When the myths break

*WARNING* serious rant will start right now...

Funny how tragedies can bring out the worst in people. One could argue that it is just poor taste or bad humor, but I tend to think it emanates from mean spiritedness triggered from insecurity. You know that kind where you simultaneously feel like you are not worthy and that you are not getting what you deserve. I am sure it is an unhappy and uncomfortable position.

I should not have been surprised then by the outrageous reactions to the triple tragedy that befell japan last week. If you have been out of touch, there was the voice of the aflac duck, a female pro basketball player, and my favorite, the UCLA student. Each of their in-poor-taste spewing must have been meant in some way to be funny, but each also betrayed a prejudice predicated on a stereotype.

The UCLA student offers me just the opportunity I needed to discuss how myths collide and how our schizophrenic attitude towards education and opportunity manifest in these myths.

Let's start with my favorite, the myth of meritocracy. I think one begins to hear about this while in utero: if you work hard and are good at what you do, you will be rewarded with whatever your occupation values. So if you work hard and are a good student, you get in to a great school and maybe even a scholarship. And, of course, a good education, but is that really what anyone cares about?

You see, the nameless they will tell you, the United States, unlike those monarchical states, is a meritocracy. That means you EARN your rewards and station and remuneration. No one gets a free ride and you can't get the rewards unless you do the work.

It is a wonderful idea and ideal. If only it were true.

So when you get what you want, you can believe you deserve it. Perhaps more importantly it gives one the opportunity to blame poor people as slothful or otherwise undeserving and fight against programs like affirmative action simultaneously.

Those programs are particularly dangerous as they are proof that meritocracy is at best a myth, or at worst a cruel joke.

When California abolished affirmative action in higher education, it set the myth if meritocracy on a collision course with another myth, namely that of the model minority.

For the unfamiliar, this myth assures the populace that are immigrants we can get behind and these are Asian. They work hard and quietly, they get good grades without any extra consideration, they don't muddy the waters in any way- no asking for special treatment, etc.

In fact, it means that people who feel threatened by things like affirmative action use Asians as the model minority whenever they want to keep brown and black folks from getting in on the action. It turns out that they only wanted the Asian students to complain about never comprising more of the student body at elite UCs... it was a favorite rant, if it weren't for affirmative action all those hard-working, good-grade-getting Asian students would take their rightful place at the elite schools of their choice.

It's a little tricky because the anti-aff. action folks weren't actually willing to agree that quotas were in place to keep Asian students to 8-10%... they just wanted to use the stats against black and brown *undeserving* students. Somehow white students, legacies and athletes are never part of the meritocracy equation... perhaps we could work it out if we wanted to... legacies are meritorious by default of their ancestors, athletes are meritorious for their prowess on the field(s), and whites are ...?? Yeah, it kind of breaks down when you get to the details. Remember what the politicians like to say, "the devil's in the details..." And how.

So, when we took down the artificial barriers to high achieving Asian students getting into UCLA and UCBerkeley, it turns out there was meritocracy afterall... and it showed itself by admitting all the top Asian students. Now, the UCs can boast percentages that mirror the achievement percentages for the state. And lucky for them that so many Asian students decided to take advantage of the fine state system instead of taking off for ivies or sisters or anywhere else.

Clearly, if Asians were the model minority, they would also know their place...and stay there.

When all was said and done, there were a lot of salty white folks. First the ones that had to go to community college or Riverside or Merced...yikes... who wants that. Then, those who were meritorious enough to get into UCLA and Berkeley are now *surrounded* by Asian students who want to do things like bring their families to visit campus, and talk on cell phones in the library and just in general be everywhere... I don't know if I have captured the rant sufficiently as I refused to watch it.

Though, I noted with interest the other day that poor little put upon white girl was now getting death threats and decided to leave school... even though the campus administration decided not to look into disciplinary charges. I like that the LA Times decided to just post the piece from KTLA rather than write their own story. She has gotten quite enough press already.

For a story on a vastly different kind of student, check out this Tobar piece from the LA Times.