Vijay Jojo Chokal Ingam got into med school by pretending to be black, (Credit: Almost Black)
Posted on 07/09/2023 7:19:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Vijay Jojo Chokal Ingam got into med school by pretending to be black, (Credit: Almost Black)
Vijay Jojo Chokal Ingam, brother of Hollywood actress Mindy Kaling, claims he pretended to be black to gain acceptance into medical school despite only so-so grades. He released a book in 2016 called “Almost Black: The True Story of How I Got Into Medical School By Pretending to Be Black” describing his winning strategy and the details of how he pulled it off.
On Sunday, he dropped an op-ed for the NY Post saying that he thinks that the Supreme Court got it right with their recent affirmative action decision but colleges and universities will likely try to find a way around it.
First, his backstory:
I know first-hand why Americans should make sure [that the SCOTUS ruling is enforced.]
Back in 1998, I knew my odds of getting into medical school, as an Indian-American, would be better if I were black.
So, being dark-skinned, I pretended I was black — and got accepted, despite a mediocre 3.1 GPA.
He didn’t last long, though:
Once there, though, I found the going rough and dropped out.
That made me realize that affirmative action really doesn’t really do anyone any favors.
And it’s unfair to those who are excluded even though they were more deserving than those admitted on the basis of race.
His last sentence is quite simple, and yet it sums up the whole debate neatly.
Here’s a video hyping his 2016 book explaining how he altered his appearance and name and how his life changed because of it:
Ingam agrees with the Supreme Court ruling, but he notes the things could still get difficult ahead:
The Supreme Court’s decision banning college-admission based on race was a good first step, but the challenge now is to see that schools abide by it.
Indeed, no sooner did the court rule than President Joe Biden vowed not to let the decision “be the last word.”
Ingam is concerned that schools and universities will find tricks and workarounds to basically ignore the Court’s verdict. Many were obviously enraged by the end of affirmative action, as he points out:
After the decision, colleges and universities displayed a range of reactions — from reluctant acceptance to outright defiance.
More than a 100 colleges and universities, including the entire Ivy League, had filed amicus briefs backing Harvard and University of North Carolina’s admission practices, which the court now deemed discriminatory.
These schools have collected tens of billions in taxpayer dollars and sent millions of rejection letters to applicants whose only fault may have been their race.
He goes on to explain that schools will likely resort to tactics like one already uncovered by the advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). They will find other traits besides race to ensure that merit is not the only factor in deciding who gets in:
In the case against Harvard, SFFA’s attorneys unearthed the school’s use of “positive personality traits” as a guise for Harvard’s affirmative-action admission practices.
Theoretically, schools that had endorsed affirmative action could continue to cloak such discriminatory practices in defiance of the court. They could employ stealthy, complex admissions algorithms that make it hard to identify their illegal scheme.
Gauging the sincerity of commitments to comply and scrap these practices will indeed be a formidable task.
Ingam has an interesting story to tell, and he’s right that colleges and universities will fight this tooth and nail and probably come up with some ethically-dubious workarounds. That would be a bad thing because, as he writes, “Americans will be better off when we no longer have to worry about legally sanctioned discrimination — against people of any race.”
I’m sure Mindy won’t be happy.
This guy had a lower GPA then I did. He had no business being in Med School in the first place.
Occasionally you run into minority children who, usually because their parents or guardians decided to move them to a school that actually teaches, start getting good grades.
The problem is that when they start running in the upper levels of the pack grade wise they start getting attention from the people who want to promote them to serve an agenda.
They want them to be "collage bound" even if the child is not really interested, and it needs to be a "name" collage.
These are the schools that take the top 1% of students. If you are in the top 10% but not the top 1% you will struggle and drop out. Once you drop out you rarely go to a lower tier school and graduate.
He didn't have to use the alias "Barackeisha Boomsheeka Imunique Ne'pha-teria"?
But I’m talking about Shaft!
And he dropped out. That’s why grades and test scores are so important.
I don’t think I could pull that off with my blue eyes
He looks black enough
The trades need to be presented as an option instead of being denigrated.
Not everyone is college material and there is no shame in that.
Many people would be better off learning a useful, income producing skill than graduating with a useless degree, college debt, and no ability to get anything but an entry level job paying almost minimum wage.
What was your GPA, and what were your SAT scores?
Your statement is relevant and meaningful only insofar as we know what your ranking was.
Did you get admitted to medical school?
Regards,
Soul Man.
Who wants to bet that these colleges and universities have detailed stats concerning the fail rate of their “affirmative action” (AKA racism-based) enrollees?
However, who also wants to bet these colleges and universities would rather give up great sums of money and go to court before they would ever let you know the actual failure rate of all these enrollees?
“colleges and universities would rather give up great sums of money and go to court before they would ever let you know the actual failure rate of all these enrollees?”
This is a great example of how a problem can be turned into an opportunity.
We need a million lawsuits to seize all the endowments and every nickel of these leftist indoctrination centers.
“What was your GPA, and what were your SAT scores?”
Who cares?
He could just change his name.
Of course I did not go to med school.
I did not have the grades for it.
If I had wanted Nursing or Pharmacy I had the grades.
My GPA, non-inflated by AP classes, was 3.7. My SAT combined score was above 1350 and below 1400. I was in the top ten percent. But becoming a doctor?
Not a chance.
I had a GPA of 3.86 and was thus seventh in my graduating class (of 500) - likewise not inflated by AP classes (though I was concurrently enrolled in several junior college night classes, just for kicks and giggles); in the late 1970s, that practice had not yet come into widespread use.
My SAT scores were 750 for verbal and 710 for math, which - according to the Wikipedia article on the SAT - would have put me in the top 0.1% of the probands of that era (the scores have to be adjusted for the year in which the tests were administered).
I'm still sure that I would have flunked medical school!
Regards,
Black doctors often practice in the black community. So the most likely people hurt by incompetent black doctors are black citizens.
The question is how will the corrupt press find a way to blame all other racial groups for this style of damage to innocent black citizens.
People act like giving people who are not quite up to the school standards a boost is good for them. It is not, because they can not do the work. A less challenging school and they will excel.
But a high tier school?
You are putting these young people up against kids who have been preparing for collage since pre-school. Their study habits are so ingrained that they do not even think about them any more.
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