggled to adapt to the new environment.

Here in Cambodia when Westerners speak broken Khmer, they don’t get teased– they become celebrities. The Khmer TV and radio stations would seek them out to interview them on their programs, marveling at their ability and willingness to learn our language.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal for a Westerner’s being able to speak Khmer. We shouldn’t feel it’s some form of special honor just because a handful of Westerners elect to learn our language. In fact, I expect any foreigner who comes here to live or work in srok Khmer to learn Khmer. It’s completely normal; every country has the right to expect as much.

Nor should we taunt the foreigners for speaking Khmer with a bad accent, as Americans have taunted Asian immigrants for speaking broken English.

In fact, the constant torment that I received as a recent immigrant was a major motivation for me to study hard and excel in school. Sure enough, within a couple of years I managed to top my class in all subjects of study, including their native language English. From then on I would be known as the “smartest” student in every school I attended.

While I gained some respect and even admiration from my peers for my academic achievements, I remained an outsider. I often sensed fear, jealousy and resentment from fellow students, their parents, and even some members of the faculty. They felt threatened, but they couldn’t do anything about it. They had to give me my props because I played by the rules and beat them at their own game. Still, some people would say, “Sure, Oudam, you’re book-smart, but how street-smart are you?” I didn’t respond to them because I knew the none of those “street-smart” native-born Americans could have survived the Khmer Rouge as we had.

At any rate, despite my best efforts to fit in, I never felt like I belonged. I remained an outsider. By college and graduate school I began to realize that even with my hard work, determination, and scholastic achievements, I would not achieve the fabled “American dream”.

Beyond school, it would take much more than talent, credentials, and qualifications to succeed in the American society. While my straight A’s and academic accolades in high school eventually earned me admission to one of the nation’s elite universities, they would not give me entrance into the old boy’s network.

It has been my experience that even in America, you can’t realize your full potential if you’re an outsider. While you may overcome racial and ethnic barriers in certain aspects of life, you will be missing out on other areas. Sooner or later you’ll begin to question yourself: Are you better off in America or Cambodia? How much of yourself– your social associations, your ethnic identity, your culture, tradition, and heritage– are you willing to sacrifice to gain acceptance by a foreign country?

While America has always offered our family shelter since we immigrated there 28 years ago, but it never offered us a home.

A shelter is not necessarily a home.

If you live in a modest house that gets flooded by a storm, your rich friend may offer to let you stay at his million-dollar estate for a while. But his mansion is not your home but a temporary shelter. As a guest you don’t enjoy all the privileges that owner does. Even if you’ve earned the legal rights to call the property your own home, e.g. by paying your share of the bills, taxes, and living expenses, there’s always something, perhaps even your friend himself, to make you feel like an outsider.

Why do I love Cambodia?

I feel right at home here.

Our country may be a small house badly damaged by a monster storm, but at least we still have a home. I think if more people here in Cambodia could appreciate that they’re very lucky to still have a home and stop coveting other people’s mansions, then they might make a more serious, concerted effort to rebuild it, rather than wishing to flee it to seek shelter elsewhere.

For me it’s very easy to appreciate Cambodia as my home because I’ve already spent three-fourth of my life somewhere else. Of course, it would be best if Cambodia is both a home and a shelter to her people because a home that is not a shelter is really not a home.

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