No one in academe will contemplate that some minorities may be underrepresented for a reason. The PC crowd wants to believe that all genders/races/ethnicities are equally talented and gifted in all areas. Imo, that is simply not so.
We can blame to a certain extent the underrepresentation of blacks and hispanics at a place like MIT on the school systems they’ve gone through which are notoriously poor in minority-dominated communities, and on the culture where a black student who strives to achieve is mocked as “acting white.” By the time a serious student from one of those areas survives his/her environment and is ready for higher education, s/he is just not trained well enough to compete against students who have benefitted from rigorous classes starting in kindergarten.
Asians, on the other hand, and as also contrasted with whites, encourage educational excellence in every way possible. I’m convinced Asian kids are given an abacus at birth!
Looking to the gender gap, my daughter went to a magnet science and tech school, recently rated #1 in the nation. Seriously competitive. Last I heard, they send more students to MIT than any other high school. Yet, even there, they strove and strove to get the girls to go into some of the higher science and tech programs. Most just weren’t interested or so inclined. Unlike the aforementioned black or hispanic students, these girls had every educational opportunity available to them, as well as innate ability. Their brains’ wiring led them in other directions.
Yet, the academic world continues the canard that all demographic groups have not only equal gifts and talents, but equal orientation.
MIT finds that it’s yield among women is lower than that among men; in other words, a higher percentage of the men that it accepts actually take them up on it and show up (i.e., “matriculate”) than that of the women it accepts.