# Tricking Affirmative Action **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843 "2003-02-13T15:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/21 "2003-02-15T11:51:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lucwarm \* > \*\*Another anecdote: > > Institutions such as universities and employers can be very sneaky, spiteful, and devious. They don’t play fair. And more often than not, the courts let them get away with it. \*\* YOU BASTARDS!!!(southpark accent on /) not you lucwarm. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/22 "2003-02-15T19:36:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElwoodCuse \* > \*\*What about South African whites or Egyptians coming to the U.S.? Do they get to become “African-Americans”? \*\* Apparently not. I’ve seen forms that included a checkbox for “African-American of sub-Saharan heritage, excluding those decended from European or Asian colonists” That knocks out smart-aleks who try to claim they’re AA because their parents grew up in Cape Town or Windhoek, shopkeepers in Nairobi, or missionaries who spent the majority of their lives on the continent. I had a friend that was born and raised in Kenya. White as anyone from Idaho or Minnesota. He tried claiming “African-American” heritage when he applied to college, and didn’t get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/23 "2003-02-19T02:03:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JohanDane \* > \*\*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. \*\* Just what is a “Spanish surname” Of course someone named “Rodriguez” would have an obviously Spanish name. But what if it was something obscure only a genealogist would recognize? Not all Spanish surnames are a dime a dozen. Some even look just like common Anglo names (Martin, Jordan, and so on) I live in a place that is 80% Hispanic. There are people who are “100% Mexican” and look totally white. The Spaniards brought all sorts of genes with them from Germanic to Arab. I am half Mexican and usually get asked if I am something like Jewish or Italian if anything at all about my ethnic identity. Anyway, I have never been asked to prove my ancestry, but I have never applied for anything ethnic-specific either. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/24 "2003-02-19T03:51:48Z")
Most of the forms I’ve seen offer a choice of Hispanic surnamed versus just Hispanic. So, if you’ve got what you be;ieve to be a Hispanic surname, you can legitimately check that box. We’ve got a sometimes political candidate here who started life as a white guy, had a sex change operation, changed her last name to Perez and runs as a minority female candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/25 "2003-02-19T05:03:55Z")
Going by last names reminds me of the Jimmy-the-Greek debacle. (Somewhere around 1987 or so, Jimmy made some unfortunate comments about Blacks being better athletes because slave owners had “bred” them for physial prowress.) Sports Illustrated did a report on the state of minorities in sports, and, among their findings announced that there were no Black catchers in the major leagues. (Catcher being a position requiring a bit more intelligence than most others.) This was nonsense, since the premier catcher in the National League at the time was Tony Pena, of unmistakable African heritage. I was discussing this with my co-worker Jaime (a Mexican who considered himself “white”). Jaime justified the statement, saying SI “went according to last names.” I thought about that for a moment, and replied, “Well, by that reasoning, Willie McCovey is Irish!” – Beruang (also a human being, when not being a bear) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/26 "2003-02-19T07:29:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KenP \* > \*\*There was a case in Boston about 15 years ago. Two firemen rose quickly through the ranks because they were black. Or so they claimed. They sure didn’t look black. Their proof: the photograph of a woman, probably black, whom they said was their great-grandmother. Was she really black? Not certain. Was she really their great-grandmother? Even less certain. \*\* I remember that case. Any good genealogist should have been able to find the brothers’ great-grandmother in the U.S. censuses of 1880, 1900, or 1910. She would have been listed as “B” or “Mu” (black or mulatto). And her marriage and burial would also have occurred in a black church, most likely. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843/27 "2003-02-19T11:50:19Z")
This thread reminds me of the fact that I do not know any definition of African-American. AA heritage does not do it since we are all, if the anthropologists are to be believed, descended from Africans. Another point: what about Portuguese surnames (for example, Rodrigues)? I also always say “human” when asked about race. The census people make no attempt to get back to me on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tricking-affirmative-action/154843.md?page=1)