The question is “Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW.”
I think it’s pretty clear that race is one factor. A number of years ago affirmative action programs in our state were banned, so this is one way that local colleges in WA address that issue.
My mother’s life and the lessons she passed on to her kids and grandkids are very much a part of our family culture. Her stories of being unable to go out to bars or restaurants in 1940s Santa Fe with her Navajo husband (they literally had “No dogs or Indians allowed” signs!), combined with having many aunts, uncles, and cousins who aren’t white and have had to deal with the challenges of that reality in a white-dominated culture, really imbued our family with a strong sense of the realities of racial injustice and the need for white people to step up and ally themselves with the marginalized in our communities. This is what my son shared in his essay.
That seems pretty relevant to me.