<p>tokenadult, the same argument applies to the Spanish-American, right? No one calls a person with one Spanish parent and one American parent “Hispanic,” right? (I’ve been poor and well-off, lived in urban, suburban, and rural America, and nowhere have I ever heard such a person called Hispanic.) So, checking the box would be wrong.</p>
<p>SuperMom<em>I</em>Aint has it right. It’s the spirit of the law that matters. There is no logical, political, or historical reason why a college would care if you are directly descended from a Spaniard, because Spaniards are not disadvantaged. Being Spanish is of no more interest, for the purposes of college admissions, than being French, Andorran, or Portuguese. It’s a nice hook, perhaps, and if the college wants to admit an interesting, diverse mix of students, then certainly someone of Spanish descent would get a legitimate boost. But we all know that those check boxes are for the purpose of tracking racial diversity (either for private or public use), and a Spanish-American is not contributing to a school’s racial diversity, in the sense that 99.9% of us mean “racial diversity,” in anywhere near the same way as a Mexican-American, for example.</p>
<p>Except the definition of African-American used here explicitly says “Black”. The definition of Hispanic lists a bunch of countries, one of which is Spain. It is pretty clear that, according to these definitions, a White South African is White and someone from Spain is Hispanic.</p>
<p>Personally, I think white, SOUTH African WOULD offer a unique perspective, particularly in the context of being minority WITH power, and affirmative action vis a vis apartheid.</p>
<p>A unique perspective, definitely. And definitely worth considering in admissions. But that’s something to be conveyed in essays and interviews, not the African-American check box.</p>
<p>So I have not been on these boards in a while, so I am sure the composition of those who frequent have probably changed. To recap a short bio of myself, I am an African-american male who was accepted to Yale University. Anyone can find my credentials by simply looking through my past posts. But the point of this thread is more so an indictment of the negative reciprocal harms of affirmative action. Only two people applied from my school, myself and a person who was ranked fifth in our class and whose only activity was baseball and had average scores. He was subsquently rejected. </p>
<p>As expected he (and others) derisively attributed my admission to affirmative action and I have come to doubt myself in this regard as well. I have no idea whether or not I would have been accepted had I been another ethnicity, but that accusation in and of itself is damaging on an emotional level. I (like many of you) have always been an overachiever and strove to be successful based on my own hard work and the entire concept of allocating admission slots contingent on racial delineations is directly contradictory to everything I have worked hard for over the years, and so needless to say I was offended. The offense stems beyond notions of ideals of being “adequate” for admission but rather the definition of what constitutes adequate. I have no doubt that I was qualified to go to Yale or any other school, and I am sure that anyone who views my profile will reach the same conclusion. But it is the damaging aspect of the policy on a fundamental level of confidence that I think the debates often overlook. Despite anecdotal rhetoric to the contrary there are minorities who could get into top schools were affirmative action to be eliminated and I would hope that I am one of them. </p>
<p>But I think the debates fail to realize the invisible stigma that is presented by making blanket indictments of all minorities who attend top schools by alleging that their admission is solely on the basis of their race. I apologize if this post reads more like a whining session than an actual statement of the harms of affirmative action, but I felt the need to address this in an open forum.</p>
<p>This was actually the exact same argument used by Clarence Thomas, another Yale alumni, to argue against Affirmative Action. He’s actually written a lot on this subject, and he makes a lot of great points like the one you just made.</p>
<p>I think you have to consider which is more important: you (irrationally) doubting yourself based on the criticism of others, or a more diverse Ivy student body with more black students having access to those “spheres of influence”, or whatever those schools offer.</p>
<p>Dbate, you KNOW that your admission was not a fluke. You know how much you busted your butt working over the years to achieve your dreams of attending a top college like Yale, and your stats are typical of any overachieving Yale kid. You don’t have to listen to obviously-emotional and depressed doubters and let them diminish your joy or self-worth at all. Don’t.</p>
<p>yes LeviG, you are Hispanic. I would say you’re better than those more desperate kids who dig up lineages to find 1/128 ancestry and claim Native American.</p>
<p>Dbate. You cannot allow others to define you. I would suggest that the maturation process is basically ignoring others who would try to bring you down. Be aware they exist, but never, ever let them get to you and do not let them know. They are not worth the time and effort. You are above all of that.</p>