Lying about Race

K_J
Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:35:59 +0000

I find this discussion rather troublesome…

1) Race is actually not biologically constituted. It is a social construction that has nothing to do with genetics (in that case we should also have tall and short races, blue-eyed and brown-eyed races, big handed and small-handed races, etc.).

2) Lying about your background would be wrong, yes, however, you as an individual have the right to identify with any group that you please. If you consider your identity to be more in line with what we traditionally think of as Hispanic culture, you could go ahead and state that even if your phenotypical appearance might be Asian. You have the right to identify with any group you want.

3) Names mean nothing. Adcoms can’t make assumptions based on that information–they are professionals with ethical standards to adhere to.

It seems to me that it would be more helpful for everyone if adcoms moved away from speaking about ethnic identity or race and instead asked applicants to identify the color of their skin or even better, their ethnic background, i.e. where they hail from, not who they identify with.