The Psychological Impact of a Less Racially Diverse Campus

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Although the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling ending race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions did not come as a surprise, I was surprised by the magnitude of sadness I felt when it was announced.

Like many Asian Americans, these cases in front of the Supreme Court put me in an awkward position of being a minority pitted against other minority groups. It holds a place in my personal history as well; as an immigrant to the United States, I did not speak any English until I was eight (and certainly was not fluent until nine or ten), and my family relied on food stamps for a time. I attended an elite public high school and was accepted into Stanford University in the early 1980s, possibly with the benefit of a type of affirmative action.

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Non-Race-Conscious vs More Holistic Criteria

In recent years, mirroring the cases before the Supreme Court, the battle over admissions criteria at the high school I attended has consumed and divided the Asian American community. It has devolved into bitter fights and name-calling between those in favor of using only test scores and grades and those who advocated a more holistic approach—in order to achieve greater racial diversity. I understood where both sides were coming from.

Working-class immigrant parents like mine always knew they would not get a fair shake when it comes to being judged, especially when the criteria may hold some degree of subjectivity—when it requires social skills or humor, all the things that are inherently culture-bound.

They push their children toward engineering or medicine because success in those fields is measured by hard numbers. Did you get the right answer, yes or no? If you did, no one can dispute it. Their preferred admission criteria, GPA plus standardized test scores, are concrete, objective measures. If you get a certain score, you get in. It doesn’t matter if people don't quite respect you.

Cross-Racial Communication

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When I was applying to college, I remember being interviewed by a Harvard University alum at his home. (Nowadays interviews would not be conducted in someone’s home, but that was the standard then). I was barely seventeen, working class, taking the bus and entering the home of this white, middle-aged man by myself. I was wearing corduroy pants and a Fair Isle sweater. (Was I trying to dress preppy?)

I clearly remember how awkward and uncomfortable I felt: Should I accept the water or the coffee? Look him in the eye? Laugh? Where is that witty reply? Cross-cultural interactions, because they hinge upon different norms, are rife with misinterpretations. It did not surprise me at all that interviewers, who are typically White, might rate Asian Americans lower than White candidates on their "personality."

Bridging Cultural Differences

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But the way to cross that bridge is by interacting with people who are different. A plethora of research has shown that interacting with people from different racial backgrounds breaks down stereotypes (e.g., "they are all this way" or "they all look the same'), stimulates more complex thought processes, and promotes greater empathy.

Recent studies have found that in a racially diverse college environment, positive effects not only include an exchange of information but also higher cognitive complexity in participants across racial backgrounds.

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As a third grader still new to the U.S., in San Francisco, I was bused from Chinatown to a school in the Mission District, a sun-splashed neighborhood of working-class White, Latino, and Black families. On Fridays, the teacher would take us to nearby Dolores Park to picnic and listen to the jam of conga players. My classes were very racially balanced, and I felt a sense of magic and transcendence being with people that were so different from me. As an adult, I have always thought of that experience as the foundation of my own multicultural awareness.

As a professor, I taught a course called Psychology of Social Change and Reflection, in which I asked students in one assignment to cross social boundaries and write about it. They were asked to go to a social setting that was unfamiliar to them and note their reactions (within safe boundaries); for example, a gathering of a different culture, ethnicity, religion, or educational status. Over the years, I still have former students—of many different racial backgrounds—who come up to me and marvel at how this assignment changed their worldview.

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So what about throwing out any consideration of race in selective high school and college admissions? It will surely lead to less racially diverse educational settings.

And the growing homogeneity will have cognitive, developmental, and social consequences for everyone. However, mostly I think about all the joy that comes from interacting with people different from ourselves that will be missed.