Jian Li

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Jian Li (Chinese: 李简, born 1988 in the People's Republic of China) is a Chinese American undergraduate student at Yale University. Li, who holds Chinese citizenship, is a US permanent resident, having immigrated with his family to the United States at age 4. In November 2006, he filed a civil rights complaint with the Office for Civil Rights against Princeton University, claiming that his race played a role in their decision to reject his application for admission, and seeking the suspension of federal financial assistance to the university until it "discontinues discrimination against Asian Americans in all forms" by eliminating race and legacy preferences.[1]

Contents

[edit] Academic background

Li graduated from a public high school in Livingston, New Jersey in the top 1% of his class, having received a perfect score of 2400 on the SAT, as well as perfect or near-perfect scores on SAT Subject Tests in math level 2, physics, and chemistry.[2] His qualifications also included community service in Costa Rica and high rankings in New Jersey's math and physics leagues.[3][4] He applied to nine universities, of which Princeton, Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania rejected him, while Yale, the California Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, and Cooper Union accepted him.

[edit] Filing of complaint

Li came to the decision to file a civil rights complaint against Princeton after reading a study by Princeton researchers[5][6] which claimed that ending affirmative action in university admissions would lead to 80% of placements currently offered to black and Latino students instead being given to Asian Americans.[7][8]

Li filed the complaint to "send a message to the admissions committee to be more cognizant of possible bias, and that the way they're conducting admissions is not equitable."[9] Though Li is not seeking any personal compensation,[10] his complaint calls for the suspension of federal financial assistance to Princeton until it "discontinues discrimination against Asian-Americans in all forms" by eliminating race and legacy preferences.[11]

[edit] Reaction to the case

Li's case received several instances of media attention in late 2006, including coverage in The Wall Street Journal and China's People's Daily,[12] as well as a supportive opinion piece written by Townhall.com columnist Larry Elder.[13] Li also stated that students at Brown University had contacted him in an effort to start a nationwide campus movement to end discrimination against Asian Americans.[14][15] However, student writers were less sympathetic. Li's fellow Yale student Jonathan Pitts-Wiley wrote a column in the The Daily Princetonian which accused him of "unnecessarily racializ[ing] a personal defeat".[16] Later, on January 17, 2007, the Daily Princetonian published, in its annual joke issue, an alleged guest opinion column written in mock Chinglish under the pseudonym "Lian Ji", in which the writer, parodying Li's attitude and experiences, wrote:

"I so good at math and science ... I the super smart Asian. Princeton the super dumb college, not accept me ... My dad from Kung Pao province. I united 500 years of Rice Wars ... I love Yale. Lots of bulldogs here for me to eat."[17]

Campus groups and alumni criticized the student newspaper for the mock article seeing it as expressing anti-Asian bigotry. Vice President for Student Life Janet S. Dickerson stated that "The Prince exercised poor judgment in including offensive material in this year's joke issue."[18] Chanakya Sethi, then editor-in-chief of the Princetonian, wrote a statement of regret two days after the publication of the original article, claiming that the article was an attempt at humor, had no racist intention behind it, and had "provoked serious thought about issues of race, fairness and diversity." He also noted that the editorial board of the Princetonian included several Asians.[19] At least one South Asian student journalist at Harvard expressed his support for Sethi, and accused critics of "constantly pulling [the issue] towards their own prejudices.[20] However, prominent Asian Americans rejected Sethi's explanation. Jeff Yang, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and member of the Asian American Journalists Association, denounced the statement of regret as a "creative nonapology",[21] while author Chang-rae Lee, who also teaches creative writing at Princeton, stated that the article "employed the easiest, basest stereotypes of culture and character and voice for its sensational aims, offering little more than the most juvenile gloss on the issues ... frankly, the piece astounds me not so much for its racism as its stupidity."[22] The controversy was quickly picked up by national newspapers; Li himself characterized the article as "extremely distasteful" in an Associated Press interview, stating that "whoever decided to publish it showed an extreme lapse of judgment".[23]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Golden 2006-11-11
  2. ^ Golden 2006-11-11
  3. ^ Arenson 2007-1-23
  4. ^ Stern 2007-1-28
  5. ^ Espenshade and Chung, 2004 and 2005
  6. ^ Princeton University 2005-06-06
  7. ^ Shea 2006-11-26
  8. ^ Golden 2006-11-11
  9. ^ Elder 2006-12-14
  10. ^ Egan 2007-01-07
  11. ^ Golden 2006-11-11
  12. ^ Tian 2006-11-16
  13. ^ Elder 2006-12-14
  14. ^ Arenson 2007-01-23
  15. ^ Chen 2007-02-09
  16. ^ Shea 2006-11-26
  17. ^ Li 2007-01-17
  18. ^ Isherwood 2007-01-20
  19. ^ Sethi 2007-01-19 (Editorial Statement)
  20. ^ Mahtani 2007-01-22
  21. ^ Yang 2007-01-20
  22. ^ Arenson 2007-01-23
  23. ^ MSNBC 2007-01-21

[edit] Sources

v • d • e
Affirmative action in the United States
Supreme Court decisions Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) • Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) • Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
Federal legislation and edicts Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) • Executive Order 10925 (1961) • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Executive Order 11246 (1965)
State initiatives Proposition 209 (CA, 1996) • Initiative 200 (WA, 1998) • Proposal 2 (MI, 2006)
People Ward Connerly • Arthur Fletcher
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