In an unintentional stinging rebuke to the idea that institutional racism exists in America, Vijay Chokal-Ingam, brother of The Mindy Project actress Mindy Kaling, admits that he faked being black so he could get into medical school.
Writing in The New York Post, Chokal-Ingam states that he was a model student in high school before joining a fraternity in college and committing “a great deal of effort to fun.”
Wanting to be a doctor, he noticed a friend had been refused acceptance to every medical school despite his good grades and test scores. That prompted him to study “the statistics and data made public by the Association of American Medical Colleges,” which led to a “surprising conclusion. The data suggested that an Indian-American with my grades (3.1 GPA) and test scores (31 MCAT) was unlikely to gain admission to medical school, but an African-American with the same grades and test scores had a high probability of admission.”
Reading about an Indian who lied about his race to gain admission into medical school but got caught because he lied about other things, Chokal-Ingam went a different route:
I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, joined the University of Chicago’s Organization of Black Students (a black friend ran it, knew my scam and got me in) and began applying to medical schools as a black man. I transposed my middle name with my first name and became Jojo, the African-American applicant.
He got wait-listed at the Washington University School of Medicine, then got accepted into the St. Louis University School of Medicine.
Surprise, surprise: “After two years and a lot of soul searching I realized I just wasn’t cut out to be a doctor. I dropped out of medical school …”
Well, that’s cute, since he lied and someone else qualified for medical school was rejected because of him.
Chokal-Ingam criticizes affirmative action – now:
I am not convinced that affirmative action fully benefits the underprivileged. In my application to medical school, I disclosed that my mother was a doctor, my dad an architect, that I drove a nice car, that I didn’t receive financial aid and that I grew up in an affluent section of Boston. I didn’t even say that I was “disadvantaged.” Yet medical schools such as Case Western Reserve University considered me one of their “affirmative-action candidates.”
… affirmative action tends to promote racial resentment and perpetuates negative stereotypes. Some Asian-Americans and whites believe they are the victims of affirmative-action discrimination and can feel resentment about it. Affirmative action also furthers negative stereotypes about the professionalism and competency of African-American, Native American, and Hispanic professionals by making it seem like they need special treatment.
He’s correct, and his story gives the lie to the supposition of “institutional racism” posited by leftists.
If anything, the racism in educational institutions tends to point the other way.