<p>Hey guys, my family has a deep cultural background that stretches from Africa to Europe to south Asia. Basically my family is racially Indo-European, a part of the punjabi ethnicity. Also, my paternal great-grandmother was born and raised in Nairobi - as we're many other family members on that end of the family tree.
My question is what would be the best demographics information to put down. The ethnicity question asks to which groups do u feel u are a part, so I immediately think of 1. Asian - Other - Punjabi, Indian, and Pakistani. 2. Black or African American - Africa (Kenya) 3. White - European.
Should I leave out Asian? If I do put Asian, should I just put Punjabi? Should i include India or is that worse for AA?
Please help!</p>
<p>If you asked your mother right now what race you should be considered, would AA enter the discussion? Her answer is probably the most salient one. It sounds as if you’re predominantly south Asian (Indian). </p>
<p>To be frank (and I know I’m going on thin ice here) how does your great grandmother’s African heritage affect you and your siblings? </p>
<p>Do you really identify with African Americans due to your 1/8 African heritage or does the 7/8 Indian heritage dominate your life?</p>
<p>You’ve been posting on CC for a while and this is the first mention of your “identification” with African Americans. THIS raises a huge red flag for me and I’m concerned you’re trying to pull one over.</p>
<p>Is “identify” as an African a phrase you’d really use outside of college admissions? Would anyone in your immediate family use that term? If not, then I think it’d be an ethical stretch for you to put down “African American”.</p>
<p>BTW: I’m assuming she is actually ethnically African and not an Indian person born in that country. If she’s not ethnically African, then I think all bets are off and you’re definitely trying to pull one over since you’re pure Punjabi.</p>
<p>I’m sorry that you feel the competition is so severe that you need to go to great lengths to grasp at straws but shady ethics won’t win you many friends here.</p>
<p>I applied to Yale for the Class of 2017 SCEA. When I came to the option to fill in my ethnic identification, I had the choice to not put anything. I knew that, if I elected to not fill anything in, my chances <em>might</em> have been boosted, however slightly. But, I asked myself. I asked myself if a college application was worth losing my identity over.</p>
<p>It wasn’t. I checked the “Asian” option.</p>
<p>I ended up being deferred on December 14th, shortly after 3PM CST. Did my choice help me? Did it hurt me? I will never know. But, I will come away with the satisfaction that I didn’t lie to myself to try to arbitrarily game a mysterious system.</p>
<p>Your application is a representation of you. It’s what you make it out to be. Keep that in mind.</p>
<p>CantCon: your choice and option to leave it blank are perfectly acceptable and ethical. But that course veers from when someone miraculous adopts an African heritage to nudge their way into the URM pool.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies everyone. I feel as if my family heritage is being rather misunderstood. First off, it’s not just my great grandmother, but several other relatives as well that we’re from Africa (Kenya and Tanzania). If asked, they would definitely identify as Kenyan.
As for my connection, it was seem like a slim connection when I say great-grandmother, however, I have a very close connection with my GG. I grew up an hour away from her and thus was always in close contact with her.
Now there is no doubt that my main influence stems from The Punjabi culture, but it is definitely influenced by my Kenyan heritage as well in that my family is unlike other punjabi families due to this influence. My family has always recognized and valued this connection, and Swahili is not an uncommon tongue to be spoken at family gatherings. In essence, though I may be questioned, I know that for me this is not an ethical Dillemna has Kenyan heritage has always been a defining feature of my family’s makeup. My question was more intended towards the dangers or labeling myself as Asian and if it would be immoral to not include that component.</p>
<p>Also, the western biases on race make the classifications rather cumbersome. The concept of Asian as race is flawed - what does a Chinese person have to do with an Indian besides geography? Furthermore, grouping people as Indian is flawed - India was a series of separate kingdoms with separate cultures until the British arrived. As such, cultural connection to the regions is much stronger than to the larger India and Pakistan.</p>
<p>You’re grasping at straws. I wouldn’t say you qualify as African, but if you really don’t want to put down Asian because you fear AA then just decline to answer. It’s perfectly fine. However, if your name is even remotely in the norm of general Asian names, it’ll be rather obvious regardless of what you choose to answer. Better to err on the side of caution here.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I’ve decided to send in a short letter explaining everything - cant go wrong with that option.</p>
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<p>The ONLY ethnicity question asked in college admissions is whether or not you are Hispanic. You keep using race and ethnicity interchangeably, this is incorrect. Race is biologically based while ethnicity is a social/cultural term:</p>
<p>[Concepts</a> of Diversity](<a href=“http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/csri/ethnicityhealth/aspects_diversity/concepts/]Concepts”>http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/csri/ethnicityhealth/aspects_diversity/concepts/)</p>
<p>I don’t understand, was your GG grandmother racially black or was she Asian/white?</p>
<p>The good news for you is that it doesn’t matter what anyone on these threads thinks, or even what the definitive “truth” is about definitions of race or ethnicity. This question is only about how YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF.</p>
<p>It doesn’t actually have to follow anyone else guidelines, definitions, ethics, etc.</p>
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<p>True.</p>
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<p>False.</p>
<p>The definition of race and ethnicity as used by the US Census are followed by college admissions. If the OP doesn’t understand these definitions, (eg. thinking that a racially white person born in Africa is black/AA), then they can designate incorrectly. Self-identification is the guideline WITHIN the US Census definitions.</p>
<p>Ethically, if there are obvious incongruities with these definitions and Adcoms get the perception that a candidate is gaming the system, then it can be detrimental.</p>
<p>Just curious, entomom, where are you getting the info that the common app ties its question to the US Census definitions?</p>
<p>From the links in the first post of the Race FAQ sticky thread on the Admissions forum; they lead to the US Dept. of Education and OMB statements.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying regarding the sources you have chosen, entomom. I’m still confused as to how one can be sure that the Common App is requesting that applicants use the criteria of those sources, as well.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that if the OP is entirely of South Asian descent, he cannot state that he is black or African-American, because he simply isn’t, any more than an Ethiopian who grows up in Sweden is white.</p>
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<p>Just nitpicking, but I did not choose these sources, the colleges did, I am merely citing the ones they use.</p>
<p>I don’t like the implication that I am cherry picking information, these are the guidelines the colleges use, period.</p>
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<p>I’m not advocating this NYT article, even though it mentions CC :), but note this statement:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/us/14admissions.html?pagewanted=all[/url]”>Multiracial Students Face Quandary on College Application - The New York Times;
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<p>Hope that helps clear up your confusion.</p>
<p>So, do the universities compile that information directly from the Common App then? If so, I have learned something!</p>
<p>Of course I meant no personal offense by “chosen.” I was just under the impression that the Common App itself was not directly referencing this source, but that you were.</p>
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<p>I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean by ‘compile’. </p>
<p>Universities see what applicants mark on the CA. The CA itself doesn’t ‘see’ or care about the information that applicants submit to colleges, the CA is a only vehicle for sending information from the candidate to colleges.</p>
<p>" he cannot state that he is black or African-American, because he simply isn’t, any more than an Ethiopian who grows up in Sweden is white."</p>
<p>This made me think of Chef Marcus Samuelsson. </p>
<p><a href=“http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Samuelsson[/url]”>http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Samuelsson</a></p>