Blond hair, blue eyed boy claiming to be Native American for college admission

[Anonymous]

My coworker is white, blond and blue eyed. Her mom is Chinese. My coworker grew up in Hong Kong and her family pics are of all traditionally looking Chinese people. Her dad was a white blond guy from New Zealand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a neighbor who constantly mentions how her son will have no problem with college admission because he is Native American. Her husband, herself and her child ALL have blond hair and blue eyes. A few times when she has mentioned this someone in the group had looked at her funny or come right and asked how are you Native American. She'll go on that she has a paper from the tribe and they make sure to stay a part of it so they can use it later. They have never lived on a reservation or follow any Native American traditions.

Assuming this is true and she is not nuts, this strikes me as not being the intent for affirmative action to help Native Americans. Do colleges accept stuff like this?

I have a friend whose mother is 100% Lakota Sioux, who married a white guy. My friend's kids hair color ranges from blond to black, I've never really noticed eye color. Neither she nor the kids have ever lived on a reservation but my friend's mother is very involved politically in Native American affairs, they have relatives on reservations, my friend's mom and uncles were forced to attend boarding schools (which is the basis of my friend's mom's intense Catholicism). Their tribe allows enrollment up to 1/8 Native blood, although the benefits of enrollment diminish as the blood fraction does.

Also, every tribe determines enrollment criteria. Although many tribes use blood quantum, that measure originated with whites just like white measurements of blackness did. Also, blood quantum poses complicated problems; I know people whose origins involve several tribes and who to look at are full-blood native but not eligible to belong to any tribe.

[Anonymous]

^^ also, if you are not a member of the tribe with which the family claims connection, you probably should not be presuming who is Indian enough. It's unseemly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:23 and me affirmative action game changer

Not at all. 23andme won’t get you on a tribe’s rolls. It won’t even help you out if it turns out the infant you want to adopt has a NA parent and you dig up a NA great-grandparent who never enrolled.

[Anonymous]

My blonde hair blue eyed kids are part Hawaiian/ Chinese.

[Anonymous]

If they have the tribal membership papers, they’re considered Native American. MYOB.

Also genetics are weird. Did you know Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack on Saved by the Bell) is 1/4 Asian? So is NFL rookie QB Kyler Murray. So you really can’t always tell a persons ethnic background at first glimpse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ also, if you are not a member of the tribe with which the family claims connection, you probably should not be presuming who is Indian enough. It's unseemly.

+1 million.

Also, if your idea of being "Indian enough" only includes folks who have lived on a reservation? Well, that's racist. I mean, it just is.

[Anonymous]

https://i1.wp.com/metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/gbbo1.png?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=644%2C371[img]
Ruby Tandoh's grandpa is From Ghana. People that know could tell right away that she has African genes, people that live in their little bubble can't see past their noses. Or you can't tell. I know blonde(white blonde) blue eyes Spaniards here, that can put Hispanic on their applications. Race is a social construct OP, not physical, you should learn that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ also, if you are not a member of the tribe with which the family claims connection, you probably should not be presuming who is Indian enough. It's unseemly.

+1 million.

Also, if your idea of being "Indian enough" only includes folks who have lived on a reservation? Well, that's racist. I mean, it just is.

OP heard it directly from Herr Trump, a self-proclaimed expert in who looks Indian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://i1.wp.com/metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/gbbo1.png?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=644%2C371[img]
Ruby Tandoh's grandpa is From Ghana. People that know could tell right away that she has African genes, people that live in their little bubble can't see past their noses. Or you can't tell. I know blonde(white blonde) blue eyes Spaniards here, that can put Hispanic on their applications. Race is a social construct OP, not physical, you should learn that.

I’m the black person mistaken for white upthread. Incidentally, my 2nd grader and I are watching this season right now. I called it—I knew she had some black ancestry! Thanks for confirming!

[Anonymous]

Years ago I knew a woman who was blonde w/ blue eyes and did not look African American at all. Both her parents were very light skinned AA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23 and me affirmative action game changer

Not at all. 23andme won’t get you on a tribe’s rolls. It won’t even help you out if it turns out the infant you want to adopt has a NA parent and you dig up a NA great-grandparent who never enrolled.

How much African is required for African American

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is blonde haired and blue eyed and is 1/4 Chinese. Genes are weird.

Absolutely. AA families are used to this.

Exactly.

Obama is full AA yet some people say he had a white mother.

#haters

What is wrong with you? Why are you so triggered that a man with a white mom identifies as AA. For many biracial people, mixed is AA. Most AAs have somewhere between 15-25% European ancestry. There’s virtually no chance of being 100% African if your ancestors were here antebellum.

Yep. I’m half Asian/Caucasian, but guess what, to everyone in the US, I’m Asian (or sometimes Hispanic). If you’re half white and half a minority, you’re automatically the minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23 and me affirmative action game changer

Not at all. 23andme won’t get you on a tribe’s rolls. It won’t even help you out if it turns out the infant you want to adopt has a NA parent and you dig up a NA great-grandparent who never enrolled.

How much African is required for African American

It doesn’t that way, Troll. Technically, my DDs are more European than African. However, they have always lived as AAs. They have attended historically AA churches, participated in clubs, activities, etc that were either focused on AA culture or were majority AA in makeup, and were always registered in school as AA.

This has nothing to do with college admissions or FA. It’s about lived identity. My girls have never identified as anything else.

If someone has always lived as AA from birth, I don’t care if they are 51% European or 90%.

[Anonymous]

People like to pretend affirmative action in college admissions is some sort of reparations policy.

It’s not.

It’s to make campuses more diverse, full stop. Colleges can and do investigate when something doesn’t seem to add up. I had a couple classmates try to get cute with their representations in their apps and they didn’t do very well with admissions.