I am being dead serious, I start college after I graduate in June. I was actually born in South Africa to a white family living there and I came to the States when i was young. I am of African descent because I am from Africa. The minority scholarship doesn’t say at all that you have to be black; just says of African descent.
So if I were to apply to I honestly have a good case because though I am white I technically am a minority being of African descent?
No.
Go for it……interesting to see what happens
If you have to use the word ‘technically’ you probably already know what you are contemplating isn’t ethical.
Just hope that they don’t want a photo of you for the newletter to show all the good work they do.
Also, you are confused by what the word “descent” means. It means your ancestry is there. My guess is your family tree comes from Western Europe.
Apply to the “United White Peoples College Fund”…Oh that’s right there are none of those!!!
Fantastic question. My family is South African , so I hear where you are coming from. You need to be very careful and make sure to read all the rules and be in total compliance. For example, make sure questions ask about “ethnicity” and not “race”. Certainly don’t hide through omission. If you have any opportunity to disclose on the check-boxes, do so. For example, if you have the option of checking off ethnicity of White as well as African descent (though not African American in your case), then check both. In my opinion, going out of your way to volunteer information is not necessary, so long as you make your situation known through the forms available.
That being said, I would also think very carefully about the risks. There’s a strong bias against your doing this. Is it worth the risk? You might run into the attitude of “you know what we meant.” It’s certainly way better to miss out on scholarship money than it is to be 1) blacklisted 2) face disciplinary action 3) disciplined.
When I applied to law school, I remember a lot of the schools asked the “ethnicity” question. For example, they asked Japanese / Korean / Pacific Islander, etc. They also asked “White” and “African American”. “White” was the only race option there, the rest were ethnicity. So, it’s a hard line to draw. (and, I just selected “white” because, even though I thought the African American answer was correct, it was not worth running into any problems).
As for answers about a white person’s ancestry not being “African”, I find it a little odd that peoples living in a certain area for 400 years wouldn’t qualify for such ancestry. Taken just one step further, I suppose then that there is no such thing as “native american descent” and “northern african descent”, or “polynesian descent”.
From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: de·scent b: transmission or devolution of an estate by inheritance usually in the descending line c: the fact or process of originating from an ancestral stock d: the shaping or development in nature and character by transmission from a source : derivation
Pronunciation: \di-ˈsent\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French descente, from Anglo-French descendre
Date: 14th century
1 a: derivation from an ancestor : birth, lineage
Good luck!
I understand your situation and I would say go for it but be prepared to explain yourself.
These scholarships are set up for people who have had a hard time getting into college because of their home structure, financial situation, and other factors. Someone applying for this scholarship from the projects is much more likely to get it, and in all likelihood in much greater need of it than you.
Not to sound high-and-mighty, but I would look for more academic or service-oriented scholarships, because I know those foundations are set up for a specific set of people, and I would feel like I would be robbing them of their opportunities.