Black person writing non-racial DS? Forum

[Hook 'Em]

I was in a similar position (black kid, upper-middle class background). I wasn't going to lie about my family financial background, so I wrote about how being black gave me a different perspective while working in groups (school, fraternity, etc). I concluded by stating that this perspective will help me add to the overall class experience at school X. If you think about it, I'm pretty sure you can remember one experience where you stood out because of your race. Put a positive spin on it, and show how you will use it as an asset to the law school community/learning environment. Good luck.

[LSATfromNC]

hey I'm about to PM you

Are you talking to me? Please don't PM me.

Made me laugh, kudos. And I am definitely going to PM you

[citydweller09]

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[WillyTee]

I personally do not know a Black person who did not write a diversity statement. I'm not saying that you won't get a boost without one, but law schools want diverse student bodies because they want students who represent different backgrounds and experiences. This is why older applicants get boosts or LGBT applicants get boosts (despite how low either may be). Law schools want students who can bring something different to the table. If your race doesn't help you bring any diversity (outside of the literal color of your skin) to a law school, you won't get the same boost as your counterparts who can exhibit an original statement that reflects the racial diversity that law schools want to achieve.

But at the end of the day, you have to be true to yourself. You can write about how being a feminist has diversified you. If I'm not mistaken, there are not that many Black feminists. That's definitely something that might contribute to your diversity.

[Kohinoor]

http://jezebel.com/5350761/im-a-girl-wh ... e=true&s=i

Everyone, stop what you're doing. Serious business is afoot.

[lawlover829]

I did not write a DS even tho I consider myself to be a person of color. Instead I worked this aspect into a PS (but I did not mention my race... instead I mentioned other factors..

[BaiAilian2013]

I was in a similar position (black kid, upper-middle class background). I wasn't going to lie about my family financial background, so I wrote about how being black gave me a different perspective while working in groups (school, fraternity, etc). I concluded by stating that this perspective will help me add to the overall class experience at school X. If you think about it, I'm pretty sure you can remember one experience where you stood out because of your race. Put a positive spin on it, and show how you will use it as an asset to the law school community/learning environment. Good luck.

I think this is solid advice. FWIW, I've never had a black friend who didn't have material for a good race-based DS... society just does its thing, even to the most privileged. Maybe you are trying to box yourself in too much; your story doesn't have to be a heartwarming stereotype to show that you will contribute to the diversity of the class.

[keylimelove]

Good lord please do not write about that blog. You have the numbers that will get you into a T10 school, so don't dumb your application down by referencing that.

I took a similar approach to Hook 'Em. I wrote about how my "blackness" never fit into any of the accepted categories. Not with lower class blacks (who called me white girl, oreo, etc), or upper class blacks (who can be a bit...stuck up), poorer whites (who disliked me because I had more opportunities than they had) or upper class whites (because although I had a great childhood and was extremely fortunate, I'm not upper class).

The point of my DS was that there is no one size fits all with the "black experience," but that by being partly in a few of these groups but never completely in one gave me a unique perspective on things. You definitely don't have to come from the stereotypical black family to write a good DS, and it does not (and should not) have to be about poverty and discrimination if that's not your story. Attempting to come off as something you're not will be extremely obvious and not as strong as a DS that sincerely reflects who you are.

[citydweller09]

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[Emma.]

I think a lot of us (edit to clarify: URM applicants) aren't inner-city ghetto/barrio dwellers who got routinely called racial epithets from the time we were children. Race is a lot more subtle than that. I don't know about stuff from the admissions POV, but if you want to discuss your contribution to diversity, I think you can discuss race without trumping up disadvantages you didn't have.

Possibly something along the lines of discussing how your background was relatively privileged, but that it was that way because of all the effort people of prior generations made to overcome disadvantages *they* had, and now you're in a position to provide a positive role model for future generations by entering a profession which has historically not been as accessible to minorities or to women, etc? That sort of thing.

The 'question' for DS essays on most applications is not "What challenges have you faced because of your race?" or "What have you had to overcome because of your race?" The question is more like "How can your background or experiences add to the diversity of the law school community?" I don't see why you need to have suffered overt racism or 'made it out of the ghetto' in order to add diversity to your school, and I don't think that is all that adcoms are looking for. Sure if your upbringing and experiences more or less mirror that of the white, middle/upper class, privileged kids that make up (or are perceived to make up) the majority of law school applicants, but you just happen to have African ancestors somewhere in your family background then it doesn't make sense to write a DS about your experiences of race.

I would hope that schools are looking for more than just faces for the brochure and numbers to bolster their statistics, and that they actually want their classes to make up a variety of people in order to broaden the range of perspectives found in their law school community. I was actually just talking to my father (who for years worked to ensure that school curricula addressed and catered to diversity) about my DS the other day and this is what he had to say. I think it is kind of interesting (please don't steal any of this for your DS):

"If everyone has the same set of experiences it limits both the creativity and the ability to find creative solutions. In engineering the point is made about what solutions to long-term problems were made by women or blacks.... I've used the example of people standing on different street corners looking at an accident. Each person sees the accident from their perspective, but unless there are multiple perspectives there may not be a true picture of what actually happened. That's what diversity provides -- an increase in perspective that helps to get the most accurate picture -- the greatest range of solutions to a problem, the greater empathy for a client, greatest chance of finding a cure for cancer, etc.... Okay, a little trite, but you get the idea."

I would hope that his is more what schools are looking for, rather than just stories of overcoming hardship.

Edit: Hook 'Em and WillyTee already said pretty much the same thing I am getting at here. Even without coming from the ghetto or whatever, I think that whatever your background is it can still serve to give you a different perspective and help add to the diversity at law school.

I think this goes for sexual orientation or whatever as well. I don't think you have to have experienced significant discrimination with regards to your sexual orientation in order for it to provide you with a different perspective from the heterosexual majority...

[SabermetricFan]

How can someone going to LS be dumb enough to actually put that blog in a DS. Is this actually serious? What world is this? Do people even have any fkn clue what LS entails?

[Sashimi]

How can someone going to LS be dumb enough to actually put that blog in a DS. Is this actually serious? What world is this? Do people even have any fkn clue what LS entails?

-1
No need for rudeness.

[SabermetricFan]

How can someone going to LS be dumb enough to actually put that blog in a DS. Is this actually serious? What world is this? Do people even have any fkn clue what LS entails?

-1
No need for rudeness.

That's a pretty subjective opinion. Did you ever stop to think it may be rude to post on a LS message board you were seriously going to put that blog on your DS?

[sophistry]

How can someone going to LS be dumb enough to actually put that blog in a DS. Is this actually serious? What world is this? Do people even have any fkn clue what LS entails?

-1
No need for rudeness.

That's a pretty subjective opinion. Did you ever stop to think it may be rude to post on a LS message board you were seriously going to put that blog on your DS?

Cool your jets, Sabermetric. It’s clearly not a great idea to include a blog in a DS. This has already been said. There’s no need to rant. The question of whether an AA female should write a DS without mentioning race is a good one.

Citydweller, I think your questions have been answered above.