Closed thread here.
I didn’t get the sense this was an actual attempt to assume the identity of a Latino – more of a general question about how college admissions officers verify that the race/ethnic origin claimed by applicants is correct.
In Showboat, the Edna Ferber musical, the married couple Julie and Steve are accused of miscegenation; Steve is white and Julie a white-passing mulatto. As the sheriff boards the boat to arrest them, Steve pricks Julie’s finger with a pin and sucks some of her blood; he then can truthfully tell the sheriff that there’s no crime here, since he, too, “…has Negro blood in him.”
The question of what makes a person a particular race or ethnic group for purposes of college admissions is a valid one, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s revisiting Bakke this term, the administration’s have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too amicus brief on the issue, and the fact that admissions policies around the country may well be in for some changes as a result.
If the original queston was flawed, perhaps I could post this in GQ in an effort to reach the factual answer to the question: what, if any, effort is made to verify a college applicant’s race/ethnis group claims, and how is it accomplished?
- Rick
