# Tricking Affirmative Action

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154841>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 13, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154841 "2003-02-13T15:30:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JohanDane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@JohanDane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohanDane)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154841/1 "2003-02-13T15:30:25Z")

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First off, this is not a debate on the merits of affirmative action.

What I’d like to know is how college admissions officers verify that someone is truly hispanic if they claim to be? For example, if I were to color my hair black, wear brown contacts, go to a tanning salon, and change my last name to Rodriguez…could I qualify as hispanic? how do they verify? Or maybe I could keep my last name and say that I’m half hispanic, that would work too right? Just curious… Thanks.