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I would definitely consider myself white in terms of my appearance and my culture, but I recently discovered through ancestry.com that I have a fairly distant black ancestor and I subsequently calculated that I am approximately 2% West African. Should I identify as black on my law school applications? Are there any potential risks? Elizabeth Warren pulled it off with 0% native american blood, could I pull it off with 2% african american blood?

Thanks

At the risk of feeding the troll... no, given that you do not, in fact, self-identify as black, you should not fraudulently self-identify as black on your law school applications.

Elizabeth Warren did not self-identify as Native American when applying to college or law school. She didn't even self-identify as Native American when she was applying for faculty jobs (she only informed school administrators after she'd already been hired). See https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-mete ... ive-ameri/

johnhalberg29 wrote:I would definitely consider myself white in terms of my appearance and my culture, but I recently discovered through ancestry.com that I have a fairly distant black ancestor and I subsequently calculated that I am approximately 2% West African. Should I identify as black on my law school applications? Are there any potential risks? Elizabeth Warren pulled it off with 0% native american blood, could I pull it off with 2% african american blood?

Thanks

No, you can’t. Don’t do this. The potential risk is that you’re seen as lying and a complete asshole.

This should be obvious, but you can't do this.

You most definitely should say you are white. To say you are black or mixed race based on 2% DNA would be fraudulent. Most people who get their DNA tested will show 2% some other race. I have joked with my son that he should say mixed race based on similar results--joked because to actually do that would be ridiculous. We would lose all ability to increase diversity in the profession if white people with 2% non-European DNA got preferential admissions. That preference is designed to account for discrimination to which you have not been subjected.

A classmate was in a similar situation and said she did this.

Johnnybgoode92 wrote:A classmate was in a similar situation and said she did this.

Then she is a terrible person.

Please tell me this is some type of sordid joke by the poster. People don’t really try to do this, right??

Dude, you just self identified yourself as a white male in another post on the same day. Have you no moral compass? I don’t think you should be considering law as your career if this is how you operate.

If he puts both races it's not lying. He self identifies as both bc he is aware of his ancestry. What admissions decides to do with that information is their decision. OP doesn't have to agree with their politics or purposes.

OP made no attempt to hide the fact that this is a troll. I'm a little (very) disappointed that some of the replies appear to be taking the question seriously. We need to do better.

Johnnybgoode92 wrote:If he puts both races it's not lying. He self identifies as both bc he is aware of his ancestry. What admissions decides to do with that information is their decision. OP doesn't have to agree with their politics or purposes.

I really hope both you and OP are trolling. In case your not - yes, OP would be lying. OP plainly stated that he/she identifies as white, not African and, as others have pointed out, the diversity bump is designed to account for discrimination that OP was never subject to.

I've read somewhere that schools consider up to 1/8th to constitute ability to self-describe as that particular race. Just in case anyone else was wondering.

Synapse2018 wrote:I've read somewhere that schools consider up to 1/8th to constitute ability to self-describe as that particular race. Just in case anyone else was wondering.

And even then, it's required that the applicant actually self-identify as that race. OP has expressly stated that he self-identifies as white, so wouldn't be able to non-fraudulently apply as a URM in any case.

Synapse2018 wrote:I've read somewhere that schools consider up to 1/8th to constitute ability to self-describe as that particular race. Just in case anyone else was wondering.

I would be shocked if schools actually put a concrete number on it (or if people were somehow actually providing enough info about their ancestry for schools to figure this out. If you self-ID as AA how is a school to know what percentage you are?).

Blood quantum can matter for Native Americans to be eligible for citizenship in a given tribe, and that can make a difference in how schools treat them for the URM bump, but even that isn’t cut and dried at all.

We are done here.