37个国家，1700万平方英里，300多万居民。借用经常被引用的电影《王牌播音员》(Anchorman)中的一句话，亚洲大陆“有点了不起”。然而在美国，我们倾向于将来自这片广袤大陆的广泛人群简化为“亚洲人”，忽视了亚洲大陆不同地区之间经常存在的严重文化、经济和社会差异。这种人口过度概括的趋势甚至出现在高等教育中。经过多年的努力，美国各地的大学都在为校园带来更大的种族和文化多样性，不断招收大量亚裔美国人参加新生课程。不可否认的是，亚裔学生不再是美国大学体系中代表性不足的少数族裔。举个极端的例子，2007年春季入学的加州大学伯克利分校(University of California-Berkeley)本科生中，43.3%被归为亚裔/亚裔美国人/太平洋岛民。然而，现在仍有一些人在大学申请中进一步区分不同的亚洲种族和民族。在我们看来，他们的抱怨似乎是合理的:一个富裕的第三代华裔美国人和一个经济上处于劣势的柬埔寨难民的第一代孩子之间，肯定是有区别的。因此，“亚洲人”这个笼统的标签太宽泛了，可能会限制某些群体被大学录取和获得必要的经济资助的机会。但是，尽管把宽泛的种族分类再细分似乎更公平，如果一个人口被细分为许多不同的国家和民族群体，那么其他人口不应该也被细分为许多不同的民族和民族群体吗? As long as we distinguish Chinese-Americans from Laotian-Americans, then it is only fair to distinguish Panamanian-Americans from Mexican-Americans and Scottish-Americans from Irish-Americans. You can already see where this is going – the different ethnic permutations are boundless. Think about how overwhelmed you felt writing the essays and personal statements for your college applications. Well, just think how much more overwhelming the whole process would be if you had to go through pages of check boxes of ethnic and racial potpourri in the personal information section.\nComplicated, huh? The debate over the role that ethnicity should play in college admissions has always been controversial, and making these further differentiations, while more egalitarian, is extremely impractical and might make matters worse. So instead of relying on an applicant’s national or racial heritage alone, schools need to take a serious look at his or her economic standing – because the ethnic playing field has been somewhat leveled, this might be a more accurate indicator of who is or isn’t “disadvantaged.” Because many immigrants come to the United States seeking economic opportunity, it might turn out that national heritage and economic standing line up anyway. \nThe composition of the American population is constantly in flux, and since higher education is often the gateway to a social mobility and a higher standard of living, colleges need to remain flexible, be aware of these changes and avoid generalizations. \nChinese does not equal Japanese does not equal Burmese. To open our minds, maybe we should begin by opening an atlas.
