Reply to S/O- Affirmative Action- where does it end?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The one drop rule does not apply. Your son is white. [/quote]

OP here and in that case genuine question- what would you say defines when someone can/cannot claim a racial affiliation?  Racial percentage (and if so what percent is acceptable ), skin tone? Cultural affinity?

I agree that it seems somehow wrong, given the goals of affirmative action, but I’m struggling with if/how I should tell my son not to claim a legitimate part of his heritage because the benefit is not meant for him, especially knowing that the college game is rigged in so many other ways.
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What has he been selecting all along to register for school, medical forms, and census etc.?  My kids are bi-racial and every form has checked both black and white.  They aren’t white their whole lives on every form and suddenly two races for college applications. [/quote]

OP here- up to this point we have been the ones filling out these forms for him and we have usually left it blank or checked the « decline to state » box. [/quote]

Am I the only person who thinks this is a great topic for discussion but feels that more likely than not we are being trolled by someone opposed to affirmative action?  This reminds me of the BIPOC thread.[/quote]

OP and I guarantee that I’m not a troll. In answer to prior questions as to why we declined to state his race on past forms...it’s complicated. My own racial  identity is something that I always struggled with when growing up given my background and upbringing (and this was back when we were told you could only pick one race when filling out forms, and other often wasn’t even an option). Under the circumstances, and especially when he was very young, I kind of wanted to wait until he was old enough to have a say in how he chooses to identify.[/quote]

Well what does your son have to say about it? Again I would just strongly urge you to make sure you understand what race actually is - it is not biological, it was created to justify subjugating people. Fast forward to now, colleges care about how you identify because it speaks to what your life experience might be. I think you understand this or else you would not have asked the question. Most kids that check the AA box will have other things in their background that speaks to the fact that they identify as African American.  For all of the hand-wringing here I can tell you that colleges, especially the top ones can tell the difference. It's the same as someone who has identified as white all of their life all of a sudden checking the Hispanic/Latino box because their grandmother was from Spain. It did not help that child in the college admission process one bit. You do what is best for you and please allow your child to have a say. Also this is the type of thing that can blow back on a person later in life, so there's that too. - See Elizabeth Warren.

From my view the problem isn't with affirmative action - the problem is with racism as you can see from this thread.

Signed - a black woman with two kids in college.
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