Vijay Chokal-Ingam, brother of Fox star Vera Mindy Chokalingam (known professionally as Mindy Kaling), says he pretended to be African American in 1998-99 in order to gain admission to medical school:
In my junior year of college, I realized that I didn’t have the grades or test scores to get into medical school, at least not as an Indian-American.
Still, I was determined to become a doctor and I knew that admission standards for certain minorities under affirmative action were, let’s say… less stringent?
So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to medical school as a black man. My change in appearance was so startling that my own fraternity brother didn’t recognize me at first. I even joined the Organization of Black Students and started using my embarrassing middle name that I had hidden from all of my friends since I was a 9 years old.
Vijay the Indian-American frat boy become Jojo the African American Affirmative Action applicant to medical school.
Here’s his American Medical College Application Service application.
And here’s his Twitter profile pic:
According to his website, he pulled it off: Despite a mediocre grade point average and MCAT score, the St. Louis University School of Medicine admitted him.
At this point, “Jojo” could have declined admission and revealed his ruse, helping to call attention to the adverse effects of racial preferences on Asians and the potentially deadly effects of racial preferences in medicine. Instead, he matriculated, presumably taking a slot from a bona fide black student who had even less impressive academic credentials than him.
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Chokal-Ingam dropped out after several years.
He isn’t sorry, and remains a vocal critic of race-based affirmative action. Here he suggests that if everyone else lied about their race, the whole system of racial preferences would come crashing down:
Palm Beach County's #affirmativeaction program: If everyone lied about their race like me, it wouldn't work! http://t.co/zvT3MoHKo7
— Vijay Chokal-Ingam (@VijayIngam) March 14, 2015
Now Chokal-Ingam offers interview preparation and resume writing services in Los Angeles. He is hoping to write a book, “Almost Black,” about his experience applying to medical schools. It will be interesting to see if a mainstream publisher is willing to take this on.
Related:
Rejected Asian students sue Harvard over admissions that favor other minorities
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