As I’ve discussed here and here, John Moores, the chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of California system, has commissioned reports that suggest the university is using its new “comprehensive review” admissions procedures as an end run around the bar imposed by Prop. 209 against taking race into account. OpinionJournal at the Wall Street Journal had a column supporting Moores today.
Also today the San Francisco Chronicle has an editorial supporting “comprehensive review” that includes a quote from UC president Robert Dynes that, as I read it, confirms everything Moores has been saying:
The system is similar to those used by every selective private university in the nation, and by some public university systems as well.
What sets UC apart is that applicants must jump through two high hoops to gain admission. Just to be considered for admission to a UC campus, all applicants must have satisfied a long list of eligibility requirements while at high school, including taking a required set of courses, achieving a certain grade-point average and scoring at minimum levels on the SAT or ACT.
Once they have been deemed “eligible” for admission to a campus, applicants are subjected to rigorous screening known as “comprehensive review.”
It is at this point in the process that factors other than just academic qualifications are taken into account. “It is expected that each campus will draw from the full spectrum of the eligibility pool,” UC President Robert Dynes told us. “In practice, the Berkeley campus, being the most selective, will take more from the top than from the bottom, but it will draw from the entire pool, and they will do it knowingly and purposefully, in order to get a diverse student body.”
One curious little quirk in the whole affirmative action debate has been springing up recently. AA programs of course grant preferences to Hispanics among other minorities, but lately there’s been some controversy about the definition of “Hispanic,” esp. since the recent Supreme Court decision on AA in 2003.
Since Hispanics can be from many countries and complexions, the one common factor is cultural– most particularly, speaking Spanish. Apparently, some students with Spanish surnames (e.g. Lopez, Flores, Garcia) have been applying for minority scholarships and claiming to be “Hispanic.” Problem is, in many cases their only connection to being Hispanic is a grandfather who came from a country in Latin America like Argentina or Cuba. Their assertions about being “underrepresented minorities” are ridiculous, since the applicants, whatever their surnames, are often wealthy and speak only English, yet still claim to be Hispanic!
This has apparently pissed off a lot of the administrators of these scholarships (not to mention college admissions officers). My understanding these days is that whenever someone declares themselves “Hispanic” on a form and seeks out minority scholarships or admissions preferences, it’s common to assign them a Spanish-speaking interviewer. The interview begins in English, but the interviewer often switches to Spanish midway through, and if it becomes clear that the “Hispanic” applicant can’t even speak Spanish, they’re automatically rejected.
I know anecdotally of a rich-kid applicant for such a minority scholarship, with a Spanish last name owing to a great-grandparent from South America. He claimed to be Hispanic, but he spoke not a word of Spanish– he was trying to play the system. So in his interview, the interviewer almost immediately began chatting in Spanish and the applicant flushed bright red when he had to admit he could speak only in English. The interviewer politely told the applicant that he was in the reject pile, then basically told him to get out of town.
It’s hard to collect systematic information on this, but a pretty clear picture seems to be emerging, and thus a word to the wise: If you claim to be “Hispanic” on a form when applying to college or a minority scholarship, or seeking out a minority-designated contract, you’d better make sure that you can actually speak Spanish. (Take some night-school cram courses and learn it quickly if you can’t already speak it.) Whatever the variability in the definition of “Hispanicness,” scholarship administrators and admissions officers expect at a bare minimum that you speak Spanish if you claim that you’re Latino or Hispanic. And being busted on this point is probably a peculiarly humiliating experience.
I should add– if you claim the Latino/Hispanic ethnicity, you have to be fluent in Spanish (or Portuguese if you’re from Brazil), not just able to speak a little bit of it, when applying for one of these scholarships. So if you’re a parent, make sure to teach the Spanish to your kids, and insist that they use the language with their peers; don’t let them fall into the trap of listening in Spanish but answering in English. They have to speak Spanish like a native. The scholarship administrators will not buy into the claim of Hispanic ethnicity if the person can’t even speak the language.
How odd, considering there are poor Hispanics who don’t speak Spanish, in which case the rich kids get to take language classes and can pass themselves off as Hispanic…
See, this is the whole problem with trying to identify people as being part of certain ethnic groups. How black do you have to be to qualify as being black? etc. etc. The tests it requires to prove membership of these amorphous groups become highly offensive.
It is absolutely ignorant to state that one who does not speak “Spanish” is cannot claim to be Hispanic. There have been Hispanics in the present area of the United States of America (Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, etc…) whose ancestors have been here for over four hundred years.
Although all their customs are Hispanic they began losing their Spanish speaking abilities when the USA took over as the presiding form of government. In many schools, those who spoke Spanish were physically and psychologically punished for speaking Spanish just like the Native Americans were punished for speaking their native languages. This stigma of speaking Spanish was ingrained in them and they refused to teach their native language to their children. So the result is that there are MANY Hispanic Americans (full blooded) who DO NOT speak Spanish. It is called assimilation and Hispanics should not be punished for assimilating.
The point here is that these people ARE Hispanic and they are Americans too. Are they supposed to be disqualified from minority programs because they do not fit your definition of Hispanic? No. To assume that a Hispanic, whether they be 100%, 75%, 50% or 25%, who does not speak Spanish but who grew up in a Hispanic culture does not qualify for your definition of being a minority is rediculous. These people do not hold the majority of white collar and professional occupations. In fact, they still dominate areas of the workforce with other minorities.
Another point to make is that if an African-American does not speak “African”, then do you not consider them to be a minority or African-American? Would you disqualify them from a minority based scholarship if they did not speak any of the languages from the continent of Africa? No, and to be quite honest it would be very unethnical. So, to get to the point, it is wrong to condemn Hispanics because they do not speak Spanish and it is wrong to make the statements that you made about their not being a minority.
J. Smith,
You said, “…if an African-American does not speak “African,” then do you not consider them to be a minority or African-American?”
How does one speak African? I did not know that there was such a language?
You have a lot to learn before you speak on this subject. That is evident in your use of the term “African-American.” Can you tell me what an “African-American” is?
Daniel
J. Smith,
You said, “…if an African-American does not speak “African,” then do you not consider them to be a minority or African-American?”
How does one speak African? I did not know that there was such a language?
You have a lot to learn before you speak on this subject. That is evident in your use of the term “African-American.” Can you tell me what an “African-American” is?
Daniel