A reader writes:
My friend's friend really wanted to go to Stanford, but knew as a white male he wouldn't be admitted. So what did he do? [At the time,] they required a picture sent with the application. So my friend's friend sent his application in with a picture of a black guy (the picture was of a male model that came with his wallet), and he didn't check the ethnicity/race box. Thus, technically he didn't lie (intent is another matter). Anyways, he was accepted and upon arriving on campus was inundated with offers to join the Black Student Association for this or that. He was nervous at first, but then after a month or so the offers eventually stopped; I asked about him years later and he had apparently added to Stanford's black graduation rate.
Warning: that reminds me of how the summer before I went to Rice, I got a letter from the college demanding a snapshot. I assumed that this was just to check up on whether I'd been lying for affirmative action purposes. So, I grabbed the first snapshot I had at hand, which made me look even dorkier than I actually was at 6'4" and 168 pounds, and sent that off. It turns out it wasn't for admissions at all, it was for inclusion in a booklet of all incoming freshmen that coeds in my class would thumb through for the next four years to discuss who was cute and who wasn't. Now that I think about it, I should have sent in a picture of a male model.
My friend Ronald is a blue eyed blond. He looks approximately like a taller version of Robert Redford - a sort of poster boy for the Hitler Youth. Very Nordic.
ReplyDeleteThe US Department of Labor (many years ago now) was recruiting Hispanics that season. DOL had plenty of qualified applicants but most of them were Anglos. Their policy was to recruit only from the friends of current Hispanic employees. Ronald had a Hispanic friend. It was only much later in the process when they got a look at him in the flesh that they discovered their mistake. Thus was born Ronald's forty year career at DOL.
This sort of thing has gone on for a long time.
Harvard U and HLS call that booklet the "facebook" for exactly that reason. The facebook shows your picture and your undergraduate college, as I remember, so you can see if he is cute, and also if he is going to be a good provider.
ReplyDeleteThis story happens all over the USA, all over the Affirmative Action world, thousands of times a day.
When filling out a job application for a professional job, always select the Black or Hispanic designation. The data will be entered into a database and you will automatically be recorded as minority. If you are interviewed, they will notice the racial discrepancy, but will never ask about it. The interviwers will look at you as an extremely high achieving, light-skinned black, and will thank their lucky stars that they get to list you as black since it gets the HR Hags off their back. Everybody believes there is a "one drop rule" (there isn't) but regardless they accept the idea thT you can be undiscernably "black". There is no requirement that your birth certificate says "black", nor do the people who look at it to determine eligibility of employment have the b@lls necessary to actually challenge you if they note the discrepancy (how would they broach the subject? Ask you why you call yourself black when you obviously aren't? Demand to know you percentage? Insist on knowing the source of the black taint? So make sure to join the local NAACP and ha e some tragic backstory: " my grandmother was born lightskinned, the child of a white man raping her mother in the Jim Crow era, and in order to achieve her goals was tragically forced to deny her people, her very soul, in order to overcome white racism, and she passed as white. But she always told us 'don't ever deny who you are, or the proud black family who gave you birth' and that is why my birth certificate says 'white'."
Believe me, it doesn't matter WHO hears that story in HR (and again, it is a virtual certainty they will never, EVER ask even if they note the discrepancy between application and birth certificate). Any one who hears it will see "massive, crippling law suit" hanging in the air should they change your racial designation to "white". Once they think about it, they will recognize that it really is to the company's advantage to take you at your word since if you are a good performer you will help them not only by getting the work done, but by boosting their diversity statistics.
Gentlemen, this is a trivial exercise and the payoff is massive for you and your family. You would be a fool not to do it in these times. HR departments with their 20-something bubble-brained chick staffers are absolutely DESPERATE to find any -- ANY -- "brown" minorities to hire and promote. My employer pays women with a bachelors degree the same as men with masters degrees just to get them to do engineering work.
Guys, you owe yourself. You owe your family. Do it.
That sounds like the movie Soul Man.
ReplyDeleteI made the same mistake, sending a crappy picture because I didn't want to waste a good one in that pre-digital age. The thing ended up in the college's "zoo book" of incoming students, which everyone avidly consulted for the next four years, and which is now, 30 years later, on the web for all to see.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I don't believe this story...
ReplyDeleteIf race is merely a social construct, then why can't whites "socially construct" themselves as black, a la the infamous 80's movie classic Soul Man.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out it wasn't for admissions at all, it was for inclusion in a booklet of all incoming freshmen that coeds in my class would thumb through for the next four years to discuss who was cute and who wasn't.
ReplyDeleteThey're called "facebooks." That's where the name for the social networking site "Facebook" came from.
Speaking of the undocumented, did you hear that Mexican President Felipe Calderon came to America to castigate Arizona for passing a law that would "criminalize migration"? How dare Arizona make illegal immigration illegal! Who do they think they are? Mexico?!
ReplyDeletehilarious!
ReplyDeleteIt's best to send a very conservative photo that makes you look undistinguished -- neither smart nor dumb -- just in case you flame out or embarrass yourself freshman year. I remember one student in my class who sent a photo of herself playing an electric guitar on stage and looking like a cool punk rocker for the freshman register. I kept thinking how pathetic she was while sitting next to me in lectures for an organic chemistry class that drove her to a nervous breakdown. That photo just made it hard for me to feel pity for her.
ReplyDeleteFrom now on I'm invoking the one-drop rule and claimed (falsely) I'm black.
ReplyDeleteOh come on. This story is almost certainly a lie. I suppose we're to think that admissions officers are stupid, that they don't jealously guard the spots they go to such lengths to promote with their glossy brochures and cross-country tours. First of all, they'd probably be in regular contact with the student's guidance counselor, who'd be able to attest to the student's race. Second, as is it is written in the HBD Bible, Black/White grades and scores don't really overlap at elite colleges; admissions is going to be curious about the AA with a 1400+/3.7+ applying to Stanford whom they haven't heard about from in the previous PSAT results. Or, in the opposite case, the high school (and thus eventually, the admission office) is going to be abuzz about the kid with the relatively poor academic record who received such a lucky break. Finally, blacks and whites are not in the same sub-culture in high school; they'll submit widely divergent names, reference different extracurricular activities, and their essays will be of varying vocabulary and quality. In sum, this is just the typical exaggerated affirmative action gripe tale.
ReplyDeleteA friend's sister married a South African Jew who is now a naturalized citizen.
ReplyDeleteHe takes great glee in categorizing himself as "African-American" whenever race is asked.
This story is likely true. University admissions judges your race based solely on self-identification - at least at the schools I've talked to. We can destroy AA through civil disobedience by self-identifying at the NAM of our choosing. I've been saying this for years to mostly deaf audiences. I don't know what kind of procedures the Feds have to determine someone's race for minority set-asides in federal contracting though - would be grateful if someone could chime in.
ReplyDeleteSince "hispanic" is even more nebulous than "black", it should be easier to get away with claiming some "hispanic" ancestry than black ancestry even if you're one of whitest, blondest people out there. If anyone asks, just claim you have an ancestor from Spain.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a full-blooded WASP or Northern European, claiming ancestry from Spain way way back isn't completely dishonest since much of Britain's population originally came from the Iberian peninsula.
If anyone is on to you, you gotta have attitude. Get very defensive and angry if anyone suggests you're not really black or hispanic.
I'm also wondering if claiming to be gay or trans-gender would help you get hired nowadays, even if you're really straight. Perhaps mention it during the interview or give some hints on it on your resume(concerning activism or work).
This may be more difficult to get out of though, if you're a guy pretending to be gay to get a job and once hired only show interest in the girls at work. I suppose you could claim you're "bi". The threat of lawsuits from gay rights groups is nearly as serious or as serious as threats of lawsuits from black or hispanic rights groups these days.
Perhaps the same could be said for pretending to be Muslim(you could even take off work on Muslim holidays LOL). A Muslim can also look like anything since they are not a race(just like hispanics).
If you really want to go the full monty, maybe you could even claim some kind of disability; a mild one obviously that doesn't affect you intellectually(flat feet? mild dyslexia?). Be creative. Be black, be hispanic, be gay and disabled and Muslim, and so many employers will be begging to hire you!
Lots of high schools don't even have guidance counselors.
ReplyDeleteThe story is true; and, yes, most people responsible for affirmative action quotas (even outside of academia) are more interested in meeting or beating their 'minority' quotas than taking a DNA test, etc. For example, currently, who in this country would actually test for such a thing anyways? You would be called a Nazi for doing it; and it calls into question how much makes you 'black', green or whatever color du jour you needed to be (and for obvious reasons PC police don't want to go there). Especially PC types would recoil at the thought of challenging someone's blackness or whateverness. Can you imagine the horror of contesting say a hundred applicants' blackness? Only one of those hundred has to be unjustly called white to end your career as PC/racist gate keeper. Get real, few, if any, PC fools would take such a chance. Again, the story is not just believable but also real.
ReplyDeleteYou should never be hitting on women at work.
ReplyDeleteAccording to legend survivors of the Spanish Armada came ashore in Scotland or Ireland in 1588. So it is possible that many people whose ancestors came from Scotland or Ireland are "Hispanic".
ReplyDeleteI'm mostly sure there is no legal definition of various racial categories. There are laws concerning treatment of certain ethnic and racial groups, but no way to determine whether or not someone is a member of protected group beyond his or her word.
ReplyDeleteEven if schools wanted to prevent whites from defrauding the affirmative action frauds, what could they do? Paper bag tests? Look for Negroid features? Would Valerie Jarrett pass? What about Alexis Herman? The "talented tenth" really would not appreciate being cut out of AA swindling.
My wife and step son are from Russia on the pacific coast. They are as blond and white as you can be. Technically they are Asians. When they visit China, the Chinese all want to touch their hair.
ReplyDelete"The story is true; and, yes, most people responsible for affirmative action quotas (even outside of academia) are more interested in meeting or beating their 'minority' quotas than taking a DNA test, etc. For example, currently, who in this country would actually test for such a thing anyways?"
ReplyDeleteExactly. You mark down "black", they get to admit a highly qualified "black" applicant. They get to keep their numbers up while simultaneously increasing their "diversity" bona fides. This is the best possible outcome for the administration.
The only danger is that militant black groups on campus will try to expose you, because they have an interest in making sure that the black quota slots go to legit grievance-mongering blacks.
According to legend survivors of the Spanish Armada came ashore in Scotland or Ireland in 1588. So it is possible that many people whose ancestors came from Scotland or Ireland are "Hispanic".
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip.
BTW last week when you wrote about Sandra Bullock I noticed on Wikipedia that she went to my old high school - Washington-Lee in Arlington, VA. I was a transfer from a Catholic military high school in Washington D.C. to W and L. I had to appear before a panel of school bureaucrats so they could get a look at me. There were no blacks or Hispanics in Arlington public schools then.
Enough Irish claiming to be Hispanic and we can expect those kind of face-to-face panels to be recreated.
According to legend survivors of the Spanish Armada came ashore in Scotland or Ireland in 1588. So it is possible that many people whose ancestors came from Scotland or Ireland are "Hispanic".
ReplyDeleteNot a legend; many were shipwrecked. Unfortunately they were then hunted down and slaughtered, virtually every last one.
I think that "Native American" is the most widely used b.s. ethnicity. My grandfather was half Sioux, etc. It would be pretty easy for someone to say that it was a family legend that they took for the truth. The glory here is that in the past, people were ashamed of being mixed blood, and so it is easily called a "family secret" that does not need any proof. Plus, Indian fades quicker than black, so you can point out the cheek bones in some old black and white photo and say, "see." Also, Indians were all over the US, so it's less contrived than saying grandpappa was Mexican. I guarantee asian-mixed kids are/will be claiming hispanic and or native american.
ReplyDeleteI saw a documentary a few years ago on affirmative action in Brazilian universities. Since virtually everyone in the country is mixed race, admissions boards are the utlinate judges of who is back enough to qualify for the AA slots.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the documentary, there was a notorious case where two identical twins, both male, went had separate interviews before different boards. One was classified as black. The other wasn't.
I know this guy, Steve! After college he got a a job selling oceanfront property in Arizona. You no doubt took full advantage to buy a few acres at a reduced rate; so when are you going to invite me to sit on the beach in Tucson.
ReplyDeleteAnd that bridge in Brooklyn he threw in to sweeten the deal; the toll booth is going up any day now!
great story Steve.
ReplyDeleteI am quite mediocre looking, but my college booklet photo somehow (I think due to black and white toning) came out one the best, most masculine picture of me ever.
Even if schools wanted to prevent whites from defrauding the affirmative action frauds, what could they do? Paper bag tests? Look for Negroid features?
ReplyDeleteUhhh...
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.
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They could subject them to DNA testing?
Rimshot: Badum-CHING!
steve, you are 6-4? no wonder you were blown away by seeing mark eaton in person. really tall guys tell me there is this moment when they pass some other, even taller guy on the street, and they look at them like "Wha...?" because it happens so rarely.
ReplyDeletei'm exactly 6-0, and i've seen a few guys who were a genuine 6-11 and they were TALL. too tall. way too tall for anything. would it even be worth it to be great at basketball if you still had to be 6-11 every moment of every day? it has to be far better to be 6-6 and great at hoops.
speaking of height, i love how everybody lies about it. like, when we see you, we can't see how tall you actually are. it's not something you can lie about! the internet has to be the worst enabler of this, with people's profiles on facebook and myspace and dating sites riddled with outright lies about height.
all the time people are trying to tell me they are 6 feet tall when i'm standing right next to them and i'm 2 inches taller. it's like clockwork with men. a few tall women even occasionally try to claim 6 feet when i clearly have to look down to see them eye to eye. women who are actually 6 feet tall usually want to be shorter. i'm guessing michelle wie towers over most of the "I'm 6 feet tall" casanovas on internet dating sites.
@couchscientist: I don't think that would work. There actually is a legally-defined "Native American" status in the US, unlike black or Hispanic. Attempting to claim it might work in the short run, but it runs the risk of being exposed like all those people who falsely claim Viet Nam veteran status.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree with anonymous about British/Irish/Scottish Iberian connection. Let alone the Armada survivors, a good migration of folks came from Iberian. Hence Irish are Hispanic. It would be nice if some of the Irish heritage organizations push this claim. It would be a lot easier individuals out there to check the Hispanic box if there was at least some ethnic organization out there checking the box as well.
ReplyDeleterob sed:
ReplyDeleteI'm mostly sure there is no legal definition of various racial categories. There are laws concerning treatment of certain ethnic and racial groups, but no way to determine whether or not someone is a member of protected group beyond his or her word.
This was exactly the main argument hurled against Apartheid, that you cannot scientifically measure race. The way it worked back then was that bureaucrats decided whether you were white, indian, colored or black.
Nowadays with DNA testing one could perhaps construct a more scientific approach, but the hypocrisy is that blacks in the US and Africa, and liberals carried on with the unscientific racial profiling in order to push their grievances, whilst shouting down the "racists".
Now that I think about it, I should have sent in a picture of a male model.
ReplyDelete... and married some Rice krispie rather than the girl you found in Chicago? What would Mrs S have to say about that?
My friend Ronald is a blue eyed blond. He looks approximately like a taller version of Robert Redford - a sort of poster boy for the Hitler Youth. --anon.
Yeah, like the blond private over whom the swarthy, oily, latently homoerotic Kraut officers drooled in Triumph of the Will. In the UK, that boy would have been giving them the orders.
(BTW, nobody's an "Anglo". Let's bury this ugly term. Or at least reattach it.)
... two identical twins, both male... --anoth. anon.
That's redundant, and repeats itself as well.
To be an official Native American, you have to be on a tribal registry. And tribes are always expelling members without enough ancestry because that increases the casino money per surviving member. So, lotsa luck in getting into a tribe.
ReplyDeleteReg Caesar:
ReplyDelete\
Why must you be so excessively superfluous?
Steve's right about Native American Ancestry. I knew someone who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and they said that the rule almost without exception is 1/4 ancestry or greater.
ReplyDeletemost armada survivors went home - the original number was only about 400 - but yes preceltic british isles were populated first by iberians.
ReplyDeletethe most famous hispanic hustle of all- some jewish guy claimed his ancestors were sephardic jews who went to poland 400 years earlier and thus was able to puchase a radio stadtion in LA w / gov help.
yeah, because there's not enough jewish owners, i guess.
Ah, the Rice "meat sheet." Brings back memories.
ReplyDeleteActually, there were legal one-drop rules.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia's entry is a good read.
Mark Shiver, Penn State prof, estimates 30% of self-identified US whites have a black racial admixture of 2.3%; the equivalent of having had 3 black ancestors among their 128 5xgreat-grandparents.
And tribes are always expelling members without enough ancestry because that increases the casino money per surviving member.
ReplyDeleteCherokees eject slave descendants
Members of the Cherokee Nation of native Americans have voted to revoke tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves the Cherokees once owned.
Sunday, 4 March 2007
news.bbc.co.uk
Cherokees Pull Freed Slaves' Memberships
By MURRAY EVANS, Associated Press Writer
March 4, 2007
google.com
We need amnesty NOW for undocumented military officers - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_army_infiltrator
ReplyDeleteIf there is one molecule of truth to the "my friend's friend" Stanford yarn, I'll eat my chitlins.
ReplyDeleteFor your further edification, you get no affirmative action points for hiring for a job or admitting to school a Spaniard or someone of Spanish (from Spain) heritage. Nice try, though.
Drumroll, DNA testing has some problems. First, all the liberals who spent years claiming that we couldn't determine race from genes would have admit they were lying. Second, much of the nominally black upper class might not qualify for AA under such an objective measure of race. Third, there's no legal definition of black. None at all. So whatever the DNA test shows, it proves nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteMost importantly, how do you think the NAACP etc. would react when a college wanted DNA samples from all the black students? It just looks too much like a potential criminal list.
It's pretty easy for a white to pass for Afro-multiracial. Just put on lots of bronzer and get dreadlocks (or even a baseball cap to conceal your hair).
ReplyDeletespeaking of height, i love how everybody lies about it. like, when we see you, we can't see how tall you actually are. it's not something you can lie about! the internet has to be the worst enabler of this, with people's profiles on facebook and myspace and dating sites riddled with outright lies about height.
ReplyDeleteYeah, kind of like how everybody on the Internet has 150+ IQ.
What? Doesn't having more members make the whole tribe richer?
ReplyDeleteGuess Brimelow answered that in the negative in Alien Nation. The tribes agree with him it seems.
Kent Gatewood
What a great story(the picture guy,that is). Of course a (crummy and stupid)movie was made about this,with C Thomas Howell in blackface. It was sappy and dumb,preaching that-dammit-AA may seem unfair,but its there for a reason,to help dear sweet struggling minorities. The guy in your story is awesome.(I have wondered if a national movement to have every white person check "Black" on their SAT form could be launched!) A funny movie could be made,inspired by this guy, with the intent to satirize AA,perhaps the climax being the guy is picked somehow to greet prez Obama as he arrives to receive an honorary degree.(Honorary,like all his OTHER degrees!) BTW a new scandal in Chicago as it seems the precious set-aside programs for dear blacks,Mexicans,women and Asians(Asians?? Even the smart ones?) was corrupted and the money despicably wasted on hardworking white men who did an honest days work...'stead of spent correctly on lazy,no-good incompetent mino's & broads who know somebody. For shame!!
ReplyDeleteRe height - the extreme exaggeration of male height seems an especially US thing. I'm 5'9" and I stand as tall as American men I've met who claim 6'.
ReplyDeleteOTOH it's true about really tall US women claiming shorter. I know a 6'3" Texan, she literally has to go to Holland to get a date. But she claims 6'.
I heard a similar story about a student who wanted to go to Cal Poly, but didn't have the grades and knew he wouldn't be accepted. At the time of his application, he chipped his tooth, and thought since he wouldn't get in anyway, he'd comb his hair forward and smile with a his chipped tooth prominently displayed a la 'Dumb and Dumber'.
ReplyDeleteAdmissions felt that someone so afflicted could make it this far, he deserved admission.
Hi, Mnuez here.
ReplyDeleteSome of you may recall with great annoyance how I used to mention here and on other HBD sites that the claim about Jews favoring random other Jews when it comes to hiring and whatnot is nonsense. In the voice of fantastic vitriol I shouted repeatedly that those who believed in a Jewish mafia that helped the tribe (rather than their nephew, which of course takes place in any normal human family) and which aided in accounting for the high percentage of prominent Jewish scientists, writers, political leaders and businessmen were godd*amn antisemites impervious to reason and uninterested in the facts.
Well here we have a whole thread dedicated exclusively to the subject of being assisted in college accewptance and jobs by claiming to be something you're not and NOBODY mentions claiming you're Jewish?! Why the hell not? In fact it carries no threat at all being as the American definition of a Jew is literally anyone who says he is. Unlike claiming African or Hispanic heritage, claiming to be Jewish (heck, you could even choose to stop being Jewish the next day!) carries no risks.
Yet it apparently occured to NO ONE here.
To be sure, finding commonality with your interviewer is always wise whether she's a stamp collector, a lesbian or a reformed jew. but that's not what we're talking about. We're discussing whether claiming to be Jewish in your essay to admissions is likely to assist you or not. MY claim is that being named Cohen or Goldberg is likely to HARM your chances with admissions.
But - until your silence shouted otherwise - I'd always assumed that most istevers disagreed with me. Antisemites of convenience then? Ey?
First, all the liberals who spent years claiming that we couldn't determine race from genes would have admit they were lying.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
That's the joke.
I actually thought that it was about the funniest thing I had ever posted to iSteve, but I guess was wrong.
steve, you are 6-4? no wonder you were blown away by seeing mark eaton in person. really tall guys tell me there is this moment when they pass some other, even taller guy on the street, and they look at them like "Wha...?" because it happens so rarely.
ReplyDeletei'm exactly 6-0, and i've seen a few guys who were a genuine 6-11 and they were TALL. too tall. way too tall for anything. would it even be worth it to be great at basketball if you still had to be 6-11 every moment of every day? it has to be far better to be 6-6 and great at hoops.
I know what you mean. I'm used to being the tallest guy in the room. When someone's taller, it ain't by much. Then I meet a friend of a friend in a bar and I don't know how tall he is, but I'm thinking about 7'. It's a whole 'nother ball of wax. I kept ribbing the guy, telling him not to stand near me or I might knife him out of reflex, etc. Only mostly kidding.
Drup Role Please wrote (sarcastically):
ReplyDeleteThey could subject them to DNA testing?
Why do you think that leftists would suddenly start caring about naked contradictions when they never cared before?
If we white guys suddenly starting declaring ourselves to be black, hispanic (or whatever), the leftists would get wise to it and administer the tests. That they said the tests were impossible (the day earlier) will be summarily unwritten from history. We'ere talking about the same leftists who declared that discrimination was the most evil, pernicious, vile. etc... thing imaginable, and *then* went on to introduce affirmative action.
speaking of height, I love how everybody lies about it.
ReplyDeleteI knew a guy who boldly lied about his height, saying "I'm six foot" when he was at best 5/8."
Years later, he ended up killing his ex-wife and their kids. You may have read about him, a Reno pawn shop owner.
"Well here we have a whole thread dedicated exclusively to the subject of being assisted in college accewptance and jobs by claiming to be something you're not and NOBODY mentions claiming you're Jewish?!
ReplyDelete"Why the hell not? In fact it carries no threat at all being as the American definition of a Jew is literally anyone who says he is. Unlike claiming African or Hispanic heritage, claiming to be Jewish (heck, you could even choose to stop being Jewish the next day!) carries no risks."
"MY claim is that being named Cohen or Goldberg is likely to HARM your chances with admissions."
Errr...
How would we go about impersonating a Jew for admission purposes and change back the next day?
How's that going to work, again?
A kid named Brian Johnson is supposed to check "Jew" and put for his name Brian Cohen, but he would be also able to change back out of being a Jew the next day, and no one would care?
Just say you're Hispanic. Your grandparents were from Argentina or somewhere like that. Hispanic is not a racial category, and does not require that you speak Spanish. Voila, you now have the levers of Affirmative Action working for you.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't Stanford require that each applicant schedule a face-to-face interview with an alumni, like Harvard? You'd need to pull off a pretty convincing minstrel show.
ReplyDeleteAs a high school senior I was interviewed by a surgeon for Harvard, a minister for Princeton, and an investment banker for Columbia. It turned out to be unnecessary, but perhaps I could have played for some sympathy by pretending to have mild cerebral palsy.
John and Steve:
ReplyDeleteThe level of proof depends on what you're applying for. You'll get checked if you try to get some of that "injun" money out there, oil residuals and govt grants, etc. But if you are applying to colleges or for a job, you are not going to need to prove tribal membership. And btw, some tribes will actually sell you "membership" papers. This is a scam they usually run on/for Mexican illegals. John is right that it could come back to haunt you. For instance if you need to pass a security clearance for a govt position or for a professional license (state bars, etc), some investigator may see it as an honesty issue. But, if you are some kid who wants to get into a better school or some guy that wants to work at Acme Corp...as it's been stated, there is an incentive by the institutions to bring in a diverse group on paper and little incentive to make sure the people are what they say.
This week's edition in Shameless:
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin
money-grubbing, mercenary. She's in it, for the money!!!
I might consider listing myself as hispanic when I apply to law school considering I have some Mediterranean ancestry (and actually look the part too). After all, there are many white "hispanics" who are lighter than me who take advantage of all these scholarships and goodies. In fact, I'd even estimate the white "hispanics" are taking advantage of these opportunities far more often than the ones of mestizo/indigenous ancestry. A girl I went to high school won a "hispanic heritage" scholarship to my university that gives her free tuition. Of course, she has light brown hair and green eyes. Her dad is a Brazilian of German/Italian descent.
ReplyDelete@bamagirl
ReplyDeleteUnderstand the way that your local bar will scrutinize your law school applications before you put anything questionable down. If they think that you are dishonest on it, you'll have problems.
My cousin (female, Caucasian) attended Harris-Stowe State University. Admission was not the race-based problem: the skin color of good grade-earners was the problem.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first report card (she earned 4.0+), they changed her race Black Afro-American. When she noticed she went to admin and asked them to correct it. The response was "What does it matter?"
For the remainder of her 4.0+ Harris-Stowe State University experience, she fought to have her race correctly identified as "Caucasian." She would be a listed-Caucasian for a few months, then, when grades came out, she was magically transformed into Black Afro-American.
She realized that race-based GPA statistics must be very important to someone: important enough to willfully change her listed race from white to black.
Sadly, this was but one of many race scams at HSSU.
"Truth said...
ReplyDeleteI know this guy, Steve! After college he got a a job selling oceanfront property in Arizona. You no doubt took full advantage to buy a few acres at a reduced rate; so when are you going to invite me to sit on the beach in Tucson. And that bridge in Brooklyn he threw in to sweeten the deal; the toll booth is going up any day now!"
You can drive there in your water-powered car, and chat about pseudo quantum bullshit, Mr. Credulous.
This week's edition in Shameless: Sarah Palin money-grubbing, mercenary. She's in it, for the money!!!
ReplyDeleteHuh?
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteMy cousin (female, Caucasian) attended Harris-Stowe State University. Admission was not the race-based problem: the skin color of good grade-earners was the problem."
To judge from their website, academics is not their primary focus. They even quite directly state that:
http://www.hssu.edu/
I gather that they are an HBCU. I wonder how wide-spread the practice you described is at black colleges.
True, couchscientist. I was mostly being sarcastic though, although I would love to do it. Mainly pointing out how stupid the category of "hispanic" is. I mean, affirmative action is already dumb enough but the fact that certain categories of European people are eligible for it (and their similar looking neighbors aren't) too is even more ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that leftists would suddenly start caring about naked contradictions when they never cared before?
ReplyDeleteRight, that was the joke - or at least what was supposed to have been the joke.
But apparently I touched a raw nerve, and no one else thought that it was funny.
Sorry.