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Mindy Kaling’s Brother: ‘I Pretended I Was Black So I Could Get Into Med School’

Kaitlan Collins Contributor
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Mindy Kaling’s older brother is now claiming he posed as a black man so he could get into medical school and prove “what’s wrong” with affirmative action.

In 1998, Vijay Chokal-Ingam, who was born in Massachusetts to Indian immigrants, shaved his straight black hair and trimmed his “long Indian eyelashes,” along with joining the Organization of Black Students. He said that his change in appearance was so startling “my own fraternity brothers didn’t recognize me at first.”

“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?” Chokal-Ingam wrote.

Mindy Kaling's brother poses as black man to get into medical school

(Photo: Twitter)

“I got into medical school because I said I was black. The funny thing is I’m not.”

The brother of the “The Mindy Project” star went by the name Jojo, and said he became a “serious contender” at Harvard and Columbia, before eventually being accepted at the St. Louis University School of Medicine with a 3.1 GPA and a 31 on his MCAT.

Mindy Kaling's brother poses as black man to get into medical school

(Photo: Twitter)

On his Twitter, he writes that he acted like he was black because he wanted to “defy” those who discriminated against him instead of accepting racism.

He’s speaking out now because he wants to prove that it’s a myth that affirmative action benefits underprivileged students.

Mindy Kaling's brother poses as black man to get into medical school

Mindy Kaling was also on NBC’s “The Office.” (Photo: Getty Images)

Chokal-Ingam dropped out after two years and did not complete his degree, later getting his MBA from UCLA, where he applied as an Asian Indian-American.

He is pitching his book “Almost Black,” where he will write about a “hard-partying college frat boy who discovered the seriousness and complexity of America’s racial problems while posing as a black man.”