Reflections on my admission (to Harvard)

As I prepare to enter the job market, I think back to my college applications. Like many of my classmates, I applied to Harvard on a whim, without particularly wanting or expecting to come here.

Apparently, they liked something about me. Between my high school documentary and my sarcastic admissions essay (mocking the stereotypical admissions essay), maybe they saw me as a rebel. Did they expect me to challenge the status quo? Did the admissions officers predict that I would become president of a student organization on campus, and then leader of a nonprofit? Have I lived up to whatever potential they saw in me?

Or, on the other hand, did they predict that my big dreams would become modest ambitions? That I would put in three “social justice” hours a week, and take a comfortable job after graduation?

Either way, it’s not in their hands. It’s up to me, and in some ways that’s harder to face. The admissions officers gave me a place to loiter for four years, in the hopes that it would be an enriching experience. Or that, at the very least, I wouldn’t screw up their statistics too badly.

Now I need to get myself somewhere.

Musing: Fed up with identity politics

I have a love-hate relationship with French colorblindness. On one hand, not taking racial statistics creates challenges in being able to fight discrimination and identify social problems. (Who are we discriminating against? It's racism...but you can't talk about their race. We don't have those.) In France, refusing to talk about race often means ignoring the problems.

On the other hand, Americans can get bogged down with identity politics. In conversations, we tailor what we say to our audience, taking into account things like race, afraid of being un-PC and offending someone. In academics, Black people study Black people, Asian Americans study Asian Americans, and so forth for every axe of identity. Studying a group that you do not belong to is not common. It has to do with credibility, authenticity, legitimacy, and personal interest.

White people in France studying minorities with a postcolonial lens is *not* the solution, but have we gone too far in the other extreme?