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My dad is a Palestinian-American whose family immigrated to the US after the Six Day War. My mom's family is of Western European ancestry. I realize that I am Caucasian/White for all intents and purposes but would being of Palestinian ancestry be worth noting in my diversity statement? Or would that be too controversial?

fear&loathingintexas wrote:My dad is a Palestinian-American whose family immigrated to the US after the Six Day War. My mom's family is of Western European ancestry. I realize that I am Caucasian/White for all intents and purposes but would being of Palestinian ancestry be worth noting in my diversity statement? Or would that be too controversial?

If it is a part of what defines you, and it is different than others, then I would think it would be an appropriate mention. I am Lebanese by descent, but the only thing that I really carry culturally of that is my love for the food. So, I didn't feel as though it was something I wanted to mention.

Also, I don't think I would worry about it being controversial. To decide against you BECAUSE of what you have shared, would not be merely controversial, it would be discrimination.

A

isaiah6v8 wrote:Also, I don't think I would worry about it being controversial. To decide against you BECAUSE of what you have shared, would not be merely controversial, it would be discrimination.

Well, it's not like the rejection letter is going to be accompanied with a note that says, "It's because your Palestinian and included it in your DS."

But I'm joshing a bit here - isiah is right about this not being controversial. There's a lot of people who ask about whether their PS/DS is risky because of the topic but very, very few of them actually are. What's risky is writing a DS that doesn't speak honestly to your experience in life. Don't do that and you'll be halfway there.