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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]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.  [/b]

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]

So, your conclusion is that President Obama is not African-American.[/quote]

I don't think Obama intially identified as AA when he was young. (White mother, raised by white grandparents, little contact with his father) Our culture rapidly informed him that he is AA. You don't get out of having an AA identity if you look like he does.

My cousin's kid is biracial. She didn't have much contact with her black relatives, either, but she isn't allowed to identify as white or mostly white by our culture. She's black. If she forgets that she's black, somebody is going to remind her that she's black. [/quote]

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