Feeling Somewhat Embarrassed

Link to Carolyn Chen's article, "Asians: Too Smart for Their Own Good?" 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/opinion/asians-too-smart-for-their-own-good.html?ref=contributors

       In Carolyn Chen’s opinion piece, “Asians: Too Smart for Their Own Good?”, from New York Times, the author explains that colleges select their students based on their race, and that they generally admit Asian-Americans. But she is stating that the Asian-Americans feel ashamed of their identity. Chen uses logos to support her claim in paragraph two when she writes, “Asian-Americans constitute 5.6 percent of the nation’s population but 12 to 18 percent of the student body at Ivy League schools.” This is basically saying that there are many Asian-Americans in Ivy League schools... duh.

       Chen also uses pathos to support her claim in paragraph eight when she says “...students tell me that they feel ashamed of their identity - that they feel viewed as a faceless bunch of geeks... When they succeed, their peers chalk it up to ‘being Asian.’” I think what the author is trying to state here is that not all Asian-Americans are the same. We can’t expect all of them to grow up and have very successful jobs as engineers, doctors, etc.

       My opinion on this topic is just like Chen’s. If colleges are only looking into admitting more Asian-Americans and not everyone else, then “we are sending a message to all the students that hard work and good grades may be a fool’s errand.” I agree with her when she states that “we are now stigmatizing their [immigrants from places like Taiwan,  South Korea and India] children for inheriting their parents’ work ethic and faith in a good education. How self-defeating.” I feel like the United States is being hypocritical over this whole issue. We let them into our country because they were very smart and very successful at their jobs. But now we are characterizing these immigrants as disgraceful or ignominious? Those ‘titles’ should go to us. South Korea was ranked with best education in the world after Finland in the Global Education Ranking. The United States was ranked in 17th place and rated ‘average.’ In a way, I feel somewhat embarrassed.