Things you've found give people a false sense of security about getting into college

Applying to College
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<p>Millancad, can you help me explain what I’m going to post. See if it makes sense to you. This post is in response to Crimsonchins most recent post.</p>

<p>Oh I meant that Black Americans have ties to slavery (Only U.S). Every black person has ties to Africa. All races originate from Africa (debatable; this is what science suggests), but migrated to different parts of the world. We are talking about blacks as a skin color and classification (today). We aren’t saying that Black Americans solely have ties to slavery. There are blacks in England and in other places, but we are talking about America. I’m not sure what methods other countries use in classifying blacks or people from African countries. I doubt in England, Spain or France there is a check box labeled African American/Black, unless all black people in England are American citizens (I doubt that).</p>

<p>You are overanalyzing the classification. We mean ties, as in, past generations that endured slavery in the United States (recent). I’ll give you an example. Michelle Obama is a Black American. She has ancestry in Africa, but her ancestors (grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents, etc.) in the U.S were slaves or lived during the era.</p>

<p>It is very hard to live in Africa. No one is saying that it isn’t. They are subject to oppression, genocide and other things due to weak government and tribal conflict. Although there are many rich Africans and highly developed African cities. Africa is a very lively and interesting place to learn about cultures and tribes. Although it has larger problems, a sizable portion of Africa thrives. Every continent has its problems. I don’t think you should compare slavery to the problems in Africa today. </p>

<p>If you are from any African country and you migrate to the U.S.(become a citizen) you are an African American. Checking the box African American/Black doesn’t mean you are black (skin color). It means you are African American or Black. If you are black (skin color), you either have ancestry from Africa or have ties to slavery in some form. There are blacks (skin color) that migrate to England and obtain citizenship there. They are black, but if you analyze their history, they have ties to slavery or Africa(ancestry). There are black people in Brazil for example. Brazil has the largest concentration of blacks outside of Africa. Those people are Afro-Brazilian or Black Brazilian because they have ancestry in Africa. Due to intense mixing (Europeans, Native Americans, etc), there are some people that might not look black (skin color), but have ancestry or history in Africa. They choose what they want to identify themselves as (In America).</p>

<p>The way I wrote it is kind of confusing, but I hope you get what I tried to explain.</p>

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<p>just one second there millancad. there is plight and suffering just about anywhere in the world, but you can’t honestly argue that africa isn’t getting some of the worst of it. every day it seems there is a new charity to help poor africans, and there problems just feed into each other. all the killing and rape lead to more aids victims etc…</p>

<p>yes they have cities, but nothing as advanced as beijing, new york, LA, or London. the cities are few and far between, and not nearly as modern as most. they have the highest rate of urbanization because there are so few cities at the present moment and they are still developing. i’ve heard of developing countries, but this is a developing continent.</p>

<p>i see your point about asia. unfortunately, that’s not applicable to the college discussion at hand because asians do not receive affirmative action. no one regards africa as all being the same either, but their problems are more pronounced and well known. i never said that living in africa is tantamount to slavery. i only tried to illustrate that the africans who migrate here today faced their own difficulties in life as those who were enslaved did in the past. as another poster said “I would like to point out that Black Americans feel that African Americans owe them for basically taking advantage of what they strived to achieve(equality). That is the ongoing dispute. They want African Americans to pay their respect, but African Americans don’t see it that way. Just some FYI.” but i am trying to point out that africans from africa have had to struggle through their owns problems as well, and if blacks think that they deserve aa for struggling through slavery and oppression then africans deserve it too. in fact if people deserve aa for struggling through oppression etc… then you can’t really base aa on race because there are instances of almost every race being oppressed at some point whether it be blacks, africans, asians, jews, or protestants</p>

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<p>Oh I meant that Black Americans have ties to slavery (Only U.S). Every black person has ties to Africa. All races originate from Africa (debatable; this is what science suggests), but migrated to different parts of the world. We are talking about blacks as a skin color and classification (today). We aren’t saying that Black Americans solely have ties to slavery. There are blacks in England and in other places, but we are talking about America. I’m not sure what methods other countries use in classifying blacks or people from African countries. I doubt in England, Spain or France there is a check box labeled African American/Black, unless all black people in England are American citizens (I doubt that).</p>

<p>no i didn’t literally mean they have the african american classification in those countries, you missed my point</p>

<p>You are overanalyzing the classification. We mean ties, as in, past generations that endured slavery in the United States (recent). I’ll give you an example. Michelle Obama is a Black American. She has ancestry in Africa, but her ancestors (grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents, etc.) in the U.S were slaves or lived during the era.</p>

<p>terrific, but there are loads of africans that weren’t enslaved and are still from africa and are still african american in my book from africa=african american unless you’re the descendant of a colonizer from europe and you’re white with a dutch name in south africa= not african american</p>

<p>It is very hard to live in Africa. No one is saying that it isn’t. They are subject to oppression, genocide and other things due to weak government and tribal conflict. Although there are many rich Africans and highly developed African cities. Africa is a very lively and interesting place to learn about cultures and tribes. Although it has larger problems, a sizable portion of Africa thrives. Every continent has its problems. I don’t think you should compare slavery to the problems in Africa today. </p>

<p>and a sizable portion doesn’t thrive, i was only saying it’s hard there, see previous post</p>

<p>If you are from any African country and you migrate to the U.S.(become a citizen) you are an African American. Checking the box African American/Black doesn’t mean you are black (skin color). It means you are African American or Black. If you are black (skin color), you either have ancestry from Africa or have ties to slavery in some form. There are blacks (skin color) that migrate to England and obtain citizenship there. They are black, but if you analyze their history, they have ties to slavery or Africa(ancestry). There are black people in Brazil for example. Brazil has the largest concentration of blacks outside of Africa. Those people are Afro-Brazilian or Black Brazilian because they have ancestry in Africa. Due to intense mixing (Europeans, Native Americans, etc), there are some people that might not look black (skin color), but have ancestry or history in Africa. They choose what they want to identify themselves as (In America).</p>

<p>yes, i agree, that’s what i’ve been saying</p>

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<p>“terrific, but there are loads of africans that weren’t enslaved and are still from africa and are still african american in my book from africa=african american unless you’re the descendant of a colonizer from europe and you’re white with a dutch name in south africa= not african american”</p>

<p>I never said or alluded to the fact that all Africans were enslaved. I’m saying the term “Black American” refers to people like Michelle Obama(U.S slavery). African Americans refer to african born people that migrated to the U.S and gained citizenship here (like you said). They might or might not have had ancestors that were slaves. There was slavery in Africa as well and there still is in some parts.</p>

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<p>Find this later.</p>

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<p>why has this replaced the other thread?</p>

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<p>i don’t even remember what the other thread was, but we exhausted it, and this is more fun because it turns into heated debate</p>

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I didn’t argue that there isn’t suffering in Africa. It’s be pretty hard to be unaware of suffering in Africa, b/c, like you said “it seems there is a new charity” everyday. But I think all these charities popping up speak, to a certain extent, more of our view of Africa than the actual suffering there. A few years ago, everyone was wearing shirts to stop the genocide in Darfur. I’ve never seen anyone wearing a shirt about the genocide in Burma/Myanmar. We sort of had a “Western man’s burden” complex or something about Africa. </p>

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Sorry, my post wasn’t about college. It just really irks me when people regard Africa as monolithic (or when I make an inference and think they’re doing just that), so I posted.</p>

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It’s our natural inclination to regard Africa as all the same. It’s called out-group homogeneity bias. So plenty of people do.</p>

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Sorry if I made false inferences, but you did say “it is equally as hard today to live in africa as it was to be a slave 150 or so years ago.” That sounds an awful lot like saying living in Africa is tantamount to slavery, which is a highly insulting thing to say.
African immigrants have a high income, high education rates (higher than any other group, including the stereotyped-as-model-minority Asians). They are more likely to speak English than any other immigrant group. On average, they’re coming from a great situation, not one that is “equally as hard […] as [being] a slave 150 years ago.”</p>

<p>You might want to read [<a href=“http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1[/url]”>http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1](How (not) to write about Africa)</a>, a great little piece that goes over some usual prejudices we in the West have about Africa. There’s a great version on YouTube narrated by Djimon Hounsou, if you’d rather listen to read. It’s easily found by Googling “How not to write about Africa,” but I don’t believe I can post a YouTube link here.</p>

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<p>Ahh, this may be where I should have taken time to explain myself more clearly in my last post. I don’t think any race deserves AA. It may have seemed like I was saying Africans are a less deserving group, but since I don’t think any race deserves AA, I wasn’t saying that at all.</p>

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<p>“Ahh, this may be where I should have taken time to explain myself more clearly in my last post. I don’t think any race deserves AA. It may have seemed like I was saying Africans are a less deserving group, but since I don’t think any race deserves AA, I wasn’t saying that at all.”</p>

<p>well since we’re on the same page there i really don’t see the need to continue to nit-pick each others arguments. all i’m saying is that people from africa should check the black/african american box if they are african unless they are descended from colonizers, and that should apply to all africans, even those who aren’t black because not all of africa is black or former colonizers, and receive whatever they may as a result of checking that box</p>

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<p>I guess we all agree…</p>

<p>thread is dead.</p>

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<p>Aww, snap. Quick! Someone say something controversial!</p>

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<p>*****, but my post must be longer to submit</p>

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I think evolution is a lie and we’re all going to get smited by god.</p>

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<p>^idiot, and to think i agreed with some of your posts</p>

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<p>How about “parents who can pay” as in the AP article a few months back about Reed College? In this economy, I would suspect that’s huge. What about “geographic diversity”? Being from Alaska, Wyoming, etc would help with some of those prestigious east coast schools, wouldn’t it?</p>