Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 02:00:00 LCL
From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA
Subject: Re: who is african american
did anyone else see the article in the chronicle of higher ed a few
months ago about a white guy who checked "african american" on his
application to law school (at johns hopkins, i think)? his paternal
grandparents are white zambians, so he reasoned that he could count
as "african american" since he can trace his family tree, rather
recently, into africa. the school accepted him, then noticed that he
had checked "white" on his financial aid form, found out he was
indeed of european stock, and rescinded his acceptance. he's suing,
claiming that they must've just accepted him because they thought
he was black. they say they'd do the same to anyone who answered
their forms inconsistently. he says it wasn't inconsistent--
"african american" makes no reference to race.
lynne
______________________________________________________________________
M. Lynne Murphy e-mail: 104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za
Lecturer, Dept. of Linguistics phone: 27(11)716-2340
University of the Witwatersrand fax: 27(11)716-8030
Johannesburg 2050 South Africa
"Language without meaning is meaningless." --Roman Jakobson