Too white to study medicine

Source

The University of Stellenbosch reversed its decision to grant a pupil a place in medical school - after discovering that she was white, not coloured, as she had mistakenly stated in her online application.

The 18-year-old applicant, who asked that she not be named, achieved six distinctions in her Grade 11 exams and, in September, learnt the university had accepted her application. But, on October 13, Dr Ronel Retief, the head of academic administration, phoned her to verify her race.

So I guess racism is OK when its against white people? Disgusting... When will the people learn that two wrongs dont make a right? How can this kind of racial discrimination be legal in 21st century?

reply to post by Maslo


I guess the idea is if you are white you should be smart enough to provide funding for school yourself?

my bad, i misread the article. Disregard.

reply to post by PrimalRed


Actually it's for school, not scholarships. Scholarships can discriminate anyway they want, but being accepted in to secondary education should only be looking at grades, not what color your skin is or your gender etc.

Originally posted by SilentNoise
reply to post by PrimalRed

 

Actually it's for school, not scholarships. Scholarships can discriminate anyway they want, but being accepted in to secondary education should only be looking at grades, not what color your skin is or your gender etc.

You would think
www.uncf.org...
www.fortworthmace.org...
www.blackstudentfund.org...

Why can't people understand that making such a big issue out of race is only going to perpetuate and exacerbate any racial schism within society ? I know they may have good intentions in filling ''quotas'', but not only is this unfair on an applicant who gained her place on merit, but also completely counter-productive to any society's attempts at quelling racism.

There should be absolutely no need to ever ask the race of an applicant. Whatever happened to the principle of meritocracy ?

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
know they may have good intentions in filling ''quotas'', but not only is this unfair on an applicant who gained her place on merit, but also completely counter-productive to any society's attempts at quelling racism.

There should be absolutely no need to ever ask the race of an applicant. Whatever happened to the principle of meritocracy ?

They have tried that for years the problem is when you hire someone based on qualifications it is called racism.

Doesn't giving minorities an advantage over Caucasians based on nothing but skin color imply racism, because they must not have been smart enough to not be accepted based on their own achievements?

Racism is utterly disgusting in any form - regardless of color.

Oh - and for the genius that replies with "Well now you know how it feels!", no - we don't. Let's keep it that way

reply to post by PrimalRed


It looks like those all have to do with funding, not getting accepted to college/grad school.

Your have to first submit your application along with $100+ for the processing fee.
If you're accepted, you can then attend classes at the university.

The university cares not how you pay them, whether if be by cash, scholarships, loans etc. The only thing the university cares about is if you pay them within the first 2 weeks after classes start.

Aside from all that is wrong with this I think that in most of Europe it's illegal to ask for ones skin tone in any application form.

They probably do select in Europe on whatever country you are from.

reply to post by no special characters


Yes, it is illegal to ask about race in university application forms over here. Race, just like sexual orientation, is a private issue completely unrelated to the educational process.

I am curious how can this even be made into actual legislation - do they have a law that says "racist discrimination is outlawed, except for white people"? Or is what the school is doing illegal, but simply tolerated?

Yeah, the whole race thing has been handled incorrectly. Especially not when it comes to medical school. Getting into college at first kinda makes since for the civil rights act in terms of giving minorities preference... BUT it really should be targeted at helping kids from extremely poor and disadvantaged families (which are often minorities) but not based on race... But when it comes to graduate school, race or background should not be a factor IMO.

The title of the article was used as a way to spark controversy and by not using critical thinking you have continued to twist this into a racial issue.

after discovering that she was white, not colored, as she had mistakenly stated in her online application.

What does this say? Does it say she was denied because she is white? NO it says she was denied because she lied on the application by giving false information. Then if you actually read the source, god forbid you actually click and read, it states

"The decision was taken to safeguard the integrity and fairness of the process in terms of the more than 550 candidates who had not been selected and who, based on merit, were ranked higher."

What this says is they were giving her a leg up because of her race as posted in her application, but because she lied, mistake or not, there were better qualified people for the position at the school.

I see no racism. I see someone lied and got caught and when put back into the qualifying process was found to be less qualified than 550 people. That would move her down on the acceptance list in my book, one for qualifications in regards to the better applicants and two for integrity.

Edit to say: By the way I saw no sources to this information on this article. In my mind this was done to hide the fact the story was twisted in the first place.

Originally posted by Agarta
I see no racism. I see someone lied and got caught and when put back into the qualifying process was found to be less qualified than 550 people. That would move her down on the acceptance list in my book, one for qualifications in regards to the better applicants and two for integrity.

You make a valid observation, and I freely admit that I didn't read the story fully and slightly misconstrued the events.

I thought that the woman in question earnt her place on merit, but was denied it because of her race.

However, this doesn't alter the fact that - if she was actually ''coloured'' - she would have been awarded this position in medical school ahead of 550 more qualified people, solely on the basis of her race.

reply to post by Agarta

What does this say? Does it say she was denied because she is white? NO it says she was denied because she lied on the application by giving false information. Then if you actually read the source, god forbid you actually click and read, it states

Sure... and the KKK never lynched anyone for being black, they lynched people for not being in the KKK.

The teenager told Retief she was white - and was informed this would affect her chances of being admitted to study medicine.

University spokesman Susan van der Merwe said the pupil's selection was reversed after it came to light that the applicant made "a bona fide mistake" on the application form.

"The decision was taken to safeguard the integrity and fairness of the process in terms of the more than 550 candidates who had not been selected and who, based on merit, were ranked higher."

Van der Merwe said Indian candidates, preferably from the Western and Northern Cape and African and coloured candidates from all provinces were selected first.

Originally posted by Agarta
I see no racism. I see someone lied and got caught and when put back into the qualifying process was found to be less qualified than 550 people.

So they were prepared to give her a spot over 550 people who were more qualified, solely because of the race she declared to be? And that's not racism, how?

reply to post by Agarta

The title of the article was used as a way to spark controversy and by not using critical thinking you have continued to twist this into a racial issue.

I used the original title, and this is a racial issue.

What does this say? Does it say she was denied because she is white? NO it says she was denied because she lied on the application by giving false information. Then if you actually read the source, god forbid you actually click and read, it states

Since there were 550 people who, based on merit, ranked higher, and still were not accepted because of their race, its clear that she would not be accepted if she admitted she is white.

"The decision was taken to safeguard the integrity and fairness of the process in terms of the more than 550 candidates who had not been selected and who, based on merit, were ranked higher."

I see no racism.

Regardless of if she was cheating or not, the mere fact that university entry favors certain races over others, or even takes into consideration such thing as race of the applicant is institutionalised racism, nothing further is required.

One thing that did not sit right with me was this

Van der Merwe said Indian candidates, preferably from the Western and Northern Cape and African and coloured candidates from all provinces were selected first.

What would happen if some group said that black people would be picked last?

its starting to make a lot more sense now why it's been nearly impossible to find a job or even work to further myself in minute ways, I don't want to place all the blame away from myself but it's really starting to clear up a lot.

I live in metro vancouver, looking for jobs i'm searching craigslist. I come across ads ALL THE TIME,
must speak punjabi, must speak mandarin. this is in Canada!! those are not our national languages last time I checked.
they hire their own communities over people like me when we should all just be canadians!!
i'm not the only one who notices either, every single person I come across ends up bringing it up, I can only agree.
they will not assimilate (as much as I hate the idea and word), they refuse to become canadians and choose to stay Chinese or Indian. they are slowly taking over our society