There seems to be an unspoken consensus that those who are of Middle Eastern origin are classified and should self-register as White in official documentation such as the US census and college admissions. Interesting, as most Middle Easterners do not really identify as “White” the same way those of European origin do. It seems as if the Middle East is forgotten and neglected in college admissions, with no definite quota that accurately represents and respects the Middle Eastern identity. What do you think? Any Middle Easterners that disagree?
Yes, exactly. I am also Middle Eastern and I do not think it is fair that we have to fill in the bubble saying “White (Middle Eastern)” at all. Middle Eastern people are a huge minority in this country so it is not fair to be classified as white when we simply are not. The only way to gain a true advantage in terms of college admissions is to write about your ethnicity in your essays.
None of the US classification system makes any sense. If your ancestors were from Iran you would be white, but if they were a mile away in Pakistan they would be Asian. ‘Hispanic’ include Brazil and Spain but not Portugal. African-American includes whites from S. Africa. They should just scrap the entire thing because its time has long past - it was originally conceived to mitigate slavery, then modified to ‘diversity’. Maybe just stick with M/F, in/out state, citizen/non-citizen, and SES.
Everyone still argues about quotas, and does not see that quota systems only benefit politicians who artificially segregate groups to play one against the other, with themselves in the middle.
nuttyprofessor,
The categories aren’t set by the colleges and universities, but by the Department of Education (which gets at least some of their notions from the Census Bureau). Those are the places where you should take your complaints/concerns about the categories.
The colleges and universities need to report the stats to the D of Ed to show that they aren’t discriminating against any particular segment of the population. Feel free to check as many (or as few) of the boxes as you like. It really, truly is much more about compliance with the D of Ed than anything else.
This is nonsense.
No much about race and college admissions makes sense, but this should be moved over to the race thread.