Vijay Chokal-Ingam, brother of actress Mindy Kaling, says he lied about his race to get into medical school 15 years ago and is now writing a book about his experience.
In a post on his website
AlmostBlack.com, Chokal-Ingam says the he realized during his junior year of college he didn't have the grades to get into medical school.
"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?" he writes on his website.
So Chokal-Ingam, whose ancestry is from India, decided to shave his head and trim his long eyelashes. He began checking "black" as his race on medical school applications.
He also began going by his middle name, Jojo, and joined the Organization of Black Students. He had previously been a member of the South Asian Student Association.
"Vijay the Indian-American frat boy become Jojo the African American Affirmative Action applicant to medical school," Chokal-Ingam wrote.
The plan worked, he said. He became a "serious contender" at schools including Harvard, Washington University, Pennsylvania, Case Western and Columbia.
"In all, I interviewed at 11 prestigious medical schools in nine major cities across America, while posing a black man," he said.
Chokal-Ingam dropped out of St. Louis University Medical School two years after getting in, he told the
New York Post.
He ended up getting a masters in business administration from the University of California-Los Angeles as an Indian-American.
Chokal-Ingam told the Post he is telling his story because he wants people to know that the belief that affirmative action benefits low-income minorities isn't true.
I disclosed that I grew up in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts, that my mother was a doctor, and that my father was an architect,” he said Saturday, describing his med-school applications.
In addition to his 3.1 college GPA, which is below St. Louis University Medical School's average of 3.84, Chokal-Ingam also disclosed that he didn’t receive financial aid from the University of Chicago, and that "I had a nice car," he said. "I was the campus rich kid, let’s just put it on the table. And yet they considered me an affirmative-action applicant."
"I disclosed that I grew up in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts, that my mother was a doctor, and that my father was an architect," he said.
"Racism is not the answer," he said of affirmative action. "It also promotes negative stereotypes about the competency of minority Americans by making it seem like they need special treatment."
Kaling, star of "The Mindy Project" and "The Office," is unhappy with her brother's decision to go public, Chokal-Ingam said.
"She says this will bring shame on the family," he told the Post.
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