Reply to What is the requirement to be classified as black or African-American in a college application?

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Reply to "What is the requirement to be classified as black or African-American in a college application?"

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[quote=Anonymous]African American refers to people who are members of a cultural group that is ascended from American slaves of African descent.  Someone born somewhere other than the US (unless born to AA expats or something like that) would not qualify.

Black means you have recent or distant ancestors from subsaharan Africa and have the distinctive physical characteristics of that group, especially dark skin.  If your recent ancestors were from Zimbabwe, but at some point all their ancestors were from Europe you don't qualify.

To be able to ethically check the box you need to be in one of those 2 categories.

Having said that most universities aren't handing out admissions preference based on a box.  They are looking at a student's entire application, including things like essays and history of where you lived, to determine whether someone brings a perspective they feel is missing.  Someone who writes a fascinating essay on the experience of coming to understand South African society, and lists Xhosa and Afikaans as fluent languages may get an admissions bid just like someone who plays the basoon or represents an underrepresented group in the US.[/quote]

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