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‘Affirmative action is legalised racism’: Indian American who pretended to be black speaks out
Vijay Jojo Chokal Ingam scammed his way into a medical college by checking ‘BLACK’ on the race identity section
Vijay Jojo Chokal Ingam was a BA in Economics student at the University of Chicago who only just managed to earn a 3.1 GPA. There was no chance he would be accepted at any American medical college.
However, determined to get admission into one of these famed colleges, he scammed his way in. On the race identity section in his medical school applications, the Indian American checked ‘BLACK’.
"I got into Saint Louis University School of Medicine despite the fact that my 3.1 GPA was dramatically lower than the average 3.7 at the time. I got waitlisted at Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania School, the third and fourth best medical schools in America at the time,” Vikay said, according to The Quint.
“I shaved my head. I trimmed my long Indian eyelashes. I joined the organisation of black students and I applied to medical schools as a black man,” he described.
Unable to keep up with the difficult studies, he dropped out. He later went on to write a book, ‘Almost Black,’ about the fraud he committed.
Vijay is the brother of Mindy Kaling, who was not happy with Vijay telling his story. “Of course, my sister Mindy Kaling jokingly said that I would bring shame on the family by telling my story,” Vijay said.
Of dropping out of the school, Vijay wrote in an article for New York Post, “That made me realize that affirmative action really doesn’t really do anyone any favors. And it’s unfair to those who are excluded even though they were more deserving than those admitted on the basis of race.”
Later in June, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The court ruled that the institutions violated the Fourteenth Amendment and federal civil rights law. The court’s decision ended the practice of overt racial consideration in higher education admissions. Colleges can no longer consider race as a factor in the admissions process in an attempt to ensure there is a diverse student body.
“After the decision, colleges and universities displayed a range of reactions — from reluctant acceptance to outright defiance,” Vijay said. “More than a 100 colleges and universities, including the entire Ivy League, had filed amicus briefs backing Harvard and University of North Carolina’s admission practices, which the court now deemed discriminatory.”
“These schools have collected tens of billions in taxpayer dollars and sent millions of rejection letters to applicants whose only fault may have been their race,” he added.
Vijay has supported the Asian American students, including Indian American students accusing prominent American colleges of “wrongly” rejecting them. “The sad reality is that discrimination in the form of affirmative action hurts Asian Americans specifically including South Asians the worst. For example, someone who applied to medical school with a very mediocre 3.1 GPA and 31 MCAT score had an 18 percent chance as Asian, 28 percent as white, 46 percent as Hispanic and 76 percent as African American,” he said.
"Believe it or not, Asian Americans are the hardest hurt by affirmative action racism,” he added. “Not just the top ranked Universities discriminate against Asian Americans but also the lower ranked universities.”
“What do you call it when you segregate applicants based on race?’’ Vijay previously said, according to New York Post. “It’s a form of legalized racism. It’s the ultimate form of discrimination to assume that one is disadvantaged just because he’s black, Hispanic or Native American."
Vijay has now said he is hopeful that affirmative action will finally be stopped. “I’m encouraged not only by the Supreme Court’s ruling, but by the successful 2020 effort (in which I participated) to defeat California’s Prop. 16, which sought to allow affirmative action at California state institutions, including my beloved alma mater, UCLA,” he said.
