If my Parents and Grandparents are both from India, but my Great Grandmother (who is still living) is from Africa, what would I label my ethnicity as?
Do you identify with African culture?
I’d put Indian, that would only be about 12% African American.
Indian.
No, I’ve always celebrated Indian traditions and festivals. I know that on the Common App you can put multiple ethnicities. Would putting both of these ethnicities be helpful to my application process?
Most places don’t care about this at all, they just collect the data and then submit it to the state and federal departments of education to show that they aren’t discriminating against any one particular group. But in any case it is self-identification. Check as many of the race boxes and as many of the ethnicity boxes as you feel like.
What sort of African is this great-grandmother? Is she what most white Americans would consider black? Or is she from one of the Indian immigrant groups that resettled in Africa as a result of population movement within the British Empire? Does she consider herself to be African, or Indian? If she is in the US, how did she answer the race question on the 2020 Census this month?