<p>I've been filling out my college apps and I keep encountering this issue.
My dad is from India and my mom is from Guyana. I've always put Asian for my race, but I feel like I'm ignoring my mom's side. Guyana is located in South America, but is it considered the Caribbean (in this case some apps say I would check Black/African American and then specify the Caribbean) or should I put Hispanic/Latio since Guyana is in South America?</p>
<p>Guyanese people can be of any race. Is your mom of white, black, Asian, Native American descent or mixed?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, colleges don’t give a rats where you are from (mostly), its about the colour of your skin…</p>
<p>You’d be better off not putting Asian if possible. You have a defense and it will help you in the admissions process.</p>
<p>My mom is of Asian descent. So does that mean I just put Asian?
I was honestly hoping to seem more diverse than that. Guyanese and Indian may share the same descent, but are two different cultures.</p>
<p>Since nearly half of Guyana is East Indian, it would be feasible for someone from Guyana to put “Hispanic” for ethnicity then “Asian” for race, which is a possible combination. If your mother is a Hispanic East Indian and your father is an East Indian, indicating yourself as Hispanic and Asian would be the most accurate.</p>
<p>my mums half British an half Jamaican and my dads full Guyanese although i understand this im not sure if im latin, black british or mixed race ?</p>
<p>Either from what I read its better not to put asian in the admisson process</p>
<p>Beside your far off from asian in a certain sense compared to all the othe lineages u have</p>
<p>I think the OP has to put “Asian” if she is going to put anything. Guyana is an Anglophone country, so it makes no sense to put Hispanic (just as somebody from Brazil can’t do so). In her case, both parents are Asians, even if only one of them was born in Asia.</p>
<p>I’m assuming that the mother is entirely of Asian descent–if she is of mixed heritage, then the answer might be different.</p>
<p>
Often it’s “Hispanic/Latino,” in which case a Brazilian would be Latino. The terms are used synonymously, but they actually vary in who they include, so it ends up distorting the applicant demographics.</p>
<p>In this case, though, there is nothing Latino about Guyana. The national language is English, and the majority of the people are Asian or African.</p>
<p>But here’s a definition from the Census Bureau, which I think would exclude Brazilians also:
</p>
<p>
This suggests that someone from Guyana could be Hispanic/Latino if they spoke Spanish or were Hispanic in culture, regardless of being genetically Asian or African.</p>
<p>That’s true, but there’s no reason to think that’s true of the OP, who is Indian (as in, from India) on both sides. Again, Guyana is not a Spanish-speaking country.</p>
<p>English is the official language, as per British colonization. However, significant portions of the population speak other languages, and officially recognized languages include Guyanese Creole, Portuguese, Hindi, Spanish, Akawaio, Macushi, Wai Wai, Arawak, Patamona, Warrau, Carib, Wapishiana, Arekuna.</p>
<p>So it comes down to the culture and often language of the person in question as to whether or not they qualify as Hispanic.</p>
<p>Only the OP’s father is from India, the mother is not.</p>
<p>The OP says her mom “is of Asian descent.”</p>
<p>BillyMc was arguing on this topic 5 months ago, it gets bumped back up and he starts arguing about it again, seamlessly, as if there was never a 5 month period between the posts hahaha</p>
<p>
But born and raised in Guyana; she very well could be Hispanic. She very well could not be Hispanic, too, but he hasn’t told us her languages and prevailing cultural identity, and there are Guyanese Hispanics, so her Asian descent is irrelevant (as Hispanics can be of any racial group).</p>
<p>
Well, the red star was already there…</p>
<p>
I missed this post, and I also missed that the OP’s post was old.
It seems to me that in the US, vancooten is, at least, mixed race, and is probably black, if his mom’s Jamaican half is black. He’s probably not latin at all. It partly depends on what the background of his Guyanan dad is–if he’s of African descent, vancooten can certainly identify as black.</p>