How a white guy got his poem published by changing his name to Yi-Fen Chou

From Hot Air:

A rather strange tale comes across the transom to us today from the rough and tumble world of competitive poetry publishing. (Okay… I confess. I really just wanted to type that sentence.) But putting all snark aside, the Washington Post’s Sarah Kaplan did come up with a rather enlightening news item about the annual publication of the anthology, Best American Poetry.

No! Wait! Come back! I promise, the story gets better.

There is one beleaguered individual, Sherman Alexie, who is responsible for reading thousands of submissions each year and determining which bits of verse should make it into the august publication. This year he was perusing all of the hopefuls when he came across one with the rather odd sounding title, The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve. I don’t know why that would jump out and catch anyone’s eye, but then I’m not that kind of writer. (Ahem.) The poem was authored by someone named Yi-Fen Chou and – long story short – it was included in the anthology.

That’s where things begin to get weird.
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What all of this said to me, though, is that the liberal arts community really is just as much of a mess outside the world of politics as it is in the areas where it intersects with our realm. A free market conservative might ask why the poem doesn’t stand on its own merits no matter what the demographic profile of the author. It’s either good or it’s not, right? Not so in the liberal arts world. The guy couldn’t get the time of day out of publishers when he sounded too white. But when he suddenly became “ethnic” in the mind of the reviewer, he was a hit.

Reality smacks the liberal right between the eyes.

Latino assemblyman -- Asians not ‘people of color’

From CAL Watchdog via Instapundit:

What makes it delicious is that Alejo’s omission of Asian-Americans from “students of color” status so undercuts majority Democrats’ attempts to stop the Latino-Asian rift from growing.

What makes it obnoxious is that Alejo acts as if he holds the moral high ground in advocating for a return to UC admissions policies that punished Asian-American students with de facto quotas — in the name of atoning for white racism.

Racial justice? Social justice?

Well, liberals aren't know for their critical thinking skills.

Affirmative action drama in California

From Thomas Lifson at American Thinker:

Asian-Americans in California are in revolt against an attempt to reinstate affirmative action through a new statewide referendum. Democrats in the California state legislature have been attempting to put such a referendum to voters, reionstating racial preferences which had been banned from all state institutions including the University of California and California State University Systems, ever since the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996.

The ban has decreased black and Hispanic enrollments in the most competitive institutions, while drastically increasing Asian-American enrollments, particularly at the flagship Berkeley and UCLA campuses. However, graduation rates for black and Hispanic students admitted have increased, reducing the tragedy of students admitted to schools they were ill-equipped to compete in, and dropping out before graduation.

I had a debate about Prop 209 in the office with an asian colleague several years ago and he absolutely was for the repeal of the proposition, claiming it to be discriminatory. When I related the facts the number of asian students accepted in Berkeley and UCLA increased, he suddenly thought it wasn't so bad.

He never thought that the good liberals who run these elite colleges would limit the number of asian allowed to attend, since they are a minority. Oops.