Checking the Native American box.

[drsocc]

Would this help you out at all even if you don't look Native American at all?

The school I'm attending and about to graduate from recently took a Chinese American student who checked the Hispanic box into their graduate engineering program.  The admissions people and faculty who took him hadn't met him before he arrived and were expecting, well, a mexican person.  They were all kind of shocked when he got there.

Of course they let him stay - he was still a picture perfect student.  His reasoning for checking the box was that he identified with the latin culture and really enjoyed listening to salsa music.  To be fair he also lived in Spain for a number of years, spoke fluent spanish and he really was a pretty good representation of someone who identified with latin culture.

My Question:

If I checked the Native American box (I really am something like 1/32 or something ridiculous like that) would it help my chances of getting into a better school?  Also - would admissions people be ticked when I showed up and looked white catholic but explained my cultural identification with the Algonquin?

[drsocc]

This might not be the right place for this topic - if a mod wants to move it feel free.

[Slim]

If you check Native american You better be able to prove it with documentation.  I'm 1/4 cherokee on both sides of my family but I never check Native American because I'm not documented.  If you can't prove it they will probably be a little upset.

I can prove it I just never took advantage of it.  I have talk to my grandmother to get the nemes of my ancestors.  Then I have contact the Cherokee Nation to see if thier names are on the membership rolls if so then I have to petition the Feds for Blood Documents stating that I'm Native American.

You don't have to look Native American to be Native American.  You just have to be honest with yourself and not be a racist prick.

[drsocc]

If you check Native american You better be able to prove it with documentation.  I'm 1/4 cherokee on both sides of my family but I never check Native American because I'm not documented.  If you can't prove it they will probably be a little upset.

I can prove it I just never took advantage of it.  I have talk to my grandmother to get the nemes of my ancestors.  Then I have contact the Cherokee Nation to see if thier names are on the membership rolls if so then I have to petition the Feds for Blood Documents stating that I'm Native American.

You don't have to look Native American to be Native American.  You just have to be honest with yourself and not be a racist prick.

That was a little extreme.

[Slim]

I don't think so.  either you are or you aren't.  People were murdered because of thier race.  People are murdered today because of thier race.  To some this AA thing is some sort of a game.  How much can they lie and get away with it.  They think its unfair thay can't take advantage of a system designed to soften past transgressions.  What they don't realize is that some of the people applying today have parents that were abused under an opressive system and still feel the pains of a racist society on the verge of genocide.

I don't find this line of questioning amusing.  If the OP really had a case he wouldn't ask this question on LSD he would ask the admissions people at his school.  This is a flame and I suspect OP's a racist prick.

[drsocc]

To be honest I don't know much about AA.  I just figured it was a way to expose people to other cultures as opposed to living, schooling, and and working in a waspy bubble your whole life unable to communicate or relate to the rest of the world.

[Cabra]

Cultural identification doesn't cut it. And unless you can write a compelling diversity statement about being Native American I don't think checking the box will help all that much.

If you were 1/32 but grew up on a reservation, sure, you could be Native American. But you, OP, are not.

[UFBoldAsLove]

I am 1/4 Muskogee Native American, and I check the box because I ALWAYS have. When I was 6 years old taking my first standardized test, when I didn't even know what AA was, I checked NA because my grandmother and father had made me proud of my culture. Its a part of who I am. It doesn't sound like this is the case with you, please don't check it.

[drsocc]

I am 1/4 Muskogee Native American, and I check the box because I ALWAYS have. When I was 6 years old taking my first standardized test, when I didn't even know what AA was, I checked NA because my grandmother and father had made me proud of my culture. Its a part of who I am. It doesn't sound like this is the case with you, please don't check it.

I wasn't being serious asking if I should check the box.  It was a joke.  It was just a humorous way of asking about whether or not cultural identification should place you into a particular ethnic group or not.

[drsocc]

Adahy, are you from Atlanta?