In a story elucidating the failings of Affirmative Action, an Indian man who was unable to get accepted into medical school with a 3.1 GPA found success after transforming himself into a black man.
Vijay Chokal-Ingam, brother of now estranged actress/comedian Mindy Kaling, wanted nothing more than to be a doctor back in 1998 but had been rejected by 11 prestigious medical schools until he became ‘Jojo’ the African-American candidate. ‘JoJo’ continued his schooling for 2 years but quit after seeing his Indian friends getting rejected that had higher GPAs.
Vijay is set to publish a book soon on his experience.
He explains on his blog how he prepared:
“So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to medical school as a black man. My change in appearance was so startling that my own fraternity brothers didn’t recognize me at first.
I even joined the Organization of Black Students and started using my embarrassing middle name that I had hidden from all of my friends since I was a 9 years old.”
It worked. He was accepted into St. Louis University School of Medicine:
Chokal-Ignam, who ultimately did not become a doctor, made his feelings about affirmative action clear in a recent tweet:
In an interview with The College Fix, author and University of Michigan professor Carl Cohen agrees and says affirmative action is “damaging for blacks and other minorities”:
“The philosophical justification of democracy rests upon the conviction that all members of some community are equal. In a democracy any preference for a racial group is intolerable.”
Cohen continues:
“Affirmative action has many forms. It can be honorable and right. When it takes the form of outright preference, it is morally wrong and deeply unwise. If preference is what is meant by affirmative action, it should be scrapped entirely, for sure.”
His solution:
“To bolster admission rates we need to provide the education – especially early childhood education!
That will enable minority applicants to succeed on their own merits.”
People Magazine reports that the actress and her brother are estranged. Mindy Kaling has not commented on Chokal-Ingam’s affirmative action application plan.
Anglo Saxon ancestors paid a price too what’s your point how long are blacks gonna try to use slavery as an excuse?
What price did Anglos pay for a mans body his efforts were extracted at the point of a gun enforced with a whip. Tell ya what dude pay me for my ancestors free labor for say 250 years and we’ll call it even and I’ll throw in the Jim Crow .
So much for white privilege. Looks more like black privilege.
Pretty much
Dude, can you tell us the names of your ancestors who us 50 somethings enslaved? I don’t ever remember having any slaves so that makes you just another $#%&!@* with his hand stuck out for a free ride
Holy c**p guys, look up the actual facts of what he did before you start getting all indignant over it.
He didn’t apply to the same schools as Indian and “black” and only got in as black.
Heck, he didn’t even get into most of the schools he applied to. One school accepted him out of over a dozen.
Chris, he said in the article that he quit school because many of his Indian friends who had higher GPAs were not being admitted. It would be hard to not know they were from India because most of them have Indian sounding names.
Darwin, when you trace your ancestors back to slavery, get back to me. There were just as many white indentured servants during that time too. And maybe you need to check your history since the slaves were sold by Blacks from Africa to this country.
Point is, race shouldn’t matter. It should be about his scores. He even pointed out that as a black, he got in whereas his Indian friends with higher scores could not.
You want the world to be equal, then stop dividing people. College entrance should be about scores and grades – not race or gender.