This is part 2 to the piece I shared last week (click here for part 1). Hopefully, reading the full piece will give you a clear picture as to how my perspective changed over time. Hopefully, this second piece closes the circle and provides insight into the first part of the piece.

Again, this is by no means meant to offend anyone. My use of race, ethnicity, gender, etc. is only stated because the point of the piece is that those aspects are brought out and noticed in everyday life. Those aspects are what have allowed for judgment in society.

**Also, disclaimer, the first paragraph states “my cousin could have gotten into great schools.” Something I didn’t know then that I do know is that she did get into great schools regardless of being female in engineering. But, at fourteen, I didn’t know that.**

This is one of my favorite songs, and some may find it a bit cliche given the context of the piece, but here’s Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. And, as always, here’s my not-quite-as-amazing version: Born This Way.

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My family is sitting at the dinner table talking. I’m fourteen, still at the age where other people’s opinions don’t matter to me, where the problems of the world haven’t had an effect on me. My cousin has recently decided to double major in political science and aerospace engineering. “If she had decided to pursue engineering earlier, she could’ve gotten into great schools,” one of my parents comments. I wonder why that is, but the explanation comes soon after: she is a female and not many pursue engineering. Colleges want more females in STEM fields. It’s interesting how colleges try to initiate equality in their schools, but in doing so, end up isolating students by gender and color. They want more females in STEM fields so they can show others that women can do anything they want, but they have to make an effort to recruit females. Females won’t just be accepted on their own merit, but accepted because they are female.

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Flash forward to four years later. I am filling out my Common Application alone. I sit at my wooden desk with the computer in front of me, tediously checking all the boxes and filling in the blanks. Are you Hispanic or Latino? No. Regardless of your answer to the previous question, please indicate how you identify yourself. (Select one or more) Asian.

A month later I sit on the couch with my mom, reviewing the application and making sure I didn’t leave any details out. She sees my answers to these questions about race. “Don’t answer anything that doesn’t have a star next to it. You don’t have to.” I proceed in clearing all the boxes. “Won’t they be able to tell by my name anyway?” “Yes, but don’t do what you don’t have to.”

Colleges look for diversity. They look at your race. You are worth looking at if you have high grades, lots of extracurriculars, and good test scores. But race is also a factor. Case in point: affirmative action. Affirmative action is a policy favoring those who often suffer from discrimination. In this case, it means underrepresented minorities, like African Americans and Hispanics, are given special consideration in college admissions. Colleges want a well-rounded class, so they will claim diversity by specifically admitting minorities. They are trying to balance out the ethnicities. But at the same time, colleges are hurting Asian Americans and Caucasians. People like me no longer have as a good of a shot at getting to great colleges because we will not broaden a college’s diversity. Take Harvard, for example, a school that promises diversity. For the class of 2021, 14.6% admitted were African American, 11.6% were Hispanic/Latino, and 22.2% were Asian American. Asians made up almost twice the population of Hispanics/Latinos. So in order to achieve well-rounded diversity, why would Harvard accept any more Asians? They wouldn’t. They would look for more minorities.

In this, colleges are judging applicants. By seeing the marked race/ethnicity, colleges will try to see how you fit into their campus. That’s not to say academics don’t matter, but they are viewed very differently. In a Princeton study done in 2009, researchers found Asian-Americans had to score 140 points higher on the SATs than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics, and 450 points higher than blacks to have the same chance of admission at top universities. So academics do matter, but they are tied to race. Throughout my high school years I believed I was being judged for my appearance, I didn’t realize I could also be judged on paper. I didn’t realize that being a female in the computer science field could help me and being an Asian could hurt me.

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Over time as a society, we have faced many changes, from allowing women to vote to electing our first African American president. Although judgment is inevitable, why is it that perceptions have not changed although times have? Why is it fascinating when a female is the first woman nominated by a major party for presidency or when a transgendered woman becomes the first to serve in a state legislature? Is it not normal for a human to take office? Why define them as female or transgendered instead of just candidates?

This classification results from repeated judgment. When we categorize someone as female or transgendered or African American or Muslim, we are automatically stereotyping them and associating them with specific characteristics. Imagine I told you my friend was African American. How would you describe him/her? Would you immediately assume she was in my AP Chemistry class and was smart? Would you think she was probably a good singer or he was a good basketball player? Would you imagine he was well-off? Any assumption made, whether good or bad, is judgment on a person you don’t know. This automatic affiliation with certain characteristics is what leads us in making further judgments. If we stopped ourselves from categorizing, we would just look at people as simply human.

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Although Psychology Today claims judgment is natural and inevitable, the process to fix prejudices must be obtainable. I think to a certain degree, judgment will always come from a lack of acceptance, and that can only be changed by humans themselves. We judge because we can’t help it, as scientifically stated, but we also judge because then we feel better about ourselves. We judge because we have to determine who fits into our social group and our society as a whole. We judge because gender, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation are categories that people can split themselves up into. If we didn’t want to judge people, we wouldn’t find differences using words like male or female, gay or straight.

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Classification of people began in 400 BCE, but only by language, religion, and culture. These differences are actually important and should be pointed out for further human interaction. They were based on social standing and ease of communication instead of appearance. They described the people’s identities inside, English by heart or Christian by belief, and not the outer appearance. Classification by appearance began in 1680 CE as early settlers of North American colonies called themselves “white” instead of “English” or “French.” When categorization by culture is used, it is deemed more acceptable because one understands where a person came from and how he/she lives. When categorization by appearance and skin color occurs, one is merely associating a person to certain characteristics and qualities that may be formed from reputation or prejudice.

So although classification words came about hundreds of years ago, the idea is that judgment has always been prominent. Why everyone judges and is judged may be instinctive, but the reasoning behind it is questionable. This judgment has always led me to be cautious, insecure, careful. One thing out of line in my clothes, appearance, voice, and I know I will be judged. “You won’t be judged in this room. No one cares about your mistakes,” my chorus teacher would say in my lesson. As a freshman, I didn’t believe him and was always scared to sing solo. No one is never not judging. Someone is always watching. As a senior, although I am still scared, I now know the difference between someone purposefully judging and someone being human and instinctively judging. Even if I instinctively judge, I believe it is my obligation to stop myself from making further assumptions once I realize what I am doing. I believe it is in my control to keep an open mind and forget previous prejudices in order to understand a person and move forward as a person.

 

Research:

https://www.livescience.com/54281-amoeba-definition.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/201610/why-is-it-impossible-not-judge-people

teacher.scholastic.com/rosa/sittingdown.htm

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/kristin-jenkins/story-race-and-classification-people-generative-or-not

https://oureverydaylife.com/stereotyping-affect-relationships-40562.html

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/rosa-parks

https://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/white-students-unfair-advantage-in-admissions.html

https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics