<p>My parents were born in Morocco and Algeria. My dad moved in his late 20's as did my mom. I was born in California. Can I put African American on my application since they are technically in Africa and therefore not part of Asia?
Thanks!</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think there’s a concrete answer for this, although I don’t see why you would put Asian unless your parents are not of Moroccan or Algerian descent. If they are native to those countries I would put African American.</p>
<p>North African populations generally are categorized as Caucasian/White for this sort of thing. </p>
<p>If you can’t find a box that you feel comfortable checking, choose “other”.</p>
<p>Yes, although you are African-American, you aren’t African-American by American standards. That title is reserved for those of sub-Saharan ancestry.</p>
<p>I heard recently of a student in our greater area who was born in South Africa and lived there for several years before moving to the US, but he is caucasian. He put “African American” on his application; high school tried to get him to change his app but family said no; got into one of his top colleges, who then became really bummed at what they felt was dishonesty and then that college came back to the high school with some stronggggg wordss… the college can not boot the kid since he technically did nothing wrong on a “self-identifying” question – but I would urge you, if you have to ASK whether the answer is right or not, then your answer isn’t authentic to you and is probably more of you trying to figure out a way to gain an edge…</p>
<p>OP read this (specifically, post #10):
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1544837-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-11-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1544837-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-11-a.html</a></p>
<p>MomofBack2Back: It’s sad the school had to learn that kind of lesson and the college was completely right to chide them. I think in the future, the GC won’t hesitate to share with colleges the questionable ethics of applicants.</p>
<p>You should check “other” or “multiple races” - You’re not Caucasian (especially if one or both of your parents are Kabyl Berbers), you’re not Asian, and you’re not Subsaharan African.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, if the college has strong words for the HS, the college is being, how shall we say it - racist. The student answered truthfully. To assume that a white person can’t be of African descent, well, that just says a lot more about the institution in question than it does about the student.</p>
<p>Of course I’m being facetious, but this is the sort of games the politically correct play. They like words to mean one thing, then object when someone points out the absurdity of their position. Elizabeth Warren, anyone? </p>
<p>Let’s face it, taken literally, and in plain English, the term African American should mean anyone of African descent who is now an American, regardless of where their family came from on that continent, from the deserts of North Africa to the veldt of South Africa. Instead, what they want is African American to mean only descendants of former slaves held in North America. By that definition, even Barack Obama isn’t African American. So they add in sub-Saharan Africans who are recent immigrants. Unless they are white South Africans. Or Indians who have lived in Africa for hundreds of years, and are dark-skinned, but who are technically Caucasians. And let’s not get started about Australian Aborigines. All just so we don’t have to say the word “black”. Or “slave”. </p>
<p>It’s all a bit Alice in Wonderland - “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”</p>
<p>Actually, many colleges now have “Black or African American”, so that covers what you’re saying above. And they have “other” for other cases (like being Kabyl Berber). Australian Aborigines, I believe, are represented in “Native Pacific Islanders”.
It’s not a matter a skin color, either - some African Americans are very light skinned, and some Indians are very dark-skinned. Yet light-skinned African Americans are authentically African American, and dark-skinned Indians aren’t.
Essentially, it all traces back to the way various groups have been discriminated against in the specific context of American history - if there were official segregation or discrimination measures against specific groups and the traces of those linger (in part because these groups saw their culture/heritage/language/family ties destroyed or severely disrupted) then society as a whole tries to rectify the problem.
In university admissions though, legacies and athletes are much more favored than URM.</p>
<p>I know what you mean, but a language fanatic would tell you that the “or” statement only compounds the problem because “or” means “either”, and you’ve now pulled in any dark-skinned individual from anywhere in the world and lumped them in with everyone from the continent of Africa, regardless of skin-color. </p>
<p>Use the phrase “Black African American”, which no one does, and you might actually be pretty close to what they want it to mean, but refuse to say.</p>
<p>These threads remind me of a movie- that was controvesial- in the 80’s called “Soul Man”. I was too young at the time to be aware of any controversy surrounding the movie, but I did get the take-home message: a student pretending to be African American falls in love with a deserving student and realizes he took the scholarship she needed, and also realizes that what he did was wrong.
I think all the categories are ambigious, and even the “white” category is so broad that it says little about a student’s circumstances. I think that most of us have a sense of which category is the best fit of all the choices. There are other places on the application to mention pertinent background information. Being the child of parents who immigrated here from another country is interesting, and perhaps that cultural or language influence can be described in an essay.</p>