<p>
</p>
<p>He’s Hispanic. I would have no problem with any of Jeb and Columba Bush’s children checking Hispanic, because … well … they are.</p>
<p>Sybbie, I agree. I had to check demographic information for my kids when they enrolled in school. I was told that, if I didn’t, the school would check it for them. </p>
<p>Pizzagirl, the question is not, “are you 1/4 or more Hispanic” either. The question is “Are you Hispanic?” A person who is at least 1/4 Hispanic may choose to identify as Hispanic, but the question is not, “are you 1/4 Hispanic”? There are people who are 1/4 Hispanic and do not identify as such and there are some who do (everything from people who were raised with a grandparent in the home to people who never met their grandparent and had no contact with that culture). I agree that it has nothing to do with skin color, name, discrimination or poverty. </p>
<p>One consequence of all this stretching is that there really aren’t too many kids at the top LACs who identify as Hispanic and add to the diversity.</p>
<p>117</p>
<p>Brooklynborndad, I think you said it all. It is not reasonable or necessary for the applicant to spend hours analyzing what the intent of the college is in requesting this information. Clearly, the admissions staff would be happy to clarify for any applicant whether it would be appropriate to indicate that he/she is hispanic. For all we know, it might be sufficient if the applicant’s biological grandfather was simply a hispanic sperm donor. That case, as well as many of those cited above, seem unlikely to bring any real diversity to the college. But maybe that is not what they are truly attempting to achieve, after all.</p>
<p>This is not complicated at all. Why the debate?</p>
<p>I agree. ^^^</p>
<p>^ How is this done in CC . . . “Lock it”?</p>
<p>I have even been asked this “optional question” at the end of job applications. There are ususally several designations of combined ethnicity and geographic location, along with the generic “white”. I can only assume that it’s better to be able to check one of the highly detailed options. It’s a shame that colleges and employers even ask this at all.</p>
<p>I have also seen businesses ask for age and gender information for their demographic data. Is that right? Would it be okay to ask for religious affiliaton? If the answer to these questions is “no”, then they shouldn’t ask for ethnicity information either.</p>
<p>There are already DNA tests that will tell you your genetic origins by continent and country. A simple mouth swab on a Q-tip. Maybe in the next few years, students will submit GPA, SAT and DNA.</p>
<p>The OP states that approximately 150 years ago her husband’s ancestors lived in what was then Mexico, but now is part of the US. I believe a generation is considered 25 years. That is six generations ago. On a side note, I remember when SI was applying to schools, an acquaintance of mine with a hispanic last name was bragging all over town that her daughter was checking the hispanic box on applications to milk the system. Instead of asking whether an applicant is hispanic, african american or other race, they should concentrate more on who grew up underprivileged and succeeded throughout school. These students are the ones who are deserving of any extra pull a checked box can offer.</p>
<p>Honestly I find this whole debate extremely offensive. You want to check that your kids are Hispanic when they obviously aren’t. You only want them to be considered Hispanic for the benefits in scholarships and admissions. Both my parents are Peruvians who immigrated to this country for a better life. I grew up poor and experienced all the hardships and barriers of being Hispanic including racism. What you are doing is disgusting. Your kids didn’t grow up in a Spanish environment or even speak the language. It upsets me so much when people try and take advantage of the few perks Hispanics have but don’t live the lives we actually have to go through.</p>
<p>Wow. I never knew how easy I had it being a plain old Caucasian person who never has to think twice about filling out a demographic form. But why should any form-filler-outer have to surmise the agenda of the people asking about ethnicity? If someone’s father is half Hispanic, he or she is 1/4th Hispanic. That’s a sizable chunk. The form-makers are not asking if someone speaks Spanish or observes particular customs or anything else that makes a person culturally Hispanic. If the form-makers want to know any of that stuff or whether someone has experienced difficulties in life because of socioeconomic status, they can ask and they have other ways of figuring certain things out. All this said, I am a bit thrown off by the part about the family tracing their roots back to the days when Mexico included much of what is now the U.S. Southwest. That is neither here nor there, as you could trace your roots back to that region and be of English descent or any number of other ethnic groups, as well as Hispanic. Anyway … People gotta CHILL. The OP isn’t planning to encourage her child to lie or to misrepresent anything.</p>
<p>There was a good PBS documentary about the Jim Crow style segregation and discrimination against latinos in Texas. My father in law mentioned it to us when he spoke about the problems he had when stationed at an army base there. He was beaten up just for being hispanic.</p>
<h2>I fully believe the OP’s claim that the mother in law was discriminated against. These stories are just as much a part of our kids histories and need to be told.</h2>
<p>"AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents A Class Apart from the award-winning producers Carlos Sandoval (Farmingville), and Peter Miller (Sacco and Vanzetti, The Internationale). The one-hour film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters— activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim — within the broader story of a civil rights movement that is still very much alive today…</p>
<p>“Life in the 1950s was very difficult for Hispanics,” Wanda Garc</p>
<p>Collegebound…</p>
<p>So are your children going to be considered 1/2 Hispanic? Or not? Will they be entitled to “check the box?” I mean they will have a college-educated mother who is English- speaking and who will problably be able to raise them in a middle to upper middle class environment. Does that cancel out their grandparents background? According to you it does. It is certainly what you are saying to everyone else.</p>
<p>uskoolfish, </p>
<p>the OP is NOT 1/2 hispanic, their “hispanic roots” trace back 150 years and it is obvious that she only wants to do this so her kids can get scholarships and look good for college admissions. Nowhere did i say that she had to be full hispanic. Calling her kids hispanic is a HUGE stretch if not a lie. If her husband didn’t check the box as hispanic then why should her children? Hispanic isn’t even a race it’s a CULTURE. If her children grew up in a primarily hispanic neighborhood or if they still held their culture with them then yes, I would consider them hispanic even if their great grandparents have a questionable hispanic background. But NO they have none of that. & what does being part of the upper middle class have to do with ANYTHING? After years of my parents hard work we are thankfully middle class now and I still hold onto my hispanic roots. Socioeconomic status has nothing to do with whether you are considered hispanic or not.</p>
<p>P.S “checking the box” as hispanic is not an entitlement, it’s where you state the truth on who you are it’s NOT a box where you check in order to get advantages.</p>
<p>Our family: My 100% white upper class sister married a 1/2 African American, 1/2 Japanese middle class UCB graduate and had children born and raised in California. Came college time, the African American box was the box that was checked- yet she was coming from a Private HS in Australia, Ex-pat in Bali and she got into fantastic schools with SAT scores- high 400’s for math, 500’s for writing and reading. Chose top UC. I’m sure UC used her for the African American, International from a poor Indonesian country for their diversity numbers. A trifecta! The ultimate hat trick! Same thing for Grad school, UCLA with 500 GRE scores. She did fantastic in her programs BTW once accepted…but it caused quite resentment for the cousins in the family who had very high stat’s, worked like crazy in school with lessor college acceptance results. The parents pulled the kid out of school grades 6-8 to travel the world. Then off to boarding school for HS. Oh, and the cherry on top was she got instate tuition- they still had a house in Northern California that they rented while out of the country. </p>
<p>So, it is what it is, they schools make the rules and they can not be unaware of how they are manipulating the intent. If the applicant is not even applying for finAid, how can they not know? Colleges really need to adjust this- because the next generation will be mostly bi-racial under the current guidelines.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, according to the US government, it’s not a culture, it’s an ethnicity. Therefore my friend’s high-achieving upper-class Chilean-American children get a bump in admissions at Ivies over working class US whites of, say, Polish ancestry. Fair? I don’t think so, but that’s what the colleges have set the system up to encourage. If the system is corrupt, then remove the designation. If not, just accept that there will be weird outcomes because of the way the system is set up.</p>
<p>I would not encourage my children to check the race/ethnicity box to get advantages because I don’t want them to define themselves as victims deserving of reparations, but I can’t bring myself to condemn people who work the system as it exists for their children’s benefit.</p>
<p>My kid lives in Mexico now. She is very immensed in the culture, fluent in Spanish, parties like Mexican teenagers, likes their food, so could she check off Hispanic? She is actually living in Mexico, not like OP’s husband 150 years ago. She could go from ORM to URM.:)</p>
<p>D2 will check off Other on her application.</p>
<p>Collegebound…</p>
<p>I am not in any way agreeing that the original OP has the right to designate “Hispanic” when it goes back so many generations.</p>
<p>What I am pointing out (as others have said) is that it is a complex issue. When asked who your ancestors are…it should be clear cut, even though it turns out that many of us are a mix of backgrounds. The problem comes when we are asked to check one box even though we acknowledge that we are a mix of backgrounds. </p>
<p>The other problem comes with how is this background info used? Is the assumption that by designating “Hispanic”, one is implying that they are in need of special allowances because they have economic need and have not had the advantages of others?</p>
<p>I have a problem with this assumption. My children are 1/4 Hispanic because their grandmother was born and lived in Argentina until she was an adult. Her mother was born there, too. However, I am the first to admit that my own children have had an upper middle class experience and that they are 3/4 non-Hispanic. Their grandmother struggled to speak English and worked as a seamstress. My children are English-speaking with 2 college-educated parents. But should we be denying the ethnicity of their grandmother when asked their background?</p>
<p>If scholarship money was being sponsored by a French company for students who were of French descent (and there was no need or socio-economic disdvantage implied by accepting the scholarship) would you question a child who had French grandparents accepting this scholarship?</p>
<p>And again, how will you feel about your children’s background? Will they be Hispanic if you marry someone who is not?</p>
<p>I hate this whole debate and being asked to indicate race or cultural identity on college forms, government forms, or whatever.</p>
<p>It is true that Latinos were discriminated against and still are, in some areas. It is also true that Poles were discriminated against in Cleveland, Irish and Italians in New York, and Jews everywhere. Italians used to be considered “black.” Signs said “No Irish need apply.” And country clubs wouldn’t admit Jews.</p>
<p>Way back when the colonies consisted mostly of English, Scotch, Irish, and French immigrants, people were discriminated against because of their religion.</p>
<p>My point is, being a member of a group doesn’t automatically mean you need or should have special privileges. I’d rather see help go to deserving students of a low socio-economic background. Whatever their “race” or “national origin.”</p>
<p>Well if your children WANT to be considered hispanic and have considered themselves Hispanic their whole lives then why not? But if their sole reason for wanting to be considered hispanic is just to gain the advantages in admissions and scholarships then yes that is wrong. Some people like to be considered Hispanic when it’s useful to them. Many kids in my school are 1/4 hispanic, don’t speak spanish and flat out deny that they are to everyone in school. But when it came to college admissions they checked off the hispanic box and wrote essays on how their hispanic heritage brings diversity to the campus. It’s disgusting and I don’t approve of it at all.</p>
<p>I also blame the system though. I don’t think they should base anything off race or ethnicity. I think it should be based off your socioeconomic status. A upper middle class Hispanic is not facing the same barriers and adversity that a Hispanic living in the inner-city does, so why should both of them receive the same help from colleges and scholarships?</p>
<p>The thing about scholarships is that it’s not just about being of hispanic descent. I have applied to so many hispanic scholarships and they all required me to write an essay about the hispanic culture and what it means to me or how it has affected who I am today. How would the children of the OP write about that? They have no ties to their culture whatsoever so writing those essays would be all lies. </p>
<p>As I said, it doesn’t matter if my kids or any kid is 1/2 hispanic or 1/4 hispanic if they are still culturally tied to their background then why shouldn’t they be considered Hispanic? A lot of people just want to be considered Hispanics when it’s convenient for them. If my kids turn out to be like that or are ashamed of their background, then no I would not check off the Hispanic box. But that’s just my personal opinion and conscience.</p>