The latest
SAT-type forms list
ethnicity as follows:
Note the "white"
appended to my forced choice
*. As though some poor kid wasn't quite sure what "
Caucasian" meant, aside from the fact that it's a completely
obselete term, the
College Board feels that it's
appropriate to stick an arbitrary racial qualifier on the end of
my race; needless to say, they don't say "black", or, God help us, "red" and "yellow". These would clearly be inappropriate, and yet they decide to enforce a
double standard with me.
Firstly, I did not come from the Caucasus. Neither did my ancestors; in all likelihood, we wandered out from Africa until the fall of Rome threw us into Holland. I might as well call a black person an Ethiopian; it's outdated and ridiculous.
My next complaint would be the fairly arbitrary use of the suffix "-American"; "African-American" is the only designation to recieve it. It's hardly fair to leave it off of all the others, considering that they're all as American as apple pie. Unless, of course, they aren't American citizens (many of those who take the SAT, do not, in fact, live in America), in which case it would be grossly inappropriate.
So... are the only black persons taking the test American citizens, and everyone of Asian descent a foreigner? Not to mention us Caucasians, who are implicitly not American citizens, either. Perhaps we should replace "Caucasian" with "European" and "African-American" with "African": after all, it's a question of heritage, not citizenship or dated pseudoscience.
* For the record, I always choose "other" on these forms, since I lay claim to some Indonesian and Native American blood. Take that, ingrained system of race.
Reread: Hey, wait, this sounds like I hate black people. I love black people. Also, that "Native American blood" thing makes me one of those kids in high school that I wanted to punch in the mouth. Although I *did* say that all the time, including back when I wrote this. Anyway, summary: Black people -- good. SAT form phrasing -- bad. Political correctness -- mixed bag. Me in high school -- kind of lame. Thank you.