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A review by lpm100
Almost Black: The True Story of How I Got Into Medical School by Pretending to Be Black by Vijay Jojo Chokal-Ingam, Matthew Scott Hansen
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
2.0
Book Review
Almost Black
2/5 stars
"Some interesting thoughts, but not a keeper"
********
Of the book:
-327 pps/36 chapters≈ 9.1pps/chapter
-No index
-No bibliography (forgiveable)
-NEEDS AN EDITOR (its ≠it's)
-5~6 hours reading time
The best part of this book was the attributed quotes at the beginning of every chapter.
Our author decided to pull a confidence trick and see if he could get into medical school with only mediocre medical scores if he posed as black.
The fine print is that:
1. This book was written in 2017 about events that happened in about 1998. (A book written 6 years ago about something that happened 25 years ago.) It may be that after the recent supreme Court rulings that all of this book is meaningless/ historical color from a different era.
2. It was written by some extremely atypical, Americanized Indians. (Most Indians get married by arranged marriage, even Stateside; I've NEVER heard of any of them having children out of wedlock. But, Jojo appears to be unmarried with no children and his sister is a babymama with two children named "Catherine" and "Spencer" and no father identified/in sight.)
3. His undergraduate grades and test scores just may have had external validity; he finally managed to get in the medical school, but he did not stay.
*******
1. The ineluctable conclusion (in spite of this author's left-wing bent) is that there just are not as many blacks of high cognitive ability as there are whites/Asians--and that educational institutions will lower their standards in order to get them there.
2. It may be even worse than it seems, because: the goal of medical schools was to get 3,000 black people enrolled in medical schools, and as I look at an article written just in 2021, they haven't even gotten close.
3. I don't want to make it look worse than it is, but there's not only the issue of getting in medical school.... But STAYING in medical school. As well as passing your boards and getting a residency. (Remember that our author did get in with the grades of what may have been a more typical black person, but he did not stay; if he could not, then what percentage of blacks actually manage to finish?)
4. The author is sanctimonious in ONLY the way that Clueless White People can be
a. (~p.182) He claims being stopped by the police for driving while black. In reality, a hugely disproportionate amount of violent crime and theft really are done by black people. (You been to Chicago / Detroit / Baltimore lately?)
A rational officer would look in the places that are most likely to have crime. The author's popcorn psychoanalysis that: "Racists are small-minded, fearful people driven by the desperate need to blame others for what they see as their lot in life" just is not accurate in this case.
Maybe these people really are just aware of their surroundings and responding appropriately.
b. (p.211) Jojo talks about being physically ejected from a store by security. But, if you actually work a shift or two as a cashier (I have), then you will see that 99.9% of your retail theft is black people. (Seems like every time there's some kind of civil protest by some black people it immediately turns into a bunch of looting. I wonder if it was a looting exercise that turned into a civil protest or the other way around?)
5. I have a hard time believing some of Jojo's, um, romantic assertions. The first thing is that this guy looks like Shri Thanedar (emphatically not the epitome of sexiness).
And he's talking about these nice looking Persian women that are interested in him, but..... Middle Eastern people prefer to marry lighter than darker. (When is the last time you saw an Arab or a Persian woman with a black guy?)
He's also talking about the play that he got as a black guy.
And, I guess a lot of black guys can be expected to get a lot of play in the case that:
i. They're an athlete/musician / other celebrity;
ii. They're a normal guy, but interested in White Baby Elephants.
*******
Other thoughts:
1. This book was pretty easy to read, in the author had an impressive memory for names and conversations.
2. Okay to read, but not worth a reread.
The humor was sometimes good, sometimes labored and the author was just too cocky.
3. One would think that he would have been more judicious with his choice of presentation given the negative perceptions of frat boys. (If he could have afforded her speaking fee with all of the money that he bragged about his parents having, he should have hired somebody like Ann Coulter to help him craft a funny book. Her humor never gets stale.)
Also the fact that he was a wealthy but lazy f-off really did not help us readers to be sympathetic.
4. He got lots of interviews from lots of different schools, and he shared the letters with us (ordinarily you would not be able to get all of them in one place).
The general pattern was that they got him there for an interview, and figured out that he was not black and didn't say anything - - they just put him on the waiting list and let the application die.
(As an aside: I don't know how anybody could mistake the author for a black guy.)
I know what Tamil Indians look like when I see them because I have seen so many, and I could probably have guessed who he was from a distance of 500 ft.
What must other black people have thought when they saw him?
For that matter, with the desperation of Indians to get into medical school, is this really the first time this trick has been played? (And with the last name like "Chokalingam," how long could it have stayed a secret? If he had applied with the last name like Jackson or Washington--90% black--he might have been able to fool someone.)
5. It's also interesting that it seems like they put a lot of black people at medical schools at work trying to recruit other black people. (Some of them are actual physicians, but others are just EdDs.) This was a joke that one of my professors told me that: "It seems like every time they have guys like you complete a PhD, instead of having them do original research they write grants to recruit other guys that look like you."
6. Only for deeper thinkers is affirmative action actually detrimental to blacks; EVERY TIME there is some odd black person in a professional position, it's going to be impossible for him to prove that he is as smart as anybody else and was not an "affirmative action admit."
I can see at least one of the characters in this book developing a hatred for black people because of their perceived unfair advantages. (So that's why I have such weird experiences with Asian indians!)
And then you multiply that by a million other Asian/Indian kids that are trying to get in the medical school who feel that they have been treated unfairly, and see what it adds up to. ("Affirmative Action, an International Comparison," by Thomas Sowell has shown how neighbors can be turned into bitter enemies over racial "balancing" policies. In many countries in the world.)
Verdict: not recommended at the price of more than $4.
*******
Quotes:
1. If you're not failing now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.
2. Warfare is the art of deception.
3. At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning.
4. If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner
5. Be sure that whatever you are is you.
6. Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no fibs.
7. Abandon hope all ye who enter here
8. Healing is a matter of time, but it's sometimes similarly a matter of opportunity.
9. Men still have to be governed by deception.
10. Guard yourself from lying semicolon there is he who deceives and there is he who is deceived.
11. The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
12. History is a bunch of lies we have all agreed upon.
13. Never try to win by force what can be won by deception.
14. If you want to trick the world, tell the truth.
15. Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.
16. The main difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives.
17. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
18. Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.
19. It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
20. Maybe the falcon was trying to tell the falcon or something he didn't know. (Author's quip. Riff on a William Butler Yates' "The Second Coming.")
Almost Black
2/5 stars
"Some interesting thoughts, but not a keeper"
********
Of the book:
-327 pps/36 chapters≈ 9.1pps/chapter
-No index
-No bibliography (forgiveable)
-NEEDS AN EDITOR (its ≠it's)
-5~6 hours reading time
The best part of this book was the attributed quotes at the beginning of every chapter.
Our author decided to pull a confidence trick and see if he could get into medical school with only mediocre medical scores if he posed as black.
The fine print is that:
1. This book was written in 2017 about events that happened in about 1998. (A book written 6 years ago about something that happened 25 years ago.) It may be that after the recent supreme Court rulings that all of this book is meaningless/ historical color from a different era.
2. It was written by some extremely atypical, Americanized Indians. (Most Indians get married by arranged marriage, even Stateside; I've NEVER heard of any of them having children out of wedlock. But, Jojo appears to be unmarried with no children and his sister is a babymama with two children named "Catherine" and "Spencer" and no father identified/in sight.)
3. His undergraduate grades and test scores just may have had external validity; he finally managed to get in the medical school, but he did not stay.
*******
1. The ineluctable conclusion (in spite of this author's left-wing bent) is that there just are not as many blacks of high cognitive ability as there are whites/Asians--and that educational institutions will lower their standards in order to get them there.
2. It may be even worse than it seems, because: the goal of medical schools was to get 3,000 black people enrolled in medical schools, and as I look at an article written just in 2021, they haven't even gotten close.
3. I don't want to make it look worse than it is, but there's not only the issue of getting in medical school.... But STAYING in medical school. As well as passing your boards and getting a residency. (Remember that our author did get in with the grades of what may have been a more typical black person, but he did not stay; if he could not, then what percentage of blacks actually manage to finish?)
4. The author is sanctimonious in ONLY the way that Clueless White People can be
a. (~p.182) He claims being stopped by the police for driving while black. In reality, a hugely disproportionate amount of violent crime and theft really are done by black people. (You been to Chicago / Detroit / Baltimore lately?)
A rational officer would look in the places that are most likely to have crime. The author's popcorn psychoanalysis that: "Racists are small-minded, fearful people driven by the desperate need to blame others for what they see as their lot in life" just is not accurate in this case.
Maybe these people really are just aware of their surroundings and responding appropriately.
b. (p.211) Jojo talks about being physically ejected from a store by security. But, if you actually work a shift or two as a cashier (I have), then you will see that 99.9% of your retail theft is black people. (Seems like every time there's some kind of civil protest by some black people it immediately turns into a bunch of looting. I wonder if it was a looting exercise that turned into a civil protest or the other way around?)
5. I have a hard time believing some of Jojo's, um, romantic assertions. The first thing is that this guy looks like Shri Thanedar (emphatically not the epitome of sexiness).
And he's talking about these nice looking Persian women that are interested in him, but..... Middle Eastern people prefer to marry lighter than darker. (When is the last time you saw an Arab or a Persian woman with a black guy?)
He's also talking about the play that he got as a black guy.
And, I guess a lot of black guys can be expected to get a lot of play in the case that:
i. They're an athlete/musician / other celebrity;
ii. They're a normal guy, but interested in White Baby Elephants.
*******
Other thoughts:
1. This book was pretty easy to read, in the author had an impressive memory for names and conversations.
2. Okay to read, but not worth a reread.
The humor was sometimes good, sometimes labored and the author was just too cocky.
3. One would think that he would have been more judicious with his choice of presentation given the negative perceptions of frat boys. (If he could have afforded her speaking fee with all of the money that he bragged about his parents having, he should have hired somebody like Ann Coulter to help him craft a funny book. Her humor never gets stale.)
Also the fact that he was a wealthy but lazy f-off really did not help us readers to be sympathetic.
4. He got lots of interviews from lots of different schools, and he shared the letters with us (ordinarily you would not be able to get all of them in one place).
The general pattern was that they got him there for an interview, and figured out that he was not black and didn't say anything - - they just put him on the waiting list and let the application die.
(As an aside: I don't know how anybody could mistake the author for a black guy.)
I know what Tamil Indians look like when I see them because I have seen so many, and I could probably have guessed who he was from a distance of 500 ft.
What must other black people have thought when they saw him?
For that matter, with the desperation of Indians to get into medical school, is this really the first time this trick has been played? (And with the last name like "Chokalingam," how long could it have stayed a secret? If he had applied with the last name like Jackson or Washington--90% black--he might have been able to fool someone.)
5. It's also interesting that it seems like they put a lot of black people at medical schools at work trying to recruit other black people. (Some of them are actual physicians, but others are just EdDs.) This was a joke that one of my professors told me that: "It seems like every time they have guys like you complete a PhD, instead of having them do original research they write grants to recruit other guys that look like you."
6. Only for deeper thinkers is affirmative action actually detrimental to blacks; EVERY TIME there is some odd black person in a professional position, it's going to be impossible for him to prove that he is as smart as anybody else and was not an "affirmative action admit."
I can see at least one of the characters in this book developing a hatred for black people because of their perceived unfair advantages. (So that's why I have such weird experiences with Asian indians!)
And then you multiply that by a million other Asian/Indian kids that are trying to get in the medical school who feel that they have been treated unfairly, and see what it adds up to. ("Affirmative Action, an International Comparison," by Thomas Sowell has shown how neighbors can be turned into bitter enemies over racial "balancing" policies. In many countries in the world.)
Verdict: not recommended at the price of more than $4.
*******
Quotes:
1. If you're not failing now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.
2. Warfare is the art of deception.
3. At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning.
4. If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner
5. Be sure that whatever you are is you.
6. Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no fibs.
7. Abandon hope all ye who enter here
8. Healing is a matter of time, but it's sometimes similarly a matter of opportunity.
9. Men still have to be governed by deception.
10. Guard yourself from lying semicolon there is he who deceives and there is he who is deceived.
11. The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
12. History is a bunch of lies we have all agreed upon.
13. Never try to win by force what can be won by deception.
14. If you want to trick the world, tell the truth.
15. Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.
16. The main difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives.
17. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
18. Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.
19. It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
20. Maybe the falcon was trying to tell the falcon or something he didn't know. (Author's quip. Riff on a William Butler Yates' "The Second Coming.")