Mixed Race applicants and choosing which box to check

[Temporary Relief Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor]

Seeing as the online applications seem to allow only one box to be chosen for ethnicity, would it be troublesome for an applicant to check one box for some applications, and another box for other applications.  Let's say the person has one black grandparent and the other 3 are white.  Is there any rule that the applicant has to maintain consistency in identifying ethnicity for all applications?

[Temporary Relief Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor]

Check the box that indicates your majority race (unless you were raised almost exclusively in your minority culture). Write a diversity statement. If you want to be cheeky, check "I prefer not to respond" and write your statement about how hard it is to be mixed race in America (alla To Kill a Mockingbird).

This doesn't apply to me personally, I'm just curious in general.  If someone identifies more with their majority race, but knows that they technically can identify as the minority race without it being dishonest, can they get in trouble for choosing the URM race for reach schools, and staying with their ORM race for targets & safeties?

[Temporary Relief Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor]

A lot of times a school will have a box that says other ( please explain). So i would just mark other and explain. IMO, you should be consistent in all your apps. Remember before you go in front of the bar they see your law school applications.

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,92108.0/topicseen.html

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,91254.0.html

The bar will see all your applications, or the application from the school you attended?  I imagine schools don't keep applications of rejected applicants for 3+ years.  And, since there is nothing particularly dishonest in my hypothetical person checking a URM box, is there really anything the bar can/will do?  It's not like this is a totally white person checking African American and then saying, "I like rap music and Martin Lawrence movies, so I identify with black culture."

[Temporary Relief Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor]

lol! are you sure you're not the hypothetical person. My "friend wants to know."
The only reason why i provided those links were simply for reference. The answer to your situation is within the longer thread, even though the original topic was different.

I was just making a general statement about "applications" for everyone. That would be very presumptuous of me to say that schools hold onto apps for 3 years. I simply do not know that.

But my point is, there is a really simple solution to this issue. Mark other on your apps and submit an addendum. That's it. IMO, what you identify yourself as, should be consistent across all apps.

Haha.  Honestly, if I were in this situation I would probably just click on the URM one for every application.  I actually thought of this situation because of that long thread about lying about being a URM, and people were trying to come up with semi-plausible ways you could claim URM status you don't have.  Especially of interest was the article linked to about how whites are having DNA tests that give you a rough percentage breakdown by race so that they can claim URM status.  If that passes the test, surely being 1/4 URM does.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/12/us/12genes.html?ex=1302494400&en=94e1fa50f8081d8e&ei=5090

[UNAS]

If he/she looks black/mixed I would check it. If she/he look like a white person with slightly tanned skin I would say no. You get discriminated because you can't hide the fact you are black. ergo, your inability to blend in.

[Lindbergh]

If he/she looks black/mixed I would check it. If she/he look like a white person with slightly tanned skin I would say no. You get discriminated because you can't hide the fact you are black. ergo, your inability to blend in.

So AA is not about cultural diversity, but simply off-setting the fact someone looks different?

[UNAS]

If he/she looks black/mixed I would check it. If she/he look like a white person with slightly tanned skin I would say no. You get discriminated because you can't hide the fact you are black. ergo, your inability to blend in.

So AA is not about cultural diversity, but simply off-setting the fact someone looks different?

In my mind cultural diversity is secondary, to the outright discrimination a person has experienced merely because of the color of their skin. Cultural diversity should not be scoffed at; but if I have people insulting my intelligence, smothering me with invectives in front of and behing my back, think of me as a criminal and are threatened by my mere existence simply because they think i am black warrants some remedy. wouldn't you agree? Maybe not to the same extent as an African American who has been the beneficiary of a piss poor public education on top of the other issue mentioned, but to an extent nonetheless

[rempli2]

I've always checked off black, though I'm biracial (50/50).  My skin colour is very light but I do have African features (ie. I don't look like Halle Berry).

Race isn't just a biological thing, it's a sociological thing.  When people see me walking down the street, they say "there goes a black woman" and I've used that as my guide when checking the boxes.

[Lindbergh]

I've always checked off black, though I'm biracial (50/50).  My skin colour is very light but I do have African features (ie. I don't look like Halle Berry).

Race isn't just a biological thing, it's a sociological thing.  When people see me walking down the street, they say "there goes a black woman" and I've used that as my guide when checking the boxes.

Do they say this out loud?   

[Lindbergh]

If he/she looks black/mixed I would check it. If she/he look like a white person with slightly tanned skin I would say no. You get discriminated because you can't hide the fact you are black. ergo, your inability to blend in.

So AA is not about cultural diversity, but simply off-setting the fact someone looks different?

In my mind cultural diversity is secondary, to the outright discrimination a person has experienced merely because of the color of their skin. Cultural diversity should not be scoffed at; but if I have people insulting my intelligence

Doesn't AA do this to some extent?

smothering me with invectives in front of and behing my back, think of me as a criminal and are threatened by my mere existence simply because they think i am black warrants some remedy. wouldn't you agree?

I'm not sure how you really remedy this kind of negative attitude, except by seeking to minimize it.  Should fat people, ugly people, etc. also recieve a remedy?  How is preferential admissions to schools a remedy for rude, offensive treatment? 

Maybe not to the same extent as an African American who has been the beneficiary of a piss poor public education on top of the other issue mentioned, but to an extent nonetheless

Why?  How will this help, especially if it reinforces stereotypes and makes many people more resentful and racist?

I agree with you, though, that URM's that don't face meaningful discrimination shouldn't be considered at all.