5 ms·

None of that’s going to make any difference. Let’s be real here, it’s going to be based on race alone (and perhaps being gay or trans). White or Asian? You d

• layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
  How do they determine one’s race in the US? Is there a central database where everyone gets a record at birth? Otherwise what stops me from reporting myself as black?
  • mcphage 7y ago
    Nothing, although if colleges accepted you under the assumption that you reported who you were honestly, and then later found out that you weren’t who you claimed to be, you might find your acceptances revoked.
    • layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
      How would they find out my race? Based on the looks? So they would count Michael Jackson as “white”? What if a person looks white but has black ancestors?
      • mcphage 7y ago
        If you apply for a scholarship based on your heritage, how do they decide if you qualify?
    • prepend 7y ago
      Probably not. I remember a story of someone who did this [0] and nothing happened. I can only imagine the terrifyingly embarrassing situations where people of a race are challenged to prove their race and flip out because they are their race. [0] https://nypost.com/2015/04/12/mindy-kalings-brother-explains-why-he-pretended-to-be-black/ https://nypost.com/2015/04/12/mindy-kalings-brother-explains...
  • knolax 7y ago
    The Census collects racial information that most people answer with responses they believe to be truthful. IIRC in WW2 it was used to identify Japanese-Americans for internment.
  • azeotropic 7y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal
• didgeoridoo 7y ago
  How would you reliably capture race, or sexual orientation, or gender identification — or even income — on a self-reported metric with no third-party validation? They aren't talking about sending the College Board your tax returns. Realistically, this will be based on ZIP code and registered high school. Information that's already publicly-available. This changes nothing except potentially making neighborhood-level affirmative action more politically palatable.
  • xienze 7y ago
    Sexual orientation, yeah they might not be able to get that one. But here's the factors they're using: https://twitter.com/i/moments/1129009648214921216 https://twitter.com/i/moments/1129009648214921216 I do believe with just a few pieces of the information they're taking into consideration (namely, neighborhood, if you have a single parent, and if you're ESL [not sure if they're talking about the child being ESL or the parents]) you could reliably determine if the child is black or Hispanic and therefore worthy of an adversity score boost. Everyone else, get stuffed. They may also be making a big show of using these factors that "technically" don't identify the test taker's race and instead are just disregarding them and relying solely on the self-reported racial information provided when taking the test. Who knows? But I highly doubt you'll find a lot of poor white kids in West Virginia getting boosted scores via this scheme.
    • didgeoridoo 7y ago
      Thanks for the link. I would honestly be quite astounded if they were using individual-level reporting instead of using public data captured at the census tract level. Do you have any information about where the "family-level" data are coming from?
    • scott_s 7y ago
      > But I highly doubt you'll find a lot of poor white kids in West Virginia getting boosted scores via this scheme. That is exactly what I expect to happen - as well as poor kids who happen to belong to racial minorities. The College Board published the criteria they will use to calculate the score. Race is not one of the criteria. But you're saying that race will not only be used, but be the primary criteria. So, let's be clear: you're saying the College Board is lying. Which, I can't prove they are not, but I'm inclined to trust them over your claims.