Top Law Schools

Are there any URM's out there that were fortunate and didn't have to go through huge struggles in their life in overcoming adversity? How did you craft your DS?

I would think that an easier option would be for the "culture clash," i.e. American/Middle-Class Values vs URM-Culture Values.

Personally, I am Puerto Rican, Japanese, and White so I wrote about how these conflicted within myself.

bk187 wrote:I would think that an easier option would be for the "culture clash," i.e. American/Middle-Class Values vs URM-Culture Values.

Personally, I am Puerto Rican, Japanese, and White so I wrote about how these conflicted within myself.

Woah, that's cool.

The OP almost seems like an interesting flame.

Who said a DS has to be about overcoming adversity? There is more to diversity than socio-economic level. I'm just sayin. And yes I'm a URM who has not had any major issues with overcoming adversity.

merichard87 wrote:Who said a DS has to be about overcoming adversity? There is more to diversity than socio-economic level. I'm just sayin. And yes I'm a URM who has not had any major issues with overcoming adversity.

How did you craft your DS?

I think the fear is that a URM who has this background comes off as being more like a WASP than a URM. Of course it is not just about overcoming adversity, but I can understand how a URM who has been privileged and grown up in a household that is very "Americanized" (for lack of a better term) is worried about writing a DS that does not make them seem diverse.

If your story is "I grew up in predominately white suburbia, was never introduced to my ethnicity's culture, identify strongly with the American middle class culture, and never experienced any sort of adversity/racism/etc," it can be hard to show that you are bringing diversity and are any different from the "average" outside of your skin color. Which is why for those people I might suggest something like a story about discovering your ethnic background's culture when you had been cut off from it since you were born and dealing with how that differed from the culture you had been raised in your entire life.

Haven't done it yet but I'm in the brainstorming process. But I grew up in a middle class black neighborhood in a single parent household but with a very professional and established family. I've never faced "adversity" but I'm not "white-washed" either.

bk187 wrote:I would think that an easier option would be for the "culture clash," i.e. American/Middle-Class Values vs URM-Culture Values.

Personally, I am Puerto Rican, Japanese, and White so I wrote about how these conflicted within myself.

Irrelevant to the thread, but you're most likely attractive according to some studies.

bk187 wrote:I think the fear is that a URM who has this background comes off as being more like a WASP than a URM. Of course it is not just about overcoming adversity, but I can understand how a URM who has been privileged and grown up in a household that is very "Americanized" (for lack of a better term) is worried about writing a DS that does not make them seem diverse.

If your story is "I grew up in predominately white suburbia, was never introduced to my ethnicity's culture, identify strongly with the American middle class culture, and never experienced any sort of adversity/racism/etc," it can be hard to show that you are bringing diversity and are any different from the "average" outside of your skin color. Which is why for those people I might suggest something like a story about discovering your ethnic background's culture when you had been cut off from it since you were born and dealing with how that differed from the culture you had been raised in your entire life.

Either your story is:
"I'm black and poor BAWWWdiversity"
OR
"I'm black and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

Either way it makes for a good essay if you're a decent writer

the op made me uncomfortable because it touches on one of the core sources of the anxiety created by AA and also just a basic weakness of it as a matter of public policy. for one, to the extent that aa erodes at social cohesion, those animosities are gonna be exacerbated when the urms that benefit the most seem to come from pretty well-off backgrounds. beyond that, although i don't know how much water this holds in practice, the argument that "fortunate" kids are done a disservice by being given an incentive to not take full advantage of opportunities seems at least intuitively plausible.

so yeah, i at first thought this was a clever flame.

but since we're discussing "top law schools," there is no getting around the reality that most urms here aren't coming from cabrini green in the south side of chicago. however, that doesn't mean that they don't have fundamentally valuable perspectives to offer schools and a distinctive manner of thinking through laws and public policy that stem from being a minority in america. the credited approach is to elaborate on how these things are the case.

good luck, assuming you're arent flaming here op

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm black and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

How would that be any better than this:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm [strike]black[/strike] white and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

Learning Hand wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm black and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

How would that be any better than:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm [strike]black[/strike] white and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

because he meant that seeing lots of people that look like one's self doing so poorly can very well have a profound effect on how you look at the implications of law and policy, particularly given this country's last 300 years or so.

There are no successful minorities. They are a rumor started by the Tea Party to undermine the Democratic base. So gullible.

I have an adversity statement that I'd be wiling to share, just PM me.

Learning Hand wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm black and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

How would that be any better than this:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm black white and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

One helps you get into a good school.

APimpNamedSlickback wrote:there is no getting around the reality that most urms here aren't coming from cabrini green in the south side of chicago.

lol. you'll lapse into depression the first time you googlemap your classmates' houses.

bk187 wrote:I would think that an easier option would be for the "culture clash," i.e. American/Middle-Class Values vs URM-Culture Values.

Personally, I am Puerto Rican, Japanese, and White so I wrote about how these conflicted within myself.

Sweet! My adoptive parents are Puerto Rican and Jewban (Cuban of Russian Jewish descent), but grew up in the US, are very Americanized, and somehow managed to not learn a single word of Spanish growing up. I definitely didn't have to overcome any kind of economic hardship or discrimination, so I wrote about growing up as a Hispanic Jew in Florida and how my Hispanic heritage motivated me to become fluent in Spanish. Then, I contrasted my upbringing with that of my identical twin sister who was brought up as a Southern Baptist in rural Georgia (we were adopted into different families) and of my birthmother who's from a large Italian family in the Northeast. I concluded with something about trying to reconcile the conflict between my genetic heritage and my adoptive parents' and how, in the end, they've all had an impact on who I am today.

gatorgirl4life wrote:

bk187 wrote:I would think that an easier option would be for the "culture clash," i.e. American/Middle-Class Values vs URM-Culture Values.

Personally, I am Puerto Rican, Japanese, and White so I wrote about how these conflicted within myself.

Sweet! My adoptive parents are Puerto Rican and Jewban (Cuban of Russian Jewish descent), but grew up in the US, are very Americanized, and somehow managed to not learn a single word of Spanish growing up. I definitely didn't have to overcome any kind of economic hardship or discrimination, so I wrote about growing up as a Hispanic Jew in Florida and how my Hispanic heritage motivated me to become fluent in Spanish. Then, I contrasted my upbringing with that of my identical twin sister who was brought up as a Southern Baptist in rural Georgia (we were adopted into different families) and of my birthmother who's from a large Italian family in the Northeast. I concluded with something about trying to reconcile the conflict between my genetic heritage and my adoptive parents' and how, in the end, they've all had an impact on who I am today.

damn girl. your family is the definition of the American melting pot.

I dealt with getting shot everyday. Probably cause I always wore the wrong colors. Can someone say "FASHION POLICE!"

Interesting Thread so far...As a URM I have gone through adversity because of it, but my diversity statement was on how being a URM and having been to a multiple countries throughout the world has given me the ability to work with people of various backgrounds and the emotional intelligence to understand how being who I am affects those around me. I think the statement would have been almost as effective without the adversity components. Its just a thought...

Kohinoor wrote:

Learning Hand wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm black and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

How would that be any better than this:

Kohinoor wrote:"I'm black white and not poor. I grew up in America around all these poor black people and it made me feel uncomfortable."

One helps you get into a good school.

QFT.

The mistake is in assuming that being a rich/well off URM = not having any race related struggles.

Middle class white people can also pronounce the word n***er. In fact, people can be more openly hostile to you when you are in spaces that minorities traditionally have been denied access to. I was the only POC in my school (except for my sisters), my parents both have phDs and I experienced plenty of racism growing up. Thinking that this revokes my 'URM card' displays a complete lack of understanding about what a URM is.

Also, flame.

creatinganalt wrote:The mistake is in assuming that being a rich/well off URM = not having any race related struggles.

Middle class white people can also pronounce the word n***er. In fact, people can be more openly hostile to you when you are in spaces that minorities traditionally have been denied access to. I was the only POC in my school (except for my sisters), my parents both have phDs and I experienced plenty of racism growing up. Thinking that this revokes my 'URM card' displays a complete lack of understanding about what a URM is.

Also, flame.

+1

I don't understand where the myth originated from that you have to poor and black to benefit from AA. On the professional level, I've experienced people trying to "relate" to me by calling home girl or trying to speak my "lingo", even after they hear me speak and know my background. I've said before black is black no matter socio-economic status. The police don't pull you over and ask for your educational background before they proceeded to signal you as an unit.


I didn't write about my URM status. I thought if I wasn't an URM what would I write about that makes me diverse? I didn't want adcoms to judge my story as being more or less sufferable than the next URM.

hiromoto45 wrote:I don't understand where the myth originated from that you have to poor and black to benefit from AA.

It's rooted in the myth that being successful as a minority means you've overcome racism and it doesn't affect you anymore.