Examining the Possible Issues With the 'Pocahontas Policy' First Taken Up by Brown University

Not long ago, I shared a story about Brown University allowing graduate students to "self identify as students of color." It is unclear how this will affect admissions or how they are going to go about this. It also doesn't make much sense in the explanations as to why they are doing this that I have read. 

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The University defines HUGs (historically underrepresented groups) as “those who self-identify as American Indian, Alaskan Native, African American, Hispanic or Latinx and Native Hawaiian and/or Pacific Islander,” according to the DIAP.

​The policy for students to “self-identify” as persons of color comes from complaints made by graduate students on the Graduate School Advisory Board that international students and Asian American students are not treated like members of historically underrepresented groups.

Brown’s guidelines for qualifying as a member of a historical underrepresented group “caused some students to not receive invitations to certain events, such as a multicultural student dinner,” The Herald reported.

Source

In light of this, Campus Reform asked students on video about their opinion on this. Have a look:

Now, apparently, this isn't going to be challenged, or at least this is what we are left to assume. Which leaves me with several concerns. Would Rachel Dolezal be admitted to the school as a black student, even though it is well known she is actually a white woman with a mental issue? 

How is this going to affect affirmative action? Some folks claim this will kill affirmative action, but I don't personally think it will. I think it will over extend it because of students taking advantage of it. I think it will eventually cost all of us.  

People wouldn't take advantage of it, you say? Sure they will! Just ask Vijay Chokal-Ingam, an Indian-American who decided that, as an Indian-American, his grades would not allow him into medical school, but if he was black they certainly would. He was accepted to medical school as a black student, and then wrote an article about it, also including all the racism he endured as a black man to take the attention off the fact that he gamed the system for his own benefit.

Since there are about 59,000 genders, what stops folks from making up 59,000 new races that everyone is going to have to accept? When I was in high school, one of the black girls told me I wasn't white, I was pink, and therefore had my own race, the pink people (no, I wasn't even slightly offended). So can I declare myself part of the pink race? As a member of the pink race, I am a minority. Do I qualify for affirmative action? Pink is a color, I'm a person of color. Also, us pink people tend to burn really easily in the sun, can I claim that as a disability, too? 

Now, if we aren't going to allow made up races, that's fine. We can roll with what we have. According to the DNA test I took, I actually have DNA that says I am African and Asian. I'm about 2% Asian and 1% African, but since I'm allowed to self identify, I am going to claim minority status. Hey, I'm tri-racial, right? And I have a DNA test to prove it. And since, for some reason, people who have multiple races seem to think they have to identify as one or the other instead of both, maybe I'll decide to identify as African. This could become a problem, since I believe most people who take that DNA test find they have some percentage of African in them. 

But do we see how this could be a problem? 

Look. I'm not saying that a DNA test should be required to prove someone's ethnicity. Not at all. A lot of people strongly object to those DNA tests, and I completely understand why and don't think they should be forced to take one. But if you are going in on affirmative action, you should need to supply some kind of information on family history. That alone would disqualify someone like Rachel Dolezal, because her parents were white and there was no record of an adoption.

I don't personally think affirmative action should be in place anymore, because I do believe people of color are more than capable of getting into schools on their own merit and can be held to the same standards as anyone else. But I am also realistic enough to know it isn't going anywhere anytime soon because so many people think these folks can't accomplish these things on their own, and somehow that isn't racist or offensive. But if you are going in on affirmative action, you should be able to supply something that proves you are who you say you are. Vijay Chokal-Ingram even went in using his middle name instead of his legal name so he could pass as black. How was that not caught?! 

As long as affirmative action is in place, shouldn't it be going to those it is supposed to go to? Yes, it's unfair towards certain groups, but that was the original intent, and at one point, it probably did some good, making sure certain groups had access to education and work. But unfair to some groups or not, it's there. If you don't like it, fight to end it. Otherwise, live with it. When you decide to "self identify" as something you may not be, and it goes unchecked, you are actually taking the spot away from someone else. What Vijay did was for his own benefit. And he may have knocked someone else out of medical school who may or may not have deserved the spot more than he did. But he lied for his own gain and isn't sorry. Rachel Dolzal is the same. The woman lied her way to the top of the NAACP! And who knows what other benefits she received for not only being black, but being a black woman! And how many people lost out because of these people? 

Call me untrusting, but I don't believe people who do this sort of thing - identify as something they aren't - always have good intentions. I do believe some folks really believe they are what they aren't. But I also think a lot of these people want something out of it. Vijay got into medical school when his grades weren't there. These weirdos who are "trans-disabled" are, most likely, collecting disability checks from the government. A trans-woman could, in theory, use affirmative action to their benefit. All of these people get attention, some of it mainstream. Where does it stop? Once you allow one group to claim, legally, that they are what they aren't, you don't really have a leg to stand on with the rest. Yeah, I guess Rachel Dolezal is black because she says she is, and you should give her affirmative action as a black lady even though she's whiter than I am. And I guess what Vijay did was OK, too, because if gender can be fluid, why can't race? Maybe he actually was a black man during medical school, but his race is fluid, so he's Indian again now. DNA doesn't matter. It can't. It doesn't mean anything for gender, so it can't mean anything for race or anything else, either. 

So I guess I'm a one legged Chinese man now. Feels good to be my true self. Where's my money?