Entertainment

Mindy Kaling's Brother Says He Faked Being Black To Get In Med School

by Adam Pliskin

Being accepted into medical school is no easy feat. To accomplish this task, Mindy Kaling's brother pretended he was black.

Vijay Chokal-Ingam, Mindy's older brother, is writing a book, titled "Almost Black," about his misrepresentation.

Chokal-Ingam claims his grades at the University of Chicago weren't good enough to get into medical school. He had a 3.1 GPA and a 31 on the MCAT.

On the website for the book, Chokal-Ingam wrote,

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, Chokal-Ingam went to great lengths to make it seems as if he was African American.

He wrote,

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 brothers 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.
Almost Black

Vijay then went by Jojo, and for most intents and purposes, he passed as black.

Almost Black

He wrote,

Cops harassed me. Store clerks accused me of shoplifting. Women were either scared of me or couldn't keep their hands off me. What started as a devious ploy to gain admission to medical school turned into twisted social experiment.

Ultimately, Chokal-Ingam was accepted into med school at Saint Louis University.

He attended for a couple of years before dropping out.

He realized he no longer wanted to be a doctor, but the fact he got in under such false pretenses is pretty incredible and perhaps more than a little immoral.

He said his sister, Mindy Kaling, believes "this book will bring shame" to their family.

Here's Vijay's acceptance letter:

My acceptance letter from St. Louis University. http://t.co/RsK0dfo90i http://t.co/MGsrPjLQlJ — Vijay Chokal-Ingam (@VijayIngam) April 4, 2015

Naturally, some people didn't appreciate Vijay's story:

@VijayIngam you're disgusting and all too well representative of the anti-blackness in indian and south asian communities — Sandhya (@Sandhya723) April 4, 2015
@VijayIngam Gonna need you to conduct the experiment growing up as a black man & see what your med school chances are. — Daniella J (@Daniella_mktg) April 4, 2015
@VijayIngam so because you couldn't cut it in medical school as both a liar and unqualified...you want people to praise you for lying? #smh — Sjacksta (@jacksta_) April 4, 2015

Citations: Mindy Kalings Brother Says He Got Into Medical School By Posing As Black (BuzzFeed)