The World’s Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

Multiracial student: "Telling them I'm Black gives me better chance than Asian"

NY Times article on multiracial students.“I just realized that my race is something I have to think about,” she wrote, describing herself as having an Asian mother and a black father. “It pains me to say this, but putting down black might help my admissions chances and putting down Asian might hurt it.” “My mother urges me to put down black to use AA” — African-American — “to get in to the colleges I’m applying to,”.... “I sort of want to do this but I’m wondering if this is morally right.” Within minutes, a commenter had responded, “You’re black. You should own it.” Someone else agreed, “Put black!!!!!!!! Listen to your mom.”

.....

"Many counselors will convey to families that a multiracial applicant — like one who is black and Chinese — often has a better chance of being admitted to a highly selective college than those in any other racial or ethnic category"

Words fail me. I want to be supportive of diversity. My own household is miltiracial. But I don't see how these categories can be used fairly. In terms of "social engineering" of the college student body, as opposed to providing opportunity for hardworking students from challenging backgrounds, is it valid to set up a hierarchy of racial mixtures. I hope its not offensive to use another species (one that I love very much), but should Labradoodles and Pekapoos have priority over Yorkinese and Chiweenies"?

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by thomas smith on June 19, 2011 at 11:13am

he reason for the attempts to increase the % of Blacks in schools is because historicaly they have been excluded, and the social economic system has been and still is biased against people with Black skin (though not as much as in the past.

Permalink Reply by thomas smith on June 19, 2011 at 11:14am

regardless of what your actualy background is , if you look Black there are extra barriers

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on June 19, 2011 at 6:55pm

In the original article, I think most people would identify the asian/black student as black, so I think it's fair to use that designation for her too. I did think it was interesting that some schools are seeking biracial students as a "diversity" category. More than anything else, it's a sign of how far things have come that the discussion is occurring, and a sign that mixed racial people are increasing enough in numbers for the discussion to be happening.

Permalink Reply by thomas smith on June 19, 2011 at 11:24pm

you may be right , but I suspect that the sentiment may be "lets get some people of color UP IN HERE, just not BLACK".

Actually , I hope that you are right and I am wrong, but my understanding of the "White" problem makes me somewhat pessimistic

RSS

Welcome to
Atheist Nexus

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with: