December 12, 2021

"When Kao Lee Yang received a nomination from her university for the Gilliam Fellowship by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and math, she was thrilled...."

"... Yang said she was 'blindsided' when HHMI emailed her academic adviser saying she wasn't eligible for the fellowship because she didn't meet their requirements for who is considered underrepresented. 'I was dumbfounded,' Yang said. 'I did wonder how HHMI came to that determination when I have had such a hard time finding other Hmong American scientists and scientific spaces.'...  Janelle Wong, a professor of Asian American studies at the University of Maryland... has been advocating for data disaggregation in the Asian American community for years. Disaggregation would involve collecting more specific data on Asian sub-groups so that a person's country of origin is apparent, rather than just grouping people together from the entire continent. The data would show specifically if someone was Vietnamese American, or Cambodian American, for example, rather than simply classifying them as Asian."

NPR reports.

71 comments:

Tina Trent said...

Or we could give science awards to the smartest people and forget this underrepresented bullshit in the hard sciences.

Psychology, MD Gynecologist and general practitioners, psychiatry -- I get it. Patient desires and comfort levels being met lead to better outcomes. Policing has a place for diversity too. Also social work, though I've seen it do more harm than good sometimes. But Ms. Gang's family history has no bearing on these subjects, and the claim of identity being valuable in those fields is absurd.

campy said...

I am the only possible representative of 'me' in the world.

I demand to be given everything.

Yancey Ward said...

We are in the stupid time line.

Amadeus 48 said...

If only they could aggregate candidates by the content of their character, they would be onto something. Too bad the decisions are all about the tribe they were born into.

Joe Smith said...

It's been ridiculous for a long time.

Asia is a huge place, and not all 'Asians' are the smart ones.

Maybe the liberals in general and democrats in particular can study more about how they classified races in Germany in the '30s.

They were known to be very methodical and thorough...

Original Mike said...

Blogger Tina Trent said..."Or we could give science awards to the smartest people and forget this underrepresented bullshit in the hard sciences."

I am so glad to be retired. I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut. It's racism all the way down.

Earnest Prole said...

advocating for data disaggregation

Quadroon, octoroon, hexadecaroon . . .

Yancey Ward said...

People with IQs under 100 are hugely underrepresented in science labs.....or they used to be.

Andrew said...

This is also true of "Hispanics" and "Latinos." The idea that they are all one huge homogenous race is ridiculous.

Roger Sweeny said...

And here I thought it was illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Silly me.

Wince said...

'I was dumbfounded,' Yang said. 'I did wonder how HHMI came to that determination when I have had such a hard time finding other Hmong American scientists and scientific spaces.'

Kao Lee Yang, MPA, PhD in neuroscience
University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Neuroscience and Public Policy

"Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, these Hmong broads are like Badgers."

rhhardin said...

Generally the smarter ethnic group is resented worldwide.

Leora said...

Aren't women still under represented in STEM?

n.n said...

Affirmative discrimination practiced under the Diversity [dogma], Inequity, and Exclusion (DIE) protocol.

That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

The kind of racial and ethnic nuance required for thinking about "Asians" in a sophisticated manner is something that is quite beyond the ability of most liberals/leftists, as evidenced by the failures of the liberals/leftists at institutions of higher learning.

If they can't get it, and they don't, what hope does an everyday lefty hack like some of the lefties at Althouse have?

LOL

Besides, everyone knows the Hmong were brought to the US as a "thank you" for their years of supporting the US war effort in SE Asia against the commies, and if there is one thing the liberals/lefties don't like, its fighting the commies.

Arlington Quidnunc said...

In the old days of apartheid, the South African government had an office for making just this kind of determination, parsing the racial status of its citizens on an individual basis. Those workers lost their jobs, but perhaps some of our universities should hire them to enable this crucial work?

retail lawyer said...

Or we could disaggregate groups all the way to the level of the individual.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

She's under-represented, but she's more of the wrong kind of under-represented. The categories were vetted incorrectly. Their bad.

walter said...

I didn't know Howard Hughes was so woke.

Bender said...

All them Orientals look alike to those progressives, just like all those Latinx are the same.

robother said...

I have quite a bit more Neanderthal genetic code than the average 23andMe Northern European. Teachers, cops, employers, starlets on Aspen slopes, sensing this have subtly discriminated against me my whole life. I am owed, big time, for this--Western Civilization's foundational racism.

Dave Begley said...

Just saw "West Side Story" last night. I highly recommend it. Best Picture of the Year. I gave it a 10. IMDB has it at 8.3.

The story of the gang fight between the Sharks and Jets continues to this day, but way more bloody. Tribalism in 2021 has advanced into all areas of American life and we have to slice and dice all the Asians. I suppose the same deal with Hispanics.

Tom Wolfe in "Back to Blood" explained all. And in a very funny way. Way more funny than that neurotic David Sedaris.

tim in vermont said...

Disaggregation would involve collecting more specific data on Asian sub-groups so that a person's country of origin is apparent, rather than just grouping people together from the entire continent.

All taxonomy is political.

rhhardin said...

Richard's a human rights lawyer, so, well, he takes his job very seriously.

[Richard leaves room to take phone call]

Oh, well, so you should with human rights. I take human rights seriously. You know, everybody's equal, color, creed or circumstance. We're all the same on this planet. - Except the Chinese.

- What?

No, they are. They're the odd ones out if you had to pick one.

No, I'm not having a go.

I'm just saying, you know, not their faces. I mean... No, no. But they call each other - things like Kwok...

- Stop it. You're gonna...

...and that's their choice, and they don't have to call a kid Kwok.

And they... No.

Some people are called Pong...

- Stop, please, stop.

... and there's about a million Wangs. You can have... You have one kid, you can use all those names on one little... You could call a kid Kwok Pong Wang.


[Richard returns] Ming Wa Men and Ho Lee Park have been arrested in Shaolin.

Ghost Town (2008)

gspencer said...

The UK press is notorious for calling Muslim terrorist as "Asians." In a technical sense this may be true since Pakistan is part of Asia. But the UK press does this protect murdering Muslims and their religion of Islam while simultaneously soiling the reputations of honorable real Asians who don't murder in the name of Islam.

readering said...

Would separating by nationality work when there are Chinese diaspora immigrants from a number of SE Asian countries, such as Vietnam?

ga6 said...

They would trace you to the 10th generation if they could get away with it.

Anonymous said...

This is the thing I don't get about proponents of AA / DEI / discrimination, they think about the benefit to themselves if they're not a cis het white male, but not it seems where they land amongst the non cis het white men they will eventually compete against in a society where group identity is valued instead of or in addition to individual merit.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Howard Hughes Medical Institution is another neo-segregationist organization that believes that Critical Race Theory is anti-racist. It's run by barbarians who think they are the leading lights of civilization.

Critter said...

The left controls the data and groupings. That’s why Islamic jihadists are classified by the FBI as white. That’s how they get to the ridiculous assertion that whit men are the greatest terrorist threat to America.

Can’t have Hmong people lauded as a minority or underrepresented group because it invites comparisons of success with the large number of unsuccessful blacks in America who are being told the white man won’t let them succeed.

Skeptical Voter said...

One of my late friends was an Assistant Superintendent for the Fresno California school district (one of the largest school districts in California). From the late 70s on, there was a substantial Hmong population in Fresno. They were "different". The girls married very young and the school district had to figure out what to do with pregnant 7th graders. The Hmongs came from an agricultural culture and they were growing crops in or near apartment parking lots. Like other "ethnic groups" with relatively small populations they tended to settle in clusters. There were Hmongs in Fresno--there were Hmong communities in the upper Midwest. They were as "different" from other Asian populations--Japanese, Korean, Indonesian as Swedes are from Spaniards.

The "woke" in this country are idiots.

Richard said...

Hmong are/were hard-ass hill folk, not urbanized Vietnamese or Chinese in the minority middleman position(Sowell) in SEA. Their culture is different, as a result of which their settling into US society has been more difficult.
Bureaucrats of the Diverse Sciences should know this.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Dave Begley said...

Just saw "West Side Story" last night. I highly recommend it. Best Picture of the Year. I gave it a 10. IMDB has it at 8.3.

So you didn't get big mad at the lack of subtitles? Asking for a friend!

Original Mike said...

Link doesn't go to the article (at least for me).

Ceciliahere said...

Yes, If I had to choose between Tom Wolfe v. David Sedaris, It would be Tom Wolfe hands down. Sedaris is funny, but he is neurotic and too self-involved in his humor of observing life. He’s better in small doses. Tom Wolfe’s novels satirize the people who are otherwise untouchable in liberal circles. Wolfe knows how to take the sacred cow and roast it till it’s well-done. And this makes his writing more enduring, interesting and funny in the smartest of ways.

Ceciliahere said...

Oh, and Tom Wolfe had much better taste in clothing. An icon of a dandy i his white suits.

Ceciliahere said...

And Tom Wolfe was a far better dresser than Sedalia. Wolfe was a dapper dandy in his signature white suits.

J Melcher said...

This is also true of "Hispanics" and "Latinos."

Yep. Also, we could separately consider
American Black "Descendents of Slaves" from
American Black "1st through 3rd generation Immigrants from the Carribean" from
American Black "1st through 3rd generation Immigrants Directly From Africa" from
Black Non-Citizen Refugees from Cuba, Haiti, etc. ...

It's true as well for Semi-Black American-Born Dark-Skinned Opportunists:
Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Vijay Chokal-Ingam, Halle Berry, Colin Kaepernick...

Not all individuals claimed by an identity group actually represent the abilities of the group.

Drago said...

Next up for the lefties: labeling anyone who is from anywhere in Asia "Asianx".

Cuz that should do it!

Kevin said...

The data would show specifically if someone was Vietnamese American, or Cambodian American, for example, rather than simply classifying them as Asian.

Like white people before them, Asians need to separate the good groups from the bad.

Without separation, people might think you're all equal.

mikee said...

campy, above, hits the essential point understood by the Founding Fathers. The individual is the ultimate exemplar of diversity, and rights of the individual are used as the limits of collective power of government. Pity this simiple idea has been lost in recent decades. It would resolve sooooo many problems of government and academia.

95% of all real racism could be eliminated overnight by stopping government and academia from racially classifying individuals.

Fernandinande said...

The Hmong are the dumbest Asians who might pass as Han Chinese in appearance.

"In fact, the Hmong didn’t even have a written language before missionaries developed an alphabet in the 1950s."

Static Ping said...

There is no one more racist than the anti-racist.

It also says something that of the quality of people we have in high positions. Our betters are idiots.

Quaestor said...

Leora writes, "Aren't women still under represented in STEM?"

Why should women be represented in STEM at all? Or any field of study or and profession?

Wanna be a recognized scientist, sugarplum? Do the work. Get published. Endure the falsification process.

Using genitalia as a staffing criterion is a recipe for mediocrity.

Richard said...

Isn't being nominated for an award for being a member of an unrepresented group tantamount to saying that you are the best of the worst?

Ambrose said...

Once they are disaggregated, maybe they could wear an identifying badge. Color coding would be handy.

Rocketeer said...

Yay, Balkanization!

Wa St Blogger said...

It occurred to me that American's are an overrepresented group, so no one living in America should get any kind of minority status. Why should you give preference for people who come from the richest nation on earth. They already have a huge advantage.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Asians are the woman sports of the minority hierarchy. Does anybody take them seriously?

Link to relevant Althouse blog post.

effinayright said...

This lady saw how far pretentious claims of "deserving" academic positions based on ethnicity got Liawatha Warren, and decided to go for it.

Smallpox-infested blankets this Christmas for both of them!!

narciso said...

I don't think they needed a formal language till the french came in 1850s

typingtalker said...

Quick! Name all the countries in Asia.

stephen cooper said...

in other news, zero Asian countries cheerfully welcomed ANY refugees at all in EVERY SINGLE YEAR OF THIS WOMAN'S LIFE, while the USA cheerfully welcomed tens of millions of people who came here for a better life.

LA_Bob said...

Original Mike said, "Link doesn't go to the article (at least for me)."

Yes, the link is busted.

retail lawyer said...

Here in San Francisco, the governments are trying to link Pacific Islanders with Asians for some reason. What do these two groups have in common?

MadisonMan said...

The under-represented overlords (White) give, and the under-represented overlords (White) take away. If Yang is a great scholar, she will succeed.

DanTheMan said...

Imagine if the Klan proposed subdividing African Americans by nation of origin...

Narayanan said...

So what are the terminological differences between the School that send in the recommendation and the Institution that turned it down?

was not the School provided the terms before they recommended?

Original Mike said...

Blogger MadisonMan said..."If Yang is a great scholar, she will succeed."

That used to be the case, but that system is under serious attack. If it falls, every one of us loses.

Narayanan said...

Mystery still remains - who is the nominator and the other in the pair? do they both have to be underrepresented?
--
HHMI’s Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study are open to eligible pairs comprising thesis advisers and PhD students (“adviser-student pairs”). Application for the Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study is by invitation only.

Adviser-student pairs from eligible disciplines must be nominated by the HHMI-designated nominator.

Joe Smith said...

'in other news, zero Asian countries cheerfully welcomed ANY refugees at all in EVERY SINGLE YEAR OF THIS WOMAN'S LIFE, while the USA cheerfully welcomed tens of millions of people who came here for a better life.'

So it's true, Asians are smarter than us...

Steven said...

How about we do aggregation rather than disaggregation. One check box for "Human race", one for "Other".

(Anybody who is the latter and can fill out the form on their own gets special treatment. Sorry, human-to-other trans-species does not qualify.)

dwshelf said...

Without separation, people might think you're all equal.

There's the problem. Right there.

Tarrou said...

If only we had a term for generalizing too much on the basis of race and thereby missing the nuance of the individual human?

tim in vermont said...

Asian voters switched the the Republican Party in significant numbers in the NYC mayor's race. Didn't swing the election, of course, but these are the reasons why.

tds said...

redefining diversity buckets in the college admission/employment system seems eerily similar to gerrymandering in the election system. I see voices suggesting putting Asians in the white bucket is an anti-Asian move. But is it?

Let's look at incentives:

- if a group going through a standard admissions process ends up "over-represented" and is therefore cut down to keep the desired diversity, the incentive is to be assigned to a larger bucket which has on average lower admission success.
- if a group has lower admission rates it has the incentive to stay in the separate bucket and probably minimize the number of similar, i.e. low admission rate buckets

being separate and having high test scores Asians have been aggressively cut down what has been documented in e.g. Harvard admissions scandal. Moving them into the white bucket relieves much of the pressure, so we may expect Asians admission rates to actually go up after this move.

I leave for the reader analysis of which other groups will have admission rates going down in this arrangement, which going up, and how the buckets were constructed so far. The extra bonus of course is that the topic of discriminating against Asians will disappear.

mikee said...

Ferdinande, "dumb" Hmong were simply isolated and living almost a stone age existence before the Vietnam War era. That means they were successful in living in mountainous jungles without our modern technology, medicine, or even a written language. Any of us might find it very challenging (impossible) to do the same. Prehistoric life wasn't lived by dumb people. It was lived by people as smart as you or I, whose environment lacked what ours has.

This woman's success should have indicated that to you, since she accomplished her academic standing while being of Hmong ethnicity.

Gabriel said...

I was told this 10 years ago when I worked in the University of Wisconsin System, that you couldn't include Hmong in any sort of STEM diversity program because "Asians are not underrepresented in STEM". The person telling me that knew all about Hmong and their challenges, but the right box could not be checked, so there it was.

JAORE said...

All whites are the same.
All blacks are the same.
All browns people are the same.
All Asians are the same.
All Muslims
... Jews
... Catholics
... Southerners
... Californians
... gun owners

Filed under things the left have failed to reach me.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Racism at its "finest"