Indian-American Vijay Chokalingam (38), older brother of Hollywood sitcom star and comedienne Mindy Kaling, said this week that his social experiment to self-identify as African-American in admission forms for U.S. medical schools had resulted in him gaining entry to multiple institutions owing to universities’ affirmative action programmes.
On his personal website “ >AlmostBlack.com ” Mr. Chokalingam, who is reportedly estranged from Ms. Kaling, wrote that when he realised that his 3.1 college GPA score was not adequate for admission to certain medical schools “at least not as an Indian-American,” he was determined to become a doctor.
Affirmative action policies in the U.S. are a parallel to India’s reservation system, which offers admission and job quotas for individuals from certain caste backgrounds.
In his case Mr. Chokalingam said that he knew that “admission standards for certain minorities under affirmative action were, let’s say… less stringent?”
Consequently he shaved his head, trimmed his “long Indian eyelashes, and applied to medical school as a black man,” Mr. Chokalingam wrote, adding that the change in his appearance was so startling that his own fraternity brothers didn’t recognise him with his “transformation” accelerating after he joined the Organisation of Black Students and started using his childhood nickname.
“Vijay the Indian-American frat boy become Jojo the African American Affirmative Action applicant to medical school,” Mr. Chokalingam said, adding that soon thereafter police officers began harassing him, store clerks accused him of shoplifting and on the dating scene “Women were either scared of me or couldn’t keep their hands off me.”
Arguing that what started as a devious ploy to gain admission to medical school turned into twisted social experiment, Mr. Chokalingam however noted that he became a “serious contender” at some of the major medical schools in the U.S., including Harvard, Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, Case Western University, and Columbia University.
After interviewing at eleven prestigious medical schools in nine cities across the U.S, all the while posing an African American, he went on to gain admission to some of these schools, he said.
However he may not have accepted any offers, as he said on his website, “My plan actually worked. Lucky for you, I never became a doctor.”
Commenting on the debate that his experiment set off on race and affirmative action Mr. Chokalingam said in a media report, “Racism is not the answer… It also promotes negative stereotypes about the competency of minority Americans by making it seem like they need special treatment.”
