Lots going on here, but the finding that white applicants have lied more about identifying with another racial or ethnic group, mostly claiming Native American identities, suggests the stereotype that not being white means the admissions bar is lower 1/n insidehighered.com/admissions/art…
We also saw similar findings in the Varsity Blues scandal: parents would change their kids’ race/ethnicity thinking it would give them an advantage in highly selective admissions (aka among the highly reject live colleges as @akilbello describes them). 2/n
Research shows that Black & Latinx applicants’ odds of admissions to selective colleges has fallen since the early 1970s. White applicants fare better as a result of the accumulated racial privilege in schooling in combination with many other societal advantages. 3/n
More broadly, race is a socially constructed attribute, not a naturally fixed one that exists in your genes. How someone identifies can differ depending on contexts & the person’s racial conceptualizations of groups, identity, & history. But… 4/n
Often people who are more likely to change their racial &/or ethnic identity already identify as multiracial or have connections with marginalized or minor timed groups. This returns us to white applicants changing how they identify for college admissions… 5/n
*minoritized groups #editbutton
This survey suggests how white applicants see an advantage of claiming a marginalized & minoritized identity in a white supremacist world that devalues & dehumanizes groups not falling neatly into whiteness. 6/n
They know K-12 is unequal & colleges are talking more about diversity. So why not make a claim aligning with the individual goal to go to a ‘brand name college’ & the institutional aim of having a diverse student body at place that has & continues to be racially exclusionary? 7/n
These findings also suggest how little people know about how holistic admission reviews works. Race is not a determining factor in selective admissions reviews. But they try to figure out how to get more advantages. Here, they think about changing how they identify on forms… 8/n
Other ways include embracing stereotypes about group abilities & unequal educational environment to change how they apply meritocratic arguments for some groups compared to others about who should get in. See Samson’s work 9/n cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Beyond the selective college admissions angle, this survey points to the dismissal of Native American communities unless they can be of service & profit to whiteness. We can talk about all the research showing how the racial privileging of white students in various ways… 10/n
Continues to give them the best chance of admission to such colleges, but the claim of Native American ancestry for a supposed admissions advantage continues a long line of epistemologically ignorant claims to history & identity (a la Mills). 11/n
One person interviewed noted colleges won’t ask for DNA results from applicants to verify ancestry claims. Don’t do that. Race is not genetic & those tests are fraught with issues. For more info about this, please read the work of @KimTallBear 12/n upress.umn.edu/book-division/…
This story shows how easy it is for people to rely on racially essentialist & genetically deterministic views to try & gain advantages to highly rejective colleges. Admins should think about what this really says about their contributions to higher ed as a public good 12/12
Building on something @prabhbob (they are an amazing scholar! Read more their work BTW!) that is a word of caution: this story focuses on racial identification & you can derive what percentage of whites changing their reported race/ethnicity were admitted. However… 13/n
This doesn’t indicate how much of their application info & the decision of admission benefited from years racial advantages in schooling & society more generally. They were competitive applicants because of these racial advantages, not because they changed how they identify. 14/n
Again, race is not a determining factor in selective admissions, but taking advantage of racism’s impact on learning & crafting a more appealing application does increase the odds of admissions. This is janother example of how people are trying to amplify such inequalities. 15/15
*highly rejective colleges. Get it together early morning autocorrect! #editbutton
Please unroll this thread @threadreaderapp
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
