Please don’t give your opinions that don’t help answer the question; no to “a rich AA should not get affirmative action” or the like.
I have a parent from Algeria and one from USA. I am an Algerian and America citizen. If consider myself AA, will I be able to list my race as African American on the common app without a problem? I would not just put African American, I will also list white and say the country of origin is Algeria. Assume the colleges ask you what country you are from to determine whether or not you are lying or don’t understand the question, no? Do colleges say how they define these terms like African American, Hispanic, etc.? I would like to know how top tier schools may look at this.
Each college defines it differently, but it is presumed that African-American is a person of color whose family may have been discriminated/disadvantaged by the neighborhood they live in or the education that may have been limited. That’s why they are under-represented.
Under-represented usually assumes that the person’s color is not well-represented in the college.
^Hmm when you put it that way its not really fair in my case since my color is not well-represented in most colleges (I’m REALLY dark but of south asian origin) so in fact I will feel out of place in college AND will have a harder time getting into a college because I am asian. Brilliant.
Looks like Berber and Arab Algerians would be considered “white” by the above definitions. There may be some ethnic minority groups in Algeria who would be considered “black” by the above definitions.
@“aunt bea”
I am planning on checking white and AA and listing my country of origin as Algeria. So the colleges may see this and just say I am white… right? I could not get in any trouble for doing this, no?
Do the colleges publish how they define race/ethnicity…I am having trouble finding them…
@ucbalumnus: uhh no offense but I don’t really get what you are saying…of course “very dark south asian people” are “not that rare” in places “where there are south asian people”…because those are places where south asians are…but south asians make up less than 1% of the American population, and if you look into the Tamil Nadu originated population from that already very small subset your looking into VERY small numbers…(btw I’ve only met a few south indians in America in my life)
Really, the URM category applies to those limited categories in the US, that have been defined by the federal government for YEARS. India, as far as I know, is not in the US, and its citizens are not underrepresented in the colleges. Take a look at the CC posts.
@aunt bea: I did not mean to “hijack” this thread. I hope you aren’t trying to be racist because I have heard that type of word choice against me one to many times, and it quite frankly is NOT funny. And my response was directly to this quote of your post: “Under-represented usually assumes that the person’s color is not well-represented in the college.”
I was merely stating my opinion that a lot of people have assumed me to be black, so it’s not fair in my opinion that I have experienced many of the struggles and racist attitudes directed towards African Americans (still present today unfortunately) yet I am Asian so I do not benefit from AA. India “as far as I know” doesn;t have anything to do with me…I was born in America, therefore I am an Indian American, and my parents have paid too much tax for this country to be considered anything other than American. I do agree with you that Indians are not under-represented in colleges, but in fact over-represented. I was referring to Southern Indians, who are actually very different in looks and population as compared to Northern Indians here in America.
But in order to contribute to this thread, Algeria is in North Africa so you would be considered African-American and thus qualify for AA. I am pretty sure about this, but not 100% sure.
Hijack means that you’ve taken over the thread @JuicyMango. It’s considered rude to do that on this site because anyone can generate a new thread. Look at the many other posts that mention trying to “Hijack” or take over an OP’s thread. No one knows your personal history on this website, so how would anyone know what vocabulary you consider racist since no one knows you?
@johndoeson, use the federal definition for URM that @ucbalumnus linked (i.e. black). The feds use the information for rules, laws and regulations on federal documentation.
It usually means Sub-Saharan African or Black. If you have even a little black in your genealogy then check it, if you have zero black genes, you probably should not.
@aunt bea: Thank you, I will look into that. Again, I would just like to say I meant to state an opinion of mine that was directed to a quote of yours. But next time I will make sure to create my own thread and avoid hijacking other threads. I am sincerely sorry, I am still new on here :).
Black/African American is a RACIAL category, not a totally arbitrary, geographic category like Hispanic. Northern Africans are regarded as being caucasian, not black.
Living in Algeria doesn’t confer blackness to a caucasian person, any more than living in Ireland confers whiteness to an asian person.
Most applications now say AA/black, because they do not mean Caucasians whose family comes from Africa. Do not select AA. It is not honest in this situation.
I have always wondered about this myself. Seems that we need w new “word” if you are indeed African American (just like I am German American) and it is not right for you to consider yourself African American. What about an individual who’s descendants come from France and have dark skin. Are they African American? If it is all about the color of skin?
My S2 was in an Aspie class with 2 kids, one white, one black. One was Zimbabwean, one Caribbean. Which is “AA”? They all used to giggle about that. It is an oddity that we struggle for a “word” to describe something that can’t really be lumped together in that way:)
Do what your conscience tells you is right, keeping in mind that your counsellor will know the right “word” and will confirm it to any college. So do try not to mislead.
I used to work for the US Census Bureau and their definition of African American was black. It appears from your post that you understand the standard definition so if you’re white, as your title suggests, I don’t think it helps your application to claim to be an African American. Can you claim to be African American even if you’re caucasian without causing yourself any problems? I suppose it depends on your definition of “problem.” If you lie on an app, colleges can rescind your acceptance and revoke your degree. That’s not a worry I’d like to carry around for the next 60 years.
Is there an “other” box? If so, you could check it and indicate “Algerian.” Not only is it true, it may be something colleges find interesting. Take every opportunity on those apps to let colleges know something about you. Every opportunity you have to do so that you don’t take advantage of is a wasted one.
I knew a kid who had golden skin, African facial characteristics, green eyes, and blond “African curl” hair. He considered himself African American due to having mostly African Americans in his lineage, except for some white DNA that got mixed in along the way.
Another kid had a whole part of her family Hispanic but had good reasons to refuse to associate with them - at college application time, she struggled a lot to decide whether she’d check “Hispanic” after spending some time in her midteens pretending she wasn’t related to them.
It’s not always clear cut.
As for a kid from Tamil Nadu, I would check “other”: “Asian and Black” if the option exists, because it’s not just a matter of skin color, it’s also a matter of perception. Northern Indians and people from Tamil Nadu don’t really look alike. They are Black and are perceived as Black.
Same thing for Pacific Islanders (like Melanesians) are both Black and Asians, for instance, but they’re definite URMs.
Colleges can understand the difference if they’re made aware of it, and if you put the truth they’ll decide how they look at things.
Note that for students from Algerian descent, there’s now a category White/Middle Eastern, which indicates the college is mindful of the difference with White of European origin.
And I’m not sure how Tamazigh or North Africans of “Black” descent are considered since they’re not Caucasian strictly speaking.