Black Like Me
Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz write at the WSJ that students were told to claim to be minorities in the college admissions scandal:
BOSTON--The man behind the scheme to help wealthy students get into elite colleges by cheating on tests and faking athletic credentials also advised some families to falsely claim students were racial minorities, exploiting the push to diversify campuses, according to two people familiar with the situation.A son of Marjorie Klapper, a parent scheduled to plead guilty Friday for participating in the scheme, was incorrectly listed on his Common Application as being black and Hispanic, the people said. William "Rick" Singer, the college counselor who has agreed to plead guilty in the case and is awaiting sentencing, also arranged for a proctor to cheat on the ACT admissions test for the teen, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed in the case.
Ms. Klapper, who lives in Menlo Park, Calif., was one of many parents charged whose child was misrepresented as a minority, according to one of the people, who is familiar with the investigation.
Mr. Singer frequently gave families the option of misrepresenting race and would say that not doing so could put their child at a "competitive disadvantage," said one of the people, who is familiar with his business.
That really says it all about the supposed fairness of college admissions.
In looking to present a teen as a minority, Mr. Singer was tapping into a hot-button aspect of college admissions that has led to numerous lawsuits: decisions that take into account, or even give preference to, students of certain races or ethnicities. Schools that pursue race-conscious admissions policies say they do so to provide a richer learning environment for all students and are following Supreme Court precedent that allows such an approach. Harvard University faces a civil lawsuit accusing it of discrimination, with plaintiffs claiming the school holds Asian-American applicants to a higher standard than applicants of other races. Harvard denies the accusation, saying it uses a holistic approach and a complex set of factors to hand out acceptances.Applicants can check boxes noting their race or ethnicity in a section on the Common Application, which is accepted by hundreds of schools across the country. Doing so is optional.
On some applications that Mr. Singer's operation handled, applicants may have claimed to be underrepresented minorities based on a tenuous connection, such as a distant relative of Native American ancestry, said one of the people familiar with his business. In one case, the person said, a teenager was presented as Native American when "there was absolutely nothing Native American about this kid."
I can't resist: Elizabeth Warren, anyone?
My younger sister went to grad school a few years ago. I've joked for a while that she looks like she's from the branch of the family that got raped by the Mongols, and I told her she could claim to be Eskimo to improve her chances of getting in. She didn't, of course, because she's an honest person -- but I'm guessing many other students have claimed "minority" status.
Meanwhile, in a sort of switcheroo, Asian students should be gaming the system by claiming to be white, black, or Latino -- with a smattering of Native American.
Yoohoo...merit? Are you hiding under the bed?
In related news, Douglas Belkin writes in the WSJ about "adversity scores":
The College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT to try to capture their social and economic background, jumping into the debate raging over race and class in college admissions.his new number, called an adversity score by college admissions officers, is calculated using 15 factors including the crime rate and poverty levels from the student's high school and neighborhood. Students won't be told the scores, but colleges will see the numbers when reviewing their applications.
On the dashboard, the score is called "Overall Disadvantage Level." An adversity score of 50 is average. Anything above it designates hardship, below it privilege. The College Board declined to say how it calculates the adversity score or weighs the factors that go into it.
Fifty colleges used the score last year as part of a beta test. The College Board plans to expand it to 150 institutions this fall, and then use it broadly.
An idea I nabbed from @LaloDagach, but rewrote a little...
Will "adversity scores" eventually lead to unintended consequences -- employers avoiding hiring graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds, suspecting they are less educated or able to handle a job?
Hey, I got an idea... let's claim we're from Kenya!
Radwaste at May 19, 2019 1:03 AM
I can't resist: Elizabeth Warren, anyone?
Maybe they can repossess her law degree? if it is some sort of crime for these people to do it, why not apply that to her as well?
I R A Darth Aggie at May 19, 2019 5:53 AM
Somehow, and it really was not me, our school we moved to has my kids as Hispanic and Pacific islander in the records. I'm not taking the time to correct their error. But I wont be adding that to any college forms on my own. The Pacific islander part-time Hispanic is true.
Momof4 at May 19, 2019 8:45 AM
Kinda says everything we need to know about "white privilege," doesn't it?
jdgalt at May 19, 2019 8:46 AM
So, lying about your race on a college admission application gets you a prison sentence. Lying about your race on a college employment application gets you a professorship at an Ivy League college, a Senate seat in Massachusetts, and a run for president.
Seems kinda outta whack.
I was pulled over in Massachusetts for reckless driving. When brought before the judge, I was asked if I knew what the punishment for drunk driving in that state was. I said, "I don't know ... reelection to the Senate?" ~ Emo Phillips
Conan the Grammarian at May 19, 2019 10:57 AM
The 'scandal' is about bribing people. If you lie all on your own you've broken no laws. Claim to be from outer space on your college application if you want. It isn't criminal. But bribing people to falsify records on your behalf is.
As for the "Schools that pursue race-conscious admissions policies say they do so to provide a richer learning environment for all students and are following Supreme Court precedent that allows such an approach." This has the same prefiltering fallacy we've hit multiple times in the last few weeks. The black guy getting into Harvard isn't some poor fellow from back woods Alabama. He is rich, urban, and pretty indistinguishable from his white contemporaries other than skin color. If that is all that is required to "provide a richer learning environment" then send some students to a spray tan place. At least then you wouldn't be a racist.
Ben at May 19, 2019 6:39 PM
> I've joked for a while that
> she looks like she's from the
> branch of the family that got
> raped by the Mongols
You've said things like that about your forebears in earlier posts...
How come you never "identify," as the kids say nowadays, with the rapists?
Crid at May 19, 2019 9:11 PM
> reelection to the Senate?"
See also.
Crid at May 19, 2019 9:19 PM
While lying about race on a college application doesn't violate a specific law, it's still a form of fraud for financial gain. And it's still scandalous.
Unlike many foreign systems of racial identity, America's system of racial preferences works on the honor system: "...the most remarkable aspect of the American system of racial affirmative action is that it works—and surprisingly smoothly—on the honor system."
And it has, for many years, worked so well that lying about race was left a legal gray area. While it could be argued that lying about race on a college application is fraud for financial gain, it's not specifically against the law.
Besides, who's to say who is and is not a certain race. We've created no legal standards, no legal definition of "black" or "Hispanic." In fact, "Hispanic" is not a race by current Census standards; it's an ethnicity.
So, you can be white and Hispanic or black and Hispanic. Some countries, like Colombia, produce white people who would qualify as Hispanic, but look as white as any European. I used to work with a blonde woman from Colombia who looked and sounded like the typical California Valley Girl. Her parents still lived in Colombia.
Who needs assistance getting into college more, the children of Denzel Washington or the children of a white Appalachian coal miner? Now, who is more likely to get that assistance?
Which only goes to show the silliness in our system of racial preferences. And the racism in it, namely in the assumption that all black children are disadvantaged and incapable of making it into college without assistance.
Conan the Grammarian at May 20, 2019 6:16 AM
I'd say it is more scandalous that the question is even asked Conan. We spent a long time as a nation driving the message in that racism isn't acceptable. But through all that time our colleges and even lower schools have refused to give it up. The excuse of 'diversity' has only gotten more ridiculous as time has gone on.
Ben at May 20, 2019 7:20 AM
"The excuse of 'diversity' has only gotten more ridiculous as time has gone on."
It started out that way. Nobody claims to be "African". They use more-local terms. That was invented to claim everyone black needed Federal assistance, to maximize the scope of programs and opportunities for graft, and we are paid for not watching American government do this with a horrendous crime rate and riots for every imagined slight.
Radwaste at May 20, 2019 3:37 PM
My father was hired as the affirmative action coordinator for a Fortune 500 company (he rose to VP of human resources before retiring.) The chief counsel regularly sent him to EEOC hearings to handle them on his own.
He remarked that the law actually had no definition that could be used to prosecute misstatement of race in the context of employment discrimination law, with the exception of being a Native American, which is very well defined because of all the federal laws regarding their special status (so Elizabeth Warren is actually MORE afoul of the law than these students and their parents.)
They had a new manager who was a blonde, blue-eyed Boer born and raised in Johannnesburg, and when he checked the box on his hiring paperwork for "African American" no one could find a legal reason not to allow it.
I'd be surprised if education regulations are any different, so maybe some of these defendants shouldn't be rolling over so readily. If Godfrey Elfwick can choose to identify as a race other than what his genetics indicate, why can't they?
One of the interesting consequences of making sexual orientation of identity protected under law is that it creates a protected class in which anyone can claim or renounce membership any time, as often as they want, and the SJW narrative forbids questioning their assertion.
bw1 at May 23, 2019 6:28 PM
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