UCSD and Racism

I thought I would use my forum to post a couple comments on a UCSD professor's comments on the Compton Cookout

After a quick introduction, Prof Yang rolls out this,

We have a 1.3% African-American student enrollment, not simply because of poor admissions, but because admitted students don’t choose to come to UCSD. Only about 1.3% of admitted African-American students come to UCSD (compare to 44% at UCLA).

I'll be comparing UCSD to UCLA a lot as
Sentences like these caused Mark Twain to say, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." Gross misuse of statistics without context is intellectual dishonesty and this sentence highlights how statistics can be manipulated to make a point.

I'd love to know the number of white students that attend UCLA, one of the most prestigious universities in the nation, once accepted. UCSD is just not the same as UCLA. Next, let's consider the sample size of the statistic. In 2006 (I'm using 2006 numbers because they were the easiest to find), UCLA admitted 92 total black people. Now, I'm going to subtract 12 people off those 92 for athletic scholarships leaving us with 80 people who choose UCLA for non-athletic reasons. If we assume the 44% rate at which black people choose UCLA, that means only 181 black people applied to UCLA. So the argument that black people are beating down UCLA's door to get in while flatly rejecting UCSD for being racist is false. UCLA is 3% black (with a full D1 athletic department), UCSD is 2% black.

The author goes on and on about the "toxic campus atmosphere" yet fails to provide examples of what makes the campus atmosphere toxic. He offers a couple "solutions," lets look at them now.

1. Implement the Yield Report recommendations. It didn't show on the first page of my google search so skipped.

2. Put some teeth into the diversity office. Currently, the Chief Diversity Officer is a 50% position with no budget, no staff, and no formal power. Upgrade it to a Vice Chancellorship and equip it with a staff and budget. Such offices at UCLA and UC Berkeley are able to provide material support for research, teaching, and student affairs. They can take a preventive approach to racial incidents on campus. (This recommendation can also be found on page 10 of the Yield Report.) But don’t stop there. Give this office wide reform powers over all units on the campus, and we will gain at least one institutionalized motor for bridging the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of diversity.

Ok, So we should laugh that he considers an office that would somehow magically prevent racial incidents a solution "with teeth." I'd like to know what the office planned to do if they knew about the Compton Cookout, an off campus non-affiliated party, beforehand. What would they have done? Started the protests a couple days early? Theres nothing this office would have been able to do which is why it's so dumb to tout this as a "solution."

4. Create a committed commission on campus climate.
This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where the townspeople are mad about something and the mayor promises to form a commission and Marge excitedly asks, "A blue ribbon commission?!?!" Yeah, a commission will do as much as the Diversity office to prevent racial incidents.

The claim I would like answered is where is all this evidence of institutionalized racism within UCSD? If you're going to claim UCSD has a pattern of racism, where and when? What did the university do wrong? What opportunities were missed? Yes, people made a racist joke but people everywhere make racial jokes. People notice race and highlight the differences between them and do make jokes about it. Take a deep breath and relax.

I just don't see any examples of the university creating a toxic atmosphere or messing up in any way.

China's Empty City

China's Empty City

This story is very strange and I'm really struggling wrapping my mind around all the angles to consider.

China is currently undertaking a very interesting economic program/social experiment. The went to the middle of nowhere and built the infrastructure for a million resident city. The thing is, no one is living there except the government construction workers building the city. They named the city "Ordos" which is not so coincidentally the same name as another city of Ordos 30 miles away which is very weird considering the original Ordos City isn't a slum, it's a pretty nice functioning city. No one outside of China really seems to know what's going on. All the residences are purchased and accounted by investors who don't plan to live there. The prices of these residences are too high for commoners in China to rent. No one is actually going to move there until there is a economy that can employ them and give them shopping malls and restaurants etc. but no one is going to open up shops in an empty city. Quite the dilemma.


What to do now is the bigger question. Eventually they are going to have to get people to move there but how? I think the government is going to have to essentially "bribe" store owners to open stores in the empty city and eventually people will trickle in if there are shops. I wouldn't be surprised if large tax incentives are offered to businesses who move operations to the new Ordos City.

What's even more interesting is why China would undertake such an expensive project. From the video you can tell China is very proud of it's 8% GDP growth rate. When the economy turned sour 16 months ago, China introduced their own stimulus (a very modest one compared to America's trillion dollar plan) to try to sustain growth and so they just started building. This is politics getting in the way of rational decision making at it's worst. Even though China is officially communist, it most certainly runs a capitalist economy. The GDP grows and shrinks naturally, that's just the way it is. Spending a gigantic sum of money on such a dubious plan will eventually catch up to the government if these types of decisions continue.

When I first saw the story I thought, this is the most retarded plan I've ever heard of. But after having thought about it, I still think its a bad plan but I'm trying to see it from an optimists viewpoint. This is the chance to plan a perfect city and not have to worry about inconveniencing people living there. Think about the concept of one way streets, everyone hates them but they exist because it was the best way to move traffic when cities got so big and it was impossible to knock down buildings and houses to widen the streets because, you know, people were there. This is basically a giant game of Sim City, a blank canvas. If China can successfully get people to migrate to Ordos City, it'll be interesting to watch what unfolds in a perfect city. If they can find a way to fill the city with limited additional expense, I still think it will be hard to justify the investment, but its at the very least an interesting idea.

I really don't have anything else to add, we'll have to see how long it takes to become a real city and if the benefits will ever catch up to the cost.