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College Essays

If you're applying to college, you've probably heard the phrase "diversity essay" once or twice. This type of essay is a little different from your typical "Why this college?" essay . Instead of focusing on why you've chosen a certain school, you'll write about your background, values, community, and experiences—basically, what makes you special.

In this guide, I explain what a diversity college essay is, what schools are looking for in this essay, and what you can do to ensure your diversity essay stands out.

What Is a Diversity Essay for College?

A diversity essay is a college admissions essay that focuses on you as an individual and your relationship with a specific community. The purpose of this essay is to reveal what makes you different from other applicants, including what unique challenges or barriers you've faced and how you've contributed to or learned from a specific community of people.

Generally speaking, the diversity college essay is used to promote diversity in the student body . As a result, the parameters of this essay are typically quite broad. Applicants may write about any relevant community or experience. Here are some examples of communities you could discuss:

• Your cultural group
• Your race or ethnicity
• Your extended family
• Your religion
• Your socioeconomic background (such as your family's income)
• Your sex or gender
• Your sexual orientation
• Your gender identity
• Your values or opinions
• Your experiences
• Your home country or hometown
• Your school
• The area you live in or your neighborhood
• A club or organization of which you're an active member

Although the diversity essay is a common admissions requirement at many colleges, most schools do not specifically refer to this essay as a diversity essay . At some schools, the diversity essay is simply your personal statement , whereas at others, it's a supplemental essay or short answer.

It's also important to note that the diversity essay is not limited to undergraduate programs . Many graduate programs also require diversity essays from applicants. So if you're planning to eventually apply to graduate school, be aware that you might have to write another diversity statement!

Diversity Essay Sample Prompts From Colleges

Now that you understand what diversity essays for college are, let's take a look at some diversity essay sample prompts from actual college applications.

University of Michigan

At the University of Michigan , the diversity college essay is a required supplemental essay for all freshman applicants.

Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.

University of Washington

Like UM, the University of Washington asks students for a short-answer (300 words) diversity essay. UW also offers advice on how to answer the prompt.

Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the University of Washington.

Keep in mind that the UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values, and viewpoints.

University of California System

The UC system requires freshman applicants to choose four out of eight prompts (or personal insight questions ) and submit short essays of up to 350 words each . Two of these are diversity essay prompts that heavily emphasize community, personal challenges, and background.

For each prompt, the UC system offers tips on what to write about and how to craft a compelling essay.

5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?

Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you've faced and what you've learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?

If you're currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, "How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends, or with my family?"

7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team, or place—like your high school, hometown, or home. You can define community as you see fit; just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community?

Why were you inspired to act? What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community, or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community?

Think about your community: How has it helped you? What have you done for it?

University of Oklahoma

First-year applicants to the University of Oklahoma who want to qualify for a leader, community service, or major-based scholarship must answer two optional, additional writing prompts , one of which tackles diversity. The word count for this prompt is 650 words or less.

The University of Oklahoma is the home of a vibrant, diverse, and compassionate university community that is often referred to as “the OU family.” Please describe your cultural and community service activities and why you chose to participate in them.

Duke University

In addition to having to answer the Common Application or Coalition Application essay prompts, applicants to Duke University may (but do not have to) submit short answers to two prompts, four of which are diversity college essay prompts . The maximum word count for each is 250 words.

We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community .

We believe there is benefit in sharing and sometimes questioning our beliefs or values; who do you agree with on the big important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?

We recognize that “fitting in” in all the contexts we live in can sometimes be difficult. Duke values all kinds of differences and believes they make our community better. Feel free to tell us any ways in which you’re different, and how that has affected you or what it means to you.

Duke’s commitment to inclusion and belonging includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Feel free to share with us more about how your identity in this context has meaning for you as an individual or as a member of a community .

Pitzer College

At Pitzer, freshman applicants must use the Common Application and answer one supplemental essay prompt. One of these prompts is a diversity essay prompt that asks you to write about your community.

At Pitzer, five core values distinguish our approach to education: social responsibility, intercultural understanding, interdisciplinary learning, student engagement, and environmental sustainability. As agents of change, our students utilize these values to create solutions to our world's challenges. Reflecting on your involvement throughout high school or within the community, how have you engaged with one of Pitzer's core values?

The Common Application

Many colleges and universities, such as Purdue University , use the Common Application and its essay prompts.

One of its essay prompts is for a diversity essay, which can be anywhere from 250 to 650 words. This prompt has a strong focus on the applicant's identity, interests, and background.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful, they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

ApplyTexas is similar to the Common Application but is only used by public colleges and universities in the state of Texas. The application contains multiple essay prompts, one of which is a diversity college essay prompt that asks you to elaborate on who you are based on a particular identity, a passion you have, or a particular skill that you've cultivated.

Essay B: Some students have an identity, an interest, or a talent that defines them in an essential way. If you are one of these students, then tell us about yourself.

In a diversity essay, focus on an aspect of your identity or cultural background that defines you and makes you stand out.

What Do Colleges Look for in a Diversity Essay?

With the diversity essay, what colleges usually want most is to learn more about you , including what experiences have made you the person you are today and what unique insights you can offer the school. But what kinds of specific qualities do schools look for in a diversity essay?

To answer this, let's look at what schools themselves have said about college essays. Although not many colleges give advice specific to the diversity essay, many provide tips for how to write an effective college essay in general .

For example, here is what Dickinson College hopes to see in applicants' college essays:

Tell your story.

It may be trite advice, but it's also true. Admissions counselors develop a sixth sense about essay writers who are authentic. You'll score points for being earnest and faithful to yourself.

Authenticity is key to writing an effective diversity essay. Schools want you to be honest about who you are and where you come from; don't exaggerate or make up stories to make yourself sound "cooler" or more interesting—99% of the time, admissions committees will see right through it! Remember: admissions committees read thousands of applications, so they can spot a fake story a mile away.

Next, here's what Wellesley College says about the purpose of college essays:

Let the Board of Admission discover:

• More about you as a person.
• The side of you not shown by SATs and grades.
• Your history, attitudes, interests, and creativity.
• Your values and goals—what sets you apart.

It's important to not only be authentic but to also showcase "what sets you apart" from other applicants—that is, what makes you you . This is especially important when you consider how many applications admissions committees go through each year. If you don't stand out in some positive way, you'll likely end up in the crapshoot , significantly reducing or even eliminating your chances of admission .

And finally, here's some advice from the University of Michigan on writing essays for college:

Your college essay will be one of nearly 50,000 that we'll be reading in admissions—use this opportunity to your advantage. Your essay gives us insights into your personality; it helps us determine if your relationship with the school will be mutually beneficial.

So tell us what faculty you'd like to work with, or what research you're interested in. Tell us why you're a leader—or how you overcame adversity in your life. Tell us why this is the school for you. Tell us your story.

Overall, the most important characteristic colleges are looking for in the diversity essay (as well as in any college essay you submit) is authenticity. Colleges want to know who you are and how you got here; they also want to see what makes you memorable and what you can bring to the school.

An excellent diversity essay will represent some aspect of your identity in a sincere, authentic way.

How to Write an Effective Diversity Essay: Four Tips

Here are some tips to help you write a great diversity college essay and increase your chances of admission to college.

#1: Think About What Makes You Unique

One of the main purposes of the diversity essay is to present your uniqueness and explain how you will bring a new perspective to the student body and school as a whole. Therefore, for your essay, be sure to choose a topic that will help you stand apart from other applicants .

For example, instead of writing about your ability to play the piano (which a lot of applicants can do, no doubt), it'd be far more interesting to elaborate on how your experience growing up in Austria led you to become interested in classical music.

Try to think of defining experiences in your life. These don't have to be obvious life-altering events, but they should have had a lasting impact on you and helped shape your identity.

#2: Be Honest and Authentic

Ah, there's that word again: authentic . Although it's important to showcase how unique you are, you also want to make sure you're staying true to who you are. What experiences have made you the person you are today? What kind of impact did these have on your identity, accomplishments, and future goals?

Being honest also means not exaggerating (or lying about) your experiences or views. It's OK if you don't remember every little detail of an event or conversation. Just try to be as honest about your feelings as possible. Don't say something changed your life if it really had zero impact on you.

Ultimately, you want to write in a way that's true to your voice . Don't be afraid to throw in a little humor or a personal anecdote. What matters most is that your diversity essay accurately represents you and your intellectual potential.

#3: Write Clearly, Correctly, and Cogently

This next tip is of a more mechanical nature. As is the case with any college essay, it's critical that your diversity essay is well written . After all, the purpose of this essay is not only to help schools get to know you better but also to demonstrate a refined writing ability—a skill that's necessary for doing well in college, regardless of your major.

A diversity essay that's littered with typos and grammatical errors will fail to tell a smooth, compelling, and coherent story about you. It will also make you look unprofessional and won't convince admissions committees that you're serious about college and your future.

So what should you do? First, separate your essay into clear, well-organized paragraphs. Next, edit your essay several times. As you further tweak your draft, continue to proofread it. If possible, get an adult—such as a teacher, tutor, or parent—to look it over for you as well.

#4: Take Your Time

Our final tip is to give yourself plenty of time to actually write your diversity essay. Usually, college applications are due around December or January , so it's a good idea to start your essay early, ideally in the summer before your senior year (and before classes and homework begin eating up your time).

Starting early also lets you gain some perspective on your diversity essay . Here's how to do this: once you've written a rough draft or even just a couple of paragraphs of your essay, put it away for a few days. Once this time passes, take out your essay again and reread it with a fresh perspective. Try to determine whether it still has the impact you wanted it to have. Ask yourself, "Does this essay sound like the real me or someone else? Are some areas a little too cheesy? Could I add more or less detail to certain paragraphs?"

Finally, giving yourself lots of time to write your diversity essay means you can have more people read it and offer comments and edits on it . This is crucial for producing an effective diversity college essay.

Conclusion: Writing Diversity Essays for College

A diversity essay is a college admissions essay that r evolves around an applicant's background and identity, usually within the context of a particular community. This community can refer to race or ethnicity, income level, neighborhood, school, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.

Many colleges—such as the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and Duke—use the diversity essay to ensure diversity in their student bodies . Some schools require the essay; others accept it as an optional application component.

If you'll be writing diversity essays for college, be sure to do the following when writing your essay to give yourself a higher chance of admission:

• Think about what makes you unique: Try to pinpoint an experience or opinion you have that'll separate you from the rest of the crowd in an interesting, positive way.
• Be honest and authentic:  Avoid exaggerating or lying about your feelings and experiences.
• Write clearly, correctly, and cogently:  Edit, proofread, and get someone else to look over your essay.
• Take your time: Start early, preferably during the summer before your senior year, so you can have more time to make changes and get feedback from others.

With that, I wish you the best of luck on your diversity essay!

What's Next?

You understand how to write a diversity essay— but what about a "Why this college?" essay ? What about a general personal statement ? Our guides explain what these essays are and how you can produce amazing responses for your applications.

Want more samples of college essay prompts? Read dozens of real prompts with our guide and learn how to answer them effectively.

Curious about what a good college essay actually looks like? Then check out our analysis of 100+ college essays and what makes them memorable .

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

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The Diversity College Essay: How to Write a Stellar Essay

What’s covered:, what’s covered in a diversity essay, what is a diversity essay, examples of the diversity essay prompt, how to write the diversity college essay after the end of affirmative action, tips for writing a diversity college essay.

The Diversity Essay exists because colleges want a student body that includes different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, backgrounds, interests, and so on. The essay asks students to illuminate what sets them apart so that admissions committees can see what kind of diverse views and opinions they can bring to the campus.

In this post, we’ll be going over what exactly a diversity essay is, examples of real prompts and essays, and tips for writing a standout essay. You’ll be well prepared to answer this common essay prompt after reading this post!

Upon hearing the word diversity, many people assume that they have to write about gender and sexuality, class, or race. To many, this can feel overly personal or forced, or can cause students to worry that their identity isn’t unique or interesting enough. In reality, the diversity essay is much broader than many people realize.

Identity means different things to different people, and the important thing is that you demonstrate your uniqueness and what’s important to you. You might write about one of the classic, traditional identity features mentioned above, but you also could consider writing about a more unusual feature of yourself or your life—or even the intersection of two or more identities.

Consider these questions as you think about what to include in your diversity essay:

• Do you have a unique or unusual talent or skill? For example, you might be a person with perfect pitch, or one with a very accurate innate sense of direction.
• Do you have beliefs or values that are markedly different from the beliefs or values of those around you? Perhaps you hold a particular passion for scientific curiosity or truthfulness, even when it’s inconvenient.
• Do you have a hobby or interest that sets you apart from your peers? Maybe you’re an avid birder, or perhaps you love to watch old horror movies.
• Have you done or experienced something that few people have? Note that if you choose to write about a single event as a diverse identity feature, that event should have had a pretty substantial impact on you and your life. Perhaps you’re part of the 0.2% of the world that has run a marathon, or you’ve had the chance to watch wolves hunt in the wild.
• Do you have a role in life that gives you a special outlook on the world? Maybe one of your siblings has a rare disability, or you grew up in a town of less than 500 people.

Of course, if you would rather write about a more classic identity feature, you absolutely should! These questions are intended to help you brainstorm and get you thinking creatively about this prompt. You don’t need to dig deep for an extremely unusual diverse facet of yourself or your personality. If writing about something like ability, ethnicity, or gender feels more representative of your life experience, that can be an equally strong choice!

You should think expansively about your options and about what really demonstrates your individuality, but the most important thing is to be authentic and choose a topic that is truly meaningful to you.

Diversity essay prompts come up in both personal statements and supplemental essays. As with all college essays, the purpose of any prompt is to better understand who you are and what you care about. Your essays are your chance to share your voice and humanize your application. This is especially true for the diversity essay, which aims to understand your unique perspectives and experiences, as well as the ways in which you might contribute to a college community.

It’s worth noting that diversity essays are used in all kinds of selection processes beyond undergrad admissions—they’re seen in everything from graduate admissions to scholarship opportunities. You may very well need to write another diversity essay later in life, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with this essay archetype now.

If you’re not sure whether your prompt is best answered by a diversity essay, consider checking out our posts on other essay archetypes, like “Why This College?” , “Why This Major?” , and the Extracurricular Activity Essay .

The best-known diversity essay prompt is from the Common App . The first prompt states:

“Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

Some schools also have individual diversity essay prompts. For example, here’s one from Duke University :

“We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.” (250 words)

And here’s one from Rice :

“Rice is strengthened by its diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders and change agents across the spectrum of human endeavor. What perspectives shaped by your background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity inspire you to join our community of change agents at Rice?” (500 words)

In all instances, colleges want you to demonstrate how and what you’ll contribute to their communities.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court overturned the use of affirmative action in college admissions, meaning that colleges are no longer able to directly factor race into admissions decisions. Despite this ruling, you can still discuss your racial or ethnic background in your Common App or supplemental essays.

If your race or ethnic heritage is important to you, we strongly recommend writing about it in one of your essays, as this is now one of the only ways that admissions committees are able to consider it as a factor in your admission.

Many universities still want to hear about your racial background and how it has impacted you, so you are likely to see diversity essays show up more frequently as part of supplemental essay packets. Remember, if you are seeing this kind of prompt, it’s because colleges care about your unique identity and life experience, and believe that these constitute an important part of viewing your application holistically. To learn more about how the end of affirmative action is impacting college admissions, check out our post for more details .

1. Highlight what makes you stand out.

A common misconception is that diversity only refers to aspects—such as ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. While these are standard measures of diversity, you can be diverse in other ways. These ways includes (but aren’t limited to) your:

• Interests, hobbies, and talents
• Perspectives, values, and opinions
• Experiences
• Personality traits

Ask yourself which aspects of your identity are most central to who you are. Are these aspects properly showcased in other portions of your application? Do you have any interests, experiences, or traits you want to highlight?

For instance, maybe you’re passionate about reducing food waste. You might love hiking and the outdoors. Or, maybe you’re a talented self-taught barber who’s given hundreds of free haircuts in exchange for donations to charity.

The topic of your essay doesn’t have to be crazy or even especially unique. You just want to highlight whatever is important to you, and how this thing shapes who you are. You might still want to write about a more common aspect of identity. If so, there are strong ways to do so.

If you do choose to write about a more common trait (for example, maybe your love of running), do so in a way that tells your story. Don’t just write an ode to running and how it’s stress-relieving and pushes you past your limits. Share your journey with us⁠—for instance, maybe you used to hate it, but you changed your mind one day and eventually trained to run a half marathon. Or, take us through your thought process during a race. The topic in itself is important, but how you write about it is even more important.

2. Share an anecdote.

One easy way to make your essay more engaging is to share a relevant and related story. The beginning of your essay is a great place for that, as it draws the reader in immediately. For instance, the following student chose to write about their Jewish identity, and opened the essay with a vivid experience of being discriminated against:

“I was thirsty. In my wallet was a lone $10 bill, ultimately useless at my school’s vending machine. Tasked with scrounging together the $1 cost of a water bottle, I fished out and arranged the spare change that normally hid at the bottom of my backpack in neat piles of nickels and dimes on my desk. I swept them into a spare Ziploc and began to leave when a classmate snatched the bag and held it above my head.

“Want your money back, Jew?” she chanted, waving the coins around. I had forgotten the Star-of-David around my neck, but quickly realized she must have seen it and connected it to the stacks of coins. I am no stranger to experiencing and confronting antisemitism, but I had never been targeted in my school before.”

An anecdote allows readers to experience what you’re describing, and to feel as if they’re there with you. This can ultimately help readers better relate to you.

Brainstorm some real-life stories relevant to the trait you want to feature. Possibilities include: a meaningful interaction, achieving a goal, a conflict, a time you felt proud of the trait (or ashamed of it), or the most memorable experience related to the trait. Your story could even be something as simple as describing your mental and emotional state while you’re doing a certain activity.

Whatever you decide on, consider sharing that moment in media res , or “in the middle of things.” Take us directly to the action in your story so we can experience it with you.

3. Show, don’t tell.

If you simply state what makes you diverse, it’s really easy for your essay to end up sounding bland. The writer of the previous essay example could’ve simply stated “I’m Jewish and I’ve had to face antisemitism.” This is a broad statement that doesn’t highlight their unique personal experiences. It doesn’t have the same emotional impact.

Instead, the writer illustrated an actual instance where they experienced antisemitism, which made the essay more vivid and easier to relate to. Even if we’re not Jewish ourselves, we can feel the anger and pain of being taunted for our background. This story is also unique to the writer’s life⁠—while others may have experienced discrimination, no one else will have had the exact same encounter.

As you’re writing, constantly evaluate whether or not you’re sharing a unique perspective. If what you write could’ve been written by someone else with a similar background or interest, you need to get more granular. Your personal experiences are what will make your essay unique, so share those with your reader.

4. Discuss how your diversity shapes your outlook and actions.

It’s important to describe not only what your unique traits and experiences are, but also how they shape who you are. You don’t have to explicitly say “this is how X trait impacts me” (you actually shouldn’t, as that would be telling instead of showing). Instead, you can reveal the impact of your diversity through the details you share.

Maybe playing guitar taught you the importance of consistent effort. Show us this through a story of how you tackled an extremely difficult piece you weren’t sure you could handle. Show us the calluses on your fingers, the knit brows as you tinkered with the chords, the countless lessons with your teacher. Show us your elation as you finally performed the piece.

Remember that colleges learn not just about who you are, but also about what you might contribute to their community. Take your essay one step farther and show admissions officers how your diversity impacts the way you approach your life.

Where to Get Your Diversity Essay Edited

Do you want feedback on your diversity essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

SCOTUS Says You Can Discuss Race in Your College Essay. Should You?

The us supreme court banned colleges’ affirmative action admission practices, raising a question about students writing about race in their college essay.

Although the Supreme Court says college application essays may discuss race and disadvantage, BU experts say inauthentic or traumatic recollections won’t cut it. Photo by Delmaine Donson/iStock

Should You Discuss Race in Your College Essay?

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” — Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

“The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. …Universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”—Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Confused? So are many in higher education. When the United States Supreme Court sacked affirmative action racial preferences in June, Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion, while spotlighting applicants’ personal essays, also put vague guardrails around their use. And anyway, not every young person who has suffered racial discrimination wants to revisit it in their essay, that critical part of applying to college where students tell their story in their voice. 

After the SCOTUS decision, the advice from Boston University admissions and college guidance experts is this: your story must always be authentic. It can be about discrimination or other challenges met and dealt with, but it need not be. And it shouldn’t be , if writing about it means revisiting traumatic experiences.

“The essay for us is just going to continue to be as important as it always was,” notwithstanding the new legal landscape, says Kelly Walter (Wheelock’81), BU dean of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment. She has discussed the ruling with the University’s legal office, she says, and her office has tweaked BU’s two essay question options applicants must choose from. (The University also asks potential future Terriers to complete the Common Application for college, which has its own essay requirement.) The tweaks were partly in response to the court ruling, Walter says, but also to ensure that the questions conveyed to students “what BU stood for, and that we value diversity. We thought it was very important to put that out there front and center, and for them to be able to specifically respond to our commitment, our values, as it relates to one of these two essay questions.” 

Those questions are:

Reflect on a social or community issue that deeply resonates with you. Why is it important to you, and how have you been involved in addressing or raising awareness about it? What about being a student at BU most excites you? How do you hope to contribute to our campus community?

While the chief justice exhorted students to share discrimination episodes in answering such questions, recent alum and current student Erika Decklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24) says that may not be comfortable for some. She is an advisor with BU Admissions College Advising Corps (CAC-BU) , which gives college application counseling to low-income and other marginalized high schoolers.

“In my experience,” Decklar says, “students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. We have always advised and encouraged students to write about a topic that highlights their strengths, personalities, and passions—whether it is a ‘resiliency’ essay or an essay about their culture, values, or a unique passion.”

After the SCOTUS ruling, Decklar says, her advice to students has not changed. “We should continue motivating students to write about a passion, something that makes them unique, but not coach them to write about their traumatic experiences.” 

Katie Hill, who directs CAC-BU, says applicants sharing in their essays what makes them special “does not require them revisiting their pain. If students so choose, we can help them write about their families and cultures, what is beautiful and makes them proud to be” of that culture.

Students from marginalized backgrounds gravitate towards writing college essays on traumatic experiences, whether they are comfortable sharing these experiences with admissions counselors or not. Erika Deklar (Sargent’22, SPH’24)

But what BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) students do not need, Hill says, is to hear from their advisors that in order to get into college, they need to open themselves up beyond their comfortable boundaries.

Walter agrees that an applicant’s story need not be an unrelenting nightmare. It’s true that some of them “are sharing things about their personal lives that I’m not sure I would have seen 20 years ago,” she says. “Students are certainly talking about their sexual identity in their essays. And some will say to us, ‘I’m telling you this [about my identity], and my parents don’t know yet.’” 

But she can reel off the opening lines from three of her favorite essays over the years that were hardly gloomy. One began, Geeks come in many varieties. “We laughed. It makes you want to keep reading,” she says. Then there was the woman who started, Life is short, and so am I.  

The third: By day, Louis is my trusty companion; by night, my partner in crime. “Doesn’t that make you want to read more and find out who or what Louis is?” Walter asks. (He was the applicant’s first car, a metaphor for this woman’s passion for the independence it conveyed, preparing her for the next step of going to BU, where she indeed matriculated.)

The essay is so important because it’s a given that applicants to BU can manage the academics here. “We have 80,000 students applying for admission to Boston University [annually],” Walter says, “and I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of them can do the work academically. We’re also shaping and building a class.

“For some, it may be leadership. For some, it may be their cultural background. For others, it might be writing for the Daily Free Press. We really want to think about a wide variety of students in our first-year class.” The essay fills in blanks about applicants for admission, along with teacher and counselor recommendations, their high school activities, and their internships or jobs. 

That’s not to say there aren’t lethal don’ts to avoid, most of them emphasizing the necessity of having a proofreader.

“We often get references to ‘Boston College,’” says Patrice Oppliger , a College of Communication assistant professor of communication, who solicits faculty reviews of applicants to COM’s mass communication, advertising, and public relations master’s program before making a decision.

And need we say, do your own work? Walter recalls an essay from a couple of years back where the applicant discussed life in Warren Towers. “And I was like, wait, you couldn’t have lived in Warren Towers, you’re not here yet. And it became very clear that the parent, who was an alum—I think in an effort to help—was telling her story. And somehow no one [in that family] caught that.”

So writing about dealing with discrimination, race-based or otherwise, is fine if it’s not traumatic for you to revisit— and if it’s authentic. Authenticity also includes avoiding over-reliance on artificial intelligence in crafting your essay. According to Admissions’ AI statement ,

If you opt to use these tools at any point while writing your essays, they should only be used to support your original ideas rather than to write your essays in their entirety. As potential future Terriers, we expect all applicants to adhere to the same standards of academic honesty and integrity as our current students. When representing the words or ideas of another in their original work, students should properly credit the source.

“We want to think about not just who will thrive academically at BU,” Walter says, “but also who will enrich the University community and make diverse contributions.”

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The dictionary's definition of race

Each of the major groupings into which humankind is considered (in various theories or contexts) to be divided on the basis of physical characteristics or shared ancestry.

The notion of race is a social construct designed to divide people into groups ranked as superior and inferior. The scientific consensus is that race, in this sense, has no biological basis – we are all one race, the human race. Racial identity , however, is very real. And, in a racialized society like the United States, everyone is assigned a racial identity whether they are aware of it or not.

Race as Social Construction

​The dictionary’s definition of race is incomplete and misses the complexity of impact on lived experiences. It is important to acknowledge race is a social fabrication, created to classify people on the arbitrary basis of skin color and other physical features. Although race has no genetic or scientific basis, the concept of race is important and consequential. Societies use race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege, disenfranchisement, and oppression.

American Anthropological Association  states that "the 'racial' worldview was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth. The tragedy in the United States has been that the policies and practices stemming from this worldview succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations among Europeans, Native Americans, and peoples of African descent." To understand more about race as a social construct in the United States, read the AAPA  statement on race and racism .

Learn more about race as it relates to human genetics In the Teaching Tolerance report, “Race Does Not Equal DNA” 

What is Racial identity?

• Racial identity is externally imposed: “ How do others perceive me? ”
• Racial identity is also internally constructed: “ How do I identify myself? ”

Understanding how our identities and experiences have been shaped by race is vital. We are all awarded certain privileges and or disadvantages because of our race whether or not we are conscious of it.

Race matters. Race matters … because of persistent racial inequality in society - inequality that cannot be ignored. Justice Sonya Sotomayor United States Supreme Court

Developmental models of racial identity

Many sociologists and psychologists have identified that there are similar patterns every individual goes through when recognizing their racial identity. While these patterns help us understand the link between race and identity, creating one’s racial identity is a fluid and nonlinear process that varies for every person and group.

Think of these categories of Racial Identity Development [PDF] as stations along a journey of the continual evolution of your racial identity. Your personal experiences, family, community, workplaces, the aging process, and political and social events – all play a role in understanding our own racial identity. During this process, people move between a desire to "fit in" to dominant norms, to a questioning of one's own identity and that of others. It includes feelings of confusion and often introspection, as well as moments of celebration of self and others. You may begin at any point on this chart and move in any direction – sometimes on the same day! Recognizing the station you are in helps you understand who you are.

What is ideology?

Ideology is a system of ideas, ideals, and manner of thinking that form the basis for decision making, often regarding economic or political theory and policy

No One is Colorblind to Race

The concept of race is intimately connected to our lives and has serious implications. It operates in real and definitive ways that confer benefits and privileges to some and withholds them from others.  Ignoring race means ignoring the establishment of racial hierarchies in society and the injustices these hierarchies have created and continue to reinforce.

• READ: “ Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race ,” by Erin N. Winkler, Ph.D.

Understand More About the Dangers of Ignoring Race

Read this article, “ When you say you 'don't see race,' you’re ignoring racism, not helping to solve it. ”

Reflection:

• What are some experiences or identities that are central to who you are? How do you feel when they are ignored or “not seen”?

• The author in this article points out how people often use nonvisual cues to determine race. What does this reveal to us about the validity of pretending not to see race?

Either America will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States W.E.B. DuBois

RACISM = Racial Prejudice (Unfounded Beliefs + Irrational Fear) + Institutional Power 

Racism, like smog, swirls around us and permeates American society. It can be intentional, clear and direct or it can be expressed in more subtle ways that the perpetrator might not even be aware of.

Racism is a system of advantage based on race that involves systems and institutions, not just individual mindsets and actions. The critical variable in racism is the impact (outcomes) not the intent and operates at multiple levels including individual racism, interpersonal racism, institutional racism, and structural racism. 

• Interpersonal racism ​ occurs between individuals and includes public expressions of racism, often involving slurs, biases, hateful words or actions, or exclusion.

Source: Adapted from Terry Keleher, Applied Research Center, and Racial Equity Tools by OneTILT

Breaking the Silence Silence on issues of race hurts everyone. Reluctance to directly address the impact of race can result in a lack of connection between people, a loss of our society’s potential and progress, and an escalation of fear and violence. Silence around other issues of identity can also have the same negative impact on society. Silence on race keeps us all from understanding and learning. We can break the silence by being proactive - by learning, reflecting and having courageous conversations with ourselves and others.

VIDEO: Watch below as Franchesca Ramsey discusses racism on MTV’s Decoded (warning: adult language):

Take a moment to reflect

Let's Think

• How are you thinking about your own racialized identity after learning more about race?

• Ask a friend who has a different racial identity than yours to discuss how cultivating a positive sense of racial identity about yourself and others can interrupt racism at every level (personally, socially, and institutionally)?

For concerned citizens:

• Try this exercise to recognize the everyday opportunities you may have that can promote racial equity: Exercise on Choice Points .
• Activity: Try this group activity for talking about race effectively

For Families and Educators: Here are some ways to address race and racism in your classroom:

• Teaching young children about race: a guide for families and teachers
• Tipsfor talking to children about race

Why Us, Why Now?

Subtitle here for the credits modal.

How to Talk About Race on College Applications, According to Admissions Experts

R afael Figueroa, dean of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy, was in the middle of tutoring Native American and Native Hawaiian students on how to write college application essays when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious college admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional .

Earlier in the week, he told the students that they shouldn’t feel like they need to talk about their ethnicity in their essays. But after the June 29 Supreme Court ruling , he backtracked. “If I told you that you didn’t have to write about your native or cultural identity, you need to get ready to do another supplemental essay” on it or prepare a story that can fit into short answer questions, he says he told them.

For high school seniors of color applying to colleges in the coming years, the essay and short answer sections will take on newfound importance. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested as much when he wrote in his majority opinion, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” That “discussion” is usually in an essay, and many colleges have additional short-answer questions that allow students to expand more on their background and where they grew up.

“The essay is going to take up a lot more space than maybe it has in the past because people are going to be really trying to understand who this person is that is going to come into our community,” says Timothy Fields, senior associate dean of undergraduate admission at Emory University.

Now, college admissions officers are trying to figure out how to advise high schoolers on their application materials to give them the best chance to showcase their background under the new rules, which will no longer allow colleges or universities to use race as an explicit factor in admissions decisions .

Shereem Herndon-Brown, who co-wrote The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions with Fields, says students of color can convey their racial and ethnic backgrounds by writing about their families and their upbringing. “I’ve worked with students for years who have written amazing essays about how they spend Yom Kippur with their family, which clearly signals to a college that they are Jewish—how they listened to the conversations from their grandfather about escaping parts of Europe… Their international or immigrant story comes through whether it’s from the Holocaust or Croatia or the Ukraine. These are stories that kind of smack colleges in the face about culture.”

“Right now, we’re asking Black and brown kids to smack colleges in the face about being Black and brown,” he continues. “And, admittedly, I am mixed about the necessity to do it. But I think the only way to do it is through writing.”

Read More: The ‘Infamous 96’ Know Firsthand What Happens When Affirmative Action Is Banned

Students of color who are involved in extracurriculars that are related to diversity efforts should talk about those prominently in their college essays, other experts say. Maude Bond, director of college counseling at Cate School in Santa Barbara County, California, cites one recent applicant she counseled who wrote her college essay about an internship with an anti-racism group and how it helped her highlight the experiences of Asian American Pacific Islanders in the area.

Bond also says there are plenty of ways for people of color to emphasize their resilience and describe the character traits they learned from overcoming adversity: “Living in a society where you’re navigating racism every day makes you very compassionate.” she says. “It gives you a different sense of empathy and understanding. Not having the same resources as people that you grow up with makes you more creative and innovative.” These, she argues, are characteristics students should highlight in their personal essays.

Adam Nguyen, a former Columbia University admissions officer who now counsels college applicants via his firm Ivy Link, will also encourage students of color to ask their teachers and college guidance counselors to hint at their race or ethnicity in their recommendation letters. “That’s where they could talk about your racial background,” Nguyen says. “Just because you can’t see what’s written doesn’t mean you can’t influence how or what is said about you.”

Yet as the essay portions of college applications gain more importance, the process of reading applications will take a lot longer, raising the question of whether college admissions offices have enough staffers to get through the applications. “There are not enough admission officers in the industry to read that way,” says Michael Pina, director of admission at the University of Richmond.

That could make it even more difficult for students to get the individual attention required to gain acceptance to the most elite colleges. Multiple college admissions experts say college-bound students will need to apply to a broader range of schools. “You should still apply to those 1% of colleges…but you should think about the places that are producing high-quality graduates that are less selective,” says Pina.

One thing more Black students should consider, Fields argues, is applying to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). (In fact, Fields, a graduate of Morehouse College, claims that may now be “necessary” for some students.) “There’s something to be said, for a Black person to be in a majority environment someplace that they are celebrated, not tolerated,” Fields says. “There’s something to be said about being in an environment where you don’t have to justify why you’re here.”

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at [email protected]

Talking Race and Ethnicity

• Posted April 15, 2019
• By Grace Tatter

Every year, the United States grows more racially and ethnically diverse, making the term “racial minority” soon a thing of the past. Preparing students to celebrate the nation’s diversity, rather than fall into patterns of tension and conflict, is crucial. But how can educators do it, especially when talking about race can be so, well, awkward?

Over the past two decades, there’s been an uptick in research about the importance about talking about race with students, and the most effective ways to do it — ways that affirm students’ identities and help them celebrate and negotiate difference. Adolescence is an especially fruitful time to engage in these conversations, as students in this age range are increasingly aware of inequalities borne of racism and have the maturity to grapple with complex ideas.

In a new book, Below the Surface: Talking with Teens about Race, Ethnicity, and Identity , Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Adriana Umaña-Taylor and University of Michigan professor Deborah Rivas-Drake translate that research so it becomes accessible for teachers. Here, Umaña-Taylor shares some of the key takeaways.

Think about your own identity. Many of us did not have the benefit of these conversations in our own childhood and adolescence, but it’s not too late. Before engaging in these conversations, think about your own identity, and how it’s shaped your experience in the world. Do your homework on cultural competency. Umaña-Taylor and Rivas-Drake draw on social work scholar Shirley Better’s definition, which centers on practices and attitudes that allow for positive relationships among people who come from different backgrounds.

“We wouldn’t give a math curriculum to a teacher who has no knowledge or comfort doing math. We want to make sure we’re giving teachers the strategies and the tools to have these conversations,” Umaña-Taylor says. “That involves engaging in self-work.”

Don’t shy away from talking about differences. Children start noticing phenotypic differences like skin tone at a young age. By early elementary school, they’ve also likely noticed that people are sometimes treated differently because of these phenotypic differences. Don’t hush them. “It’s OK to notice difference; it’s OK to talk about it,” says Umaña-Taylor. “You’re recognizing that it doesn’t make anyone worse or better.”

Older students can engage in deeper conversations about the historical and systemic reasons differences in treatment based on skin tone exist. Giving them a strong sense of how race and ethnicity have shaped their own lives reduces anxiety about interacting across difference.

Help students reflect on their own racial identities. Young people who have explored their ethnic and racial background have a better understanding of the world in which they live and are able to draw on this when they experience or witness racial discrimination. By thinking deeply about who they are, they can consciously dispel stereotypes that are all too easy to internalize. Research has shown that students who feel more positively about their ethnic-racial identity are buffered against some of the deleterious mental health effects of discrimination. And ethnic-racial identity can’t just be for students of color.

“All of us are developing racial-ethnic identity,” Umaña-Taylor explains. “It’s just for some of us, this is a very salient part our identity, we’re very aware of it, and for others of us we are not aware because we’re living in a society where the identity we do have is the mainstream, the norm, so we don’t think about ourselves that way. In fact, that is an identity being developed in and of itself.”

“Affinity groups” can be constructive spaces. Affinity groups, in which students share racial or ethnic backgrounds, can be a helpful construct for students talking about race. “You can go a little more in-depth in terms of these experiences you might share,” says Umaña-Taylor. Such groups can be a space for community-building and support.

But heterogenous discussion spaces are helpful, too. Early in her career, Umaña-Taylor did research on Latinx students in Arizona. Students who belonged to the minority racial group in their school had more positive racial identities than students who attended schools that were almost 100 percent Latinx. Since then, over and over, Umaña-Taylor has heard from students that one of the things that made them think about their ethnic-racial identity in a positive light was being exposed to friends who were different.

Interactions between different racial groups are usually more positive than expected, for people of all backgrounds. Conversations about race that represent different identities are key to building empathy and understanding across groups, helping students learn about themselves and others.

More on teaching identity:

• Exploring Ethnic-Racial Identity
• For White Students, How to Talk about Race

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‘Trauma-dumping’ or true to oneself? College applicants take on race in essays.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action left students of color uncertain how their race should figure into college essays. This year’s high school seniors had to forge new paths when it came to sharing aspects of personal identity.

• By Collin Binkley, Annie Ma, and Noreen Nasir Associated Press

March 27, 2024 | Chicago

When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Ms. Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Ms. Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Ms. Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action. The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

Wondering if schools ‘expect a sob story’

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford, and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Mr. Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Mr. Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor – it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. ... I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

A ruling prompts pivots on essay topics

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Mr. Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Mr. Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Mr. Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process. They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Mr. Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Mr. Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Mr. Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Mr. Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

Spelling out the impact of race

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black.

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Ms. Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University, and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

Will schools lose racial diversity?

Ms. Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those, too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Ms. Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

This story was reported by The Associated Press. Annie Ma reported from Portland, Oregon.

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Why the college essay may never be the same, the monitor's view college admissions become more probing, the explainer is this the end of affirmative action if so, what comes next, share this article.

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Access & Affordability

Applicants write about race in their college essays despite end of race-conscious admissions.

When the Supreme Court ruled this summer that race-conscious admissions practices are unconstitutional, Chief Justice John G. Roberts clarified that colleges were not, however, forbidden from considering an applicant’s discussion of race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”

Whereas an applicant’s race/ethnicity—typically available through students’ responses to demographic questionnaires—may no longer be provided to college admissions officers, that information may still be addressed in other application materials, including students’ activities, teacher recommendations, or essays. With that caveat in mind, some school counselors and institutions are encouraging applicants to express that identity and its influence in their college essays, The Washington Post reports.

Related : The end of race-conscious admissions leaves more questions than answers >

Writing about race within the law

To support their pursuit of a diverse student body, some colleges are providing essay prompts that call on students to talk about their identities, how they might add to the diversity of college campuses, and the role of difference and diversity in their lives.

Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, told the Post that this does not mean that colleges and universities will suddenly place more weight on applicant essays. Rather, “the door remains open to holistic review, and to the storytelling of identity when it’s part of a student’s lived experience,” he said.

“As a practical matter, one can’t imagine an alternative in which colleges were somehow required to black out any discussion of race,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a non-resident scholar at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, according to the Post . However, he continued, to avoid further litigation by groups that oppose affirmative action, it will be important for colleges to consider racial discrimination as they would other experiences of hardship, including poverty.

Related : End of affirmative action not an excuse to end diversity efforts, Biden  Administration says >

Some student counselors, meanwhile, say they are advising applicants to write about race and ethnicity only if it is an authentic part of their identities and demonstrates their unique qualities. Scott Albert Johnson, a college admission counselor in Jackson, Mississippi, tells the Post , “I would never advise a student to discuss race or any other aspect of their experience in a way that feels inauthentic or is designed to outsmart the process.”

One piece of a much bigger puzzle

Colleges also are looking well beyond application essays in their efforts to sustain and grow campus diversity. In October, the Department of Education released a report calling on states, education advocates, and postsecondary institutions to consider a series of actions —such as increasing financial aid for low-income students and recruiting applicants from historically underserved communities—that would build diverse college student populations.

“Colleges and universities may have lost a vital tool for creating vibrant, diverse campus communities, but this report makes clear that they need not—and must not—lose their commitment to equal opportunity and student body diversity,” Miguel Cardona, United States Secretary of Education, said in the report. “Our country’s future depends on it.”

Topics in this story

Early application numbers show increases, especially among students from underrepresented backgrounds.

A new report on the state of first-year college applications as of Nov. 1 shows a 41% increase in applicants since 2019-20, growth driven in part by a surge in the number of underrepresented minority and low-income students, as well as applicants who would enroll as first-generation college students.

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Home Essay Samples Sociology

Essay Samples on Race and Ethnicity

How does race affect social class.

How does race affect social class? Race and social class are intricate aspects of identity that intersect and influence one another in complex ways. While social class refers to the economic and societal position an individual holds, race encompasses a person's racial or ethnic background....

• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Class

How Does Race Affect Everyday Life

How does race affect everyday life? Race is an integral yet often invisible aspect of our identities, influencing the dynamics of our everyday experiences. The impact of race reaches beyond individual interactions, touching various aspects of life, including relationships, opportunities, perceptions, and systemic structures. This...

Race and Ethnicity's Impact on US Employment and Criminal Justice

Since the beginning of colonialism, raced based hindrances have soiled the satisfaction of the shared and common principles in society. While racial and ethnic prejudice has diminished over the past half-century, it is still prevalent in society today. In my opinion, racial and ethnic inequity...

• American Criminal Justice System
• Criminal Justice

Why Race and Ethnicity Matter in the Social World

Not everyone is interested in educating themselves about their own roots. There are people who lack the curiosity to know the huge background that encompasses their ancestry. But if you are one of those who would like to know the diverse colors of your race...

• Ethnic Identity

The Correlation Between Race and Ethnicity and Education in the US

In-between the years 1997 and 2017, the population of the United States of America has changed a lot; especially in terms of ethnic and educational background. It grew by over 50 million people, most of which were persons of colour. Although white European Americans still make...

• Inequality in Education

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Damaging Effects of Social World on People of Color

Even though many are unsure or aware of what it really means to have a culture, we make claims about it everyday. The fact that culture is learned through daily experience and also learned through interactions with others, people never seem to think about it,...

• Racial Profiling
• Racial Segregation

An Eternal Conflict of Race and Ethnicity: a History of Mankind

Ethnicity is a modern concept. However, its roots go back to a long time ago. This concept took on a political aspect from the early modern period with the Peace of Westphalia law and the growth of the Protestant movement in Western Europe and the...

• Social Conflicts

Complicated Connection Between Identity, Race and Ethnicity

Different groups of people are classified based on their race and ethnicity. Race is concerned with physical characteristics, whereas ethnicity is concerned with cultural recognition. Race, on the other hand, is something you inherit, whereas ethnicity is something you learn. The connection of race, ethnicity,...

• Cultural Identity

Best topics on Race and Ethnicity

1. How Does Race Affect Social Class

2. How Does Race Affect Everyday Life

3. Race and Ethnicity’s Impact on US Employment and Criminal Justice

4. Why Race and Ethnicity Matter in the Social World

5. The Correlation Between Race and Ethnicity and Education in the US

6. Damaging Effects of Social World on People of Color

7. An Eternal Conflict of Race and Ethnicity: a History of Mankind

8. Complicated Connection Between Identity, Race and Ethnicity

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Anyone writing their essay about their racial identity?

<p>I was considering writing about how I felt alienated and struggled to fit in with “black culture” growing up because of accusations of “acting too white,” and how my parents’ constant pushing me toward a culture that rejected me affected me as a person (or something like that). Do you think this is a little cliche? I feel like admission officers read topics like these all the time.</p>

<p>Yeah, I kinda sorta wrote about the same thing :P. I honestly never thought about it being a common topic though…</p>

<p>Yes, I thought about that, but I wanted something more personal. There are too many people also struggling with racial identity, so I found something a little closer to home!</p>

<p>@detpeace What did you find?</p>

<p>Yes, I think it’s a bit cliche’ but there are very few topics adcoms haven’t seen over and over. I think you can use it, but you should think about approaching it from some specific angle or dynamic as a component of your experience rather than the central theme by itself.</p>

<p>Not only being black, but being from Detroit. I haven’t started much of my essays though, but that’ll definitely be my theme.</p>

<p>I too have heard that the diversity essay, as well as the all to frequent mission trip essay, is ‘played out’. There are a ton of black kids in predom. white competitive schools and boarding schools and magnet schools. There is also the essay of the black kid who does not feel that they fit in with the black race. These are frequent, too frequent by some standards, topics. BUT my thought is that it will depend on how you write it. But again, it is not seen as a ‘struggle’ much any more on a grand scale because SO many kids face the aforementioned.</p>

<p>It is tough, but that is the reality.</p>

<p>HSG</p>

<p>There are not “a ton” of black students at PWIs and boarding schools. Not in the slightest (that’s where the “PW” part comes in). </p>

<p>It doesn’t matter if adcoms have seen the topic before. They haven’t seen YOU write it. Everyone’s experience is different, and it’s foolish to assume that everyone writing on the same topic will sound the same</p>

<p>I dunno, I’m recounting a humorous yet racially-charged incident in my school cafeteria, using it as a framework to describe my experience hopping between schools of vastly different racial makeups (all-white to all-black to 50/50), then I’m describing how this constant adjustment and occasional alienation changed my outlook on diversity/acceptance, made me more adaptable, and gave me security in my identity.</p>

<p>It may still have elements of cliche, but it’s a lot better/more personal than the essay I was originally going to go with- How losing an election helped me learn to deal with failure.</p>

<p>Well yeah it’s a cliche topic (if you have to ask you know the answer lol), but just don’t touch on the cliche aspects of it. Try to focus on the most unique parts of your experiences. Writing about a creative topic is less important than how you write it ; however, ime it is easier to do the latter when you have a creative topic lol. Maybe brainstorm some more and see where it takes you, or just get drafting and decide to scrap it later on if need be. GL</p>

<p>CPUscientist3000…over the last 10 years there has been a HUGE boost in the number of black kids are boarding schools. There are programs that specifically work on matching black underpriv. kids with top boarding schools. Add to that the black kids who now are in middle and upper middle class families who are at boarding schools. It simply is not as rare as it was in our parents’ generation. Is it still a struggle? Of course. But it is NOT the same struggle as it was for kids that went in before the recruitment programs were in place, before school truly started seeking diversity, before schools began having programs in place at the school for black students to support them while they are there. Just because the schools are predom. white does NOT mean there are not a lot of blacks. Whites are a larger percentage of the population, a larger percentage of legacies at the schools and a larger percentage of American wealth. But the struggle, for blacks, is NOT the same as it was 10 and 15 years ago as the kids writing the essays are one of MANY in the situation…that is the point I was trying to make. Yes, it can be a GREAT essay, but it is important to be aware that it may not pack the punch it once did because it has been written about a lot. As others said, it just means you have to be aware of that, be creative and personal and KNOW that you can’t come off as ‘This is unique’…because that situation is not unique anymore. A lot of us are walking this walk. But how the walk impacted YOU is what would have to be unique, I would think. HSG</p>

<p>hsgrad what institution do you attend? Just curious. </p>

<p>And I still stick by what I said. Yes there are more blacks at PWIs and boarding schools than before (race isn’t mutually exclusive with “underresourced” or low socioeconomic status, but I’m not talking about poor kids of all races, or poor kids exclusively). That doesn’t mean there are “lots”, which is completely subjective. If you want to prove a point, use some hard numbers to back up your “lots” claims. </p>

<p>As FLVADAD said, there virtually isn’t an essay adcoms haven’t read or heard of. No point in stressing. When you force a “unique” essay, it backfires.</p>

<p>I don’t release, via preference of my parents and for other reasons, any information that can be ‘identifying’ to a significant degree online. Plenty of online safety classes at my school…drilled into us!</p>

<p>Also, I don’t think that our points are mutually exclusive, CPU. I fully agree that there is not an essay adcom that has not been written. I think the point I was trying to make (though not well) is that relative to 10-15 years ago there are ‘lots’ (though perhaps more would be a better term) of blacks in the situations we described. This is a GOOD thing on most levels. But with college essays it perhaps something to be mindful of when writing as we seek to show unique situations.</p>

<p>In the end, the best thing is to write a great essay, have great SAT/ACT scores AND grades…and have solid recommendation. All are easier said then done, of course.</p>

<p>We have to support each other and SHARE information and opinions during this process, and that was what my post intended…to pass on information I found helpful to consider. I appreciate and respect your counter points, CPU and hope that I receive the same.</p>

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Black Student Racialization in College Admissions Essays

Description of research project:   

This project examines how Black students’ narrative strategies vary by institutional type, gender, and pre-college experiences or how the relationships with—and the predisposition of—key admissions personnel shape the way that students describe their identities in college admissions essays. Specifically, this work investigates how Black undergraduate students enrolled at a historically and predominantly white institution (HPWI) and a historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) make sense of expectations to disclose trauma in admissions essays, and the sense-making of the admissions officers who encounter them. This project leverages insights from 57 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 37, Black undergraduate students and 20 admissions officers at private, four-year universities across the United States. Data for this project also include qualitative textual analysis of undergraduate participants’ personal statements. 

Description of work assignment:

Research assistants will develop their own independent research skills by contributing to the project’s literature review. Responsibilities may include identifying and summarizing literature on college admission, race and racialization, trauma narratives, and Black racial identity; preliminary coding of interview transcripts using an established codebook; and weekly meetings with supervising graduate student. This process will provide students with practice in locating and analyzing critical insights in data to contribute to a broader topic and project. All work will be conducted remotely.  

Supervising Faculty Member:  Elizabeth Armstrong

Graduate Student:  Aya Waller-Bey

Contact information:  [email protected]

Average hours of work per week:  9-12 hours a week

Range of credit hours students can earn:  3 credit hours

Number of positions available: 2 

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Race Is Central to Identity for Black Americans and Affects How They Connect With Each Other

Many learn about ancestors, u.s. black history from family, table of contents.

• The importance of being Black for connections with other Black people
• The importance of Blackness for knowing family history and U.S. Black history
• Younger Black people are less likely to speak to relatives about ancestors
• Black Americans differ by party on measures of identity and connection
• The importance of race, ancestry and place to personal identity
• The importance of gender and sexuality to personal identity
• Black Americans and connectedness to other Black people
• Intra-racial connections locally, nationally and globally
• How Black Americans learn about their family history
• Most Black adults say their ancestors were enslaved, but some are not sure
• Most Black adults are at least somewhat informed about U.S. Black history
• For many Black adults, where they live shapes how they think about themselves
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand the rich diversity of Black people in the United States and their views of Black identity. This in-depth, robust survey explores differences among Black Americans in views of identity such as between U.S.-born Black people and Black immigrants; Black people living in different regions of the country; and between Black people of different ethnicities, political party affiliations, ages and income levels. The analysis is the latest in the Center’s series of in-depth surveys of public opinion among Black Americans (read the first, “ Faith Among Black Americans ”).

The online survey of 3,912 Black U.S. adults was conducted Oct. 4-17, 2021. The survey includes 1,025 Black adults on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP) and 2,887 Black adults on Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel. Respondents on both panels are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses.

Recruiting panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all U.S. Black adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population (see our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling). Here are the questions used for the survey of Black adults , along with its responses and methodology .

The terms “Black Americans” , “Black people” and “Black adults” are used interchangeably throughout this report to refer to U.S. adults who self-identify as Black, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic identity.

Throughout this report, “Black, non-Hispanic” respondents are those who identify as single-race Black and say they have no Hispanic background. “Black Hispanic” respondents are those who identify as Black and say they have Hispanic background. We use the terms “Black Hispanic” and “Hispanic Black” interchangeably. “Multiracial” respondents are those who indicate two or more racial backgrounds (one of which is Black) and say they are not Hispanic.

Respondents were asked a question about how important being Black was to how they think about themselves. In this report, we use the terms “being Black” and “Blackness” interchangeably when referencing responses to this question.

In this report, “immigrant” refers to people who were not U.S. citizens at birth – in other words, those born outside the U.S., Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories to parents who were not U.S. citizens. We use the terms “immigrant” and “foreign-born” interchangeably.

Throughout this report, “Democrat and Democratic leaners” refers to respondents who say in they identify politically with the Democratic Party or are independent but lean toward the Democratic Party. “ Republican and Republican leaners” refers to respondents who identify politically with the Republican Party or are independent but lean toward the Republican Party.

To create the upper-, middle- and lower-income tiers, respondents’ 2020 family incomes were adjusted for differences in purchasing power by geographic region and household size. Respondents were then placed into income tiers: “Middle income” is defined as two-thirds to double the median annual income for the entire survey sample. “Lower income” falls below that range, and “upper income” lies above it. For more information about how the income tiers were created, read the methodology .

No matter where they are from, who they are, their economic circumstances or educational backgrounds, significant majorities of Black Americans say being Black is extremely or very important to how they think about themselves, with about three-quarters (76%) overall saying so.   

A significant share of Black Americans also say that when something happens to Black people in their local communities, across the nation or around the globe, it affects what happens in their own lives, highlighting a sense of connectedness. Black Americans say this even as they have diverse experiences and come from an array of backgrounds.

Even so, Black adults who say being Black is important to their sense of self are more likely than other Black adults to feel connected to other groups of Black people. They are also more likely to feel that what happens to Black people inside and outside the United States affects what happens in their own lives. These findings emerge from an extensive new survey of Black U.S. adults conducted by Pew Research Center.

A majority of non-Hispanic Black Americans (78%) say being Black is very or extremely important to how they think about themselves. This racial group is the largest among Black adults , accounting for 87% of the adult population, according to 2019 Census Bureau estimates. But among other Black Americans, roughly six-in-ten multiracial (57%) and Hispanic (58%) Black adults say this.

Black Americans also differ in key ways in their views about the importance of being Black to personal identity. While majorities of all age groups of Black people say being Black shapes how they think about themselves, younger Black Americans are less likely to say this – Black adults ages 50 and older are more likely than Black adults ages 18 to 29 to say that being Black is very or extremely important to how they think of themselves. Specifically, 76% of Black adults ages 30 to 49, 80% of those 50 to 64 and 83% of those 65 and older hold this view, while only 63% of those under 30 do.

Black adults who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than those who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party to say being Black is important to how they see themselves – 86% vs. 58%. And Black women (80%) are more likely than Black men (72%) to say being Black is important to how they see themselves.

Still, some subgroups of Black Americans are about as likely as others to say that being Black is very or extremely important to how they think about themselves. For example, U.S.-born and immigrant Black adults are about as likely to say being Black is important to how they see their identity. However, not all Black Americans feel the same about the importance of being Black to their identity – 14% say it is only somewhat important to how they see themselves while 9% say it has little or no impact on their personal identity, reflecting the diversity of views about identity among Black Americans.

Beyond the personal importance of Blackness – that is, the importance of being Black to personal identity – many Black Americans feel connected to each other. About five-in-ten (52%) say everything or most things that happen to Black people in the United States affect what happens in their own lives, with another 30% saying some things that happen nationally to Black people have a personal impact. And 43% say all or most things that happen to Black people in their local community affect what happens in their own lives, while another 35% say only some things in their lives are affected by these events. About four-in-ten Black adults in the U.S. (41%) say they feel their fates are strongly linked to Black people around the world, with 36% indicating that some things that happen to Black people around the world affect what happens in their own lives.

The survey also asked respondents how much they have in common with different groups of Black Americans. Some 17% of Black adults say they have everything or most things in common with Black people who are immigrants. But this sense of commonality differs sharply by nativity: 14% of U.S.-born Black adults say they have everything or most things in common with Black immigrants, while 43% of Black immigrants say the same. Conversely, only about one-in-four Black immigrants (26%) say they have everything or most things in common with U.S.-born Black people, a share that rises to 56% among U.S.-born Black people themselves.

About one-third of Black Americans (34%) say they have everything or most things in common with Black people who are poor, though smaller shares say the same about Black people who are wealthy (12%). Relatively few Black Americans (14%) say they have everything or most things in common with Black people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). However, a larger share of Black Americans (25%) say they have at least some things in common with Black people who identify as LGBTQ. All these findings highlight the diversity of the U.S. Black population and how much Black people feel connected to each other.

These are among the key findings from a recent Pew Research Center survey of 3,912 Black Americans conducted online Oct. 4-17, 2021. This report is the latest in a series of Pew Research Center studies focused on describing the rich diversity of Black people in the United States.

The nation’s Black population stood at 47 million in 2020 , making up 14% of the U.S. population – up from 13% in 2000. While the vast majority of Black Americans say their racial background is Black alone (88% in 2020), growing numbers are also multiracial or Hispanic. Most were born in the U.S. and trace their roots back several generations in the country, but a growing share are immigrants (12%) or the U.S.-born children of immigrant parents (9%). Geographically, while 56% of Black Americans live in the nation’s South , the national Black population has also dispersed widely across the country.

It is this diversity – among U.S.-born Black people and Black immigrants; between Black people who live in different regions; and across different ethnicities, party affiliations, ages and income levels – that this report explores. The survey also provides a robust opportunity to examine the importance of race to Black Americans’ sense of self and their connections to other Black people.

The importance of being Black to personal identity is a significant factor in how connected Black Americans feel toward each other. Those who say that being Black is a very or extremely important part of their personal identity are more likely than those for whom Blackness is relatively less important to express a sense of common fate with Black people in their local communities (50% vs. 17%), in the United States overall (62% vs. 21%), and even around the world (48% vs. 18%).

They are also more likely to say that they have everything or most things in common with Black people who are poor (37% vs. 23%) and Black immigrants (19% vs. 9%). Even so, fewer than half of Black Americans, no matter how important Blackness is to their personal identity, say they have everything or most things in common with Black people who are poor, immigrants or LGBTQ.

The new survey also explores Black Americans’ knowledge about their family histories and the history of Black people in the United States, with the importance of Blackness linked to greater knowledge. 

Nearly six-in-ten Black adults (57%) say their ancestors were enslaved either in the U.S. or another country, with nearly all who say so (52% of the Black adults surveyed) saying it was in the U.S., either in whole or in part. Black adults who say that being Black is a very or extremely important part of how they see themselves (61%) are more likely than those for whom being Black is less important (45%) to say that their ancestors were enslaved. In fact, Black adults for whom Blackness is very or extremely important (31%) are less likely than their counterparts (42%) to say that they are not sure if their ancestors were enslaved at all.

When it comes to learning more about their family histories, Black adults for whom Blackness is very or extremely important (81%) are more likely than those for whom Blackness is less important (59%) to have spoken to their relatives. They are about as likely to have researched their family’s history online (36% and 30%, respectively) and to have used a mail-in DNA service such as AncestryDNA or 23andMe (15% and 16%) to learn more about their ancestry.

The importance of Blackness also figures prominently into how informed Black Americans feel about U.S. Black history. Black adults who say Blackness is a significant part of their personal identity are more likely than those for whom Blackness is less important to say that they feel very or extremely informed about U.S. Black history (57% vs. 29%). Overall, about half of Black Americans say they feel very or extremely informed about the history of Black people in the United States.

Among Black adults who feel at least a little informed about U.S. Black history, the sources of their knowledge also differ by the importance of Blackness to personal identity. Nearly half of Black adults for whom Blackness is very or extremely important (48%) say they learned about Black history from their families and friends, making them more likely to say so than Black adults for whom Blackness is less important (30%). Similarly, those who say being Black is important to their identity are more likely than those who did not say this to have learned about Black history from nearly every source they were asked about, be it media (33% vs. 22%), the internet (30% vs. 18%) or college, if they attended (26% vs. 14%). The only source for which both groups were about equally likely to say they learned about Black history was their K-12 schools (24% and 21%, respectively).

Overall, among Black Americans who feel at least a little informed about U.S. Black history, 43% say they learned about it from their relatives and friends, 30% say they learned about it from the media, 27% from the internet, and 24% from college (if they attended) and 23% from K-12 school.

Black adults under 30 years old differ significantly from older Black adults in their views on the importance of Blackness to their personal identity. However, Black adults also differ by age in how they pursue knowledge of family history, how informed they feel about U.S. Black history, and their sense of connectedness to other Black people.

Black adults under 30 (50%) are less likely than those 65 and older (64%) to say their ancestors were enslaved. In fact, 40% of Black adults under 30 say that they are not sure whether their ancestors were enslaved. Black adults in the youngest age group (59%) are less likely than the oldest (87%) to have spoken to their relatives about family history or to have used a mail-in DNA service to learn about their ancestors (11% vs. 21%). They are only slightly less likely to have conducted research on their families online (26% vs. 39%).

Black adults under 30 have the lowest share who say they feel very or extremely informed about the history of Black people in the United States (40%), compared with 60% of Black adults 65 and older and about half each of Black adults 50 to 64 (53%) and 30 to 49 (51%). In fact, Black adults under 30 are more likely than those 50 and older to say they feel a little or not at all informed about Black history. While Black adults are generally most likely to cite family and friends as their source for learning about Black history, the share under 30 (38%) who also cite the internet as a source of information is higher than the shares ages 50 to 64 (22%) and 65 and older (14%) who say this.

These age differences persist in the sense of connectedness that Black Americans have with other Black people. Black adults under 30 are less likely than those 65 and older to say that everything or most things that happen to Black people in the United States will affect their own lives. This youngest group is also less likely than the oldest to have this sense of common fate with Black people in their local community. One exception to this pattern occurs when Black adults were asked how much they had in common with Black people who identify as LGBTQ. Black adults under 30 (21%) were considerably more likely than those 65 and older (10%) to say they have everything or most things in common with Black people who identify as LGBTQ.

Black Democrats and Republicans differ on how important Blackness is to their personal identities. However, there are also partisan gaps when it comes to their connectedness to other Black people. 1

Black Democrats and those who lean to the Democratic Party are more likely than Black Republicans and Republican leaners to say that everything or most things that happen to Black people in the United States (57% vs. 39%) and their local communities (46% vs. 30%) affect what happens in their own lives. However, Black Republicans (24%) are more likely than Black Democrats (14%) to say that they have everything or most things in common with Black people who are LGBTQ. They are also more likely than Black Democrats to say they have everything or most things in common with Black people who are wealthy (25% vs. 11%).

When it comes to knowledge of family and racial histories, Black Democrats and Republicans do not differ. Democrats (59%) are just as likely as Republicans (54%) to know that their ancestors were enslaved. Nearly 80% of Black adults from both partisan coalitions say they have spoken to their relatives about their family history. Similar shares have also researched their family histories online and used mail-in DNA services.

Black Democrats are also not significantly more likely than Black Republicans to say they feel very or extremely informed about U.S. Black history (53% vs. 45%). And among those who feel at least a little informed about U.S. Black history, Democrats and Republicans are about equally likely to say they learned it from family and friends (45% vs. 38%).

Place is a key part of Black Americans’ personal identities

The majority of Black adults who live in the United States were born there, but an increasing portion of the population is comprised of immigrants. Of those immigrants, nearly 90% were born in the Caribbean or Africa . Regardless of their region of birth, 58% of Black adults say the country they were born in is very or extremely important to how they think about themselves. A smaller share say the same about the places where they grew up (46%).

Black adults also feel strongly about their current communities. About half of Black adults (52%) say that where they currently live is very or extremely important to how they think about themselves. And when it comes to the quality of their neighborhoods, 76% of Black adults rate them as at least good places to live, including 41% who say the quality of their community is very good or excellent.

Still, Black adults say there are concerning issues in the communities they live in. When asked in an open-ended question to list the issue that was most important in their neighborhoods, nearly one-in-five Black adults listed issues related to violence or crime (17%). Smaller shares listed other points of concern such as economic issues like poverty and homelessness (11%), housing (7%), COVID-19 and public health (6%), or infrastructure issues such as the availability of public transportation and the conditions of roads (5%).

While nearly one-in-five Black Americans (17%) say that individual people like themselves should be responsible for solving these problems, they are most likely to say that local community leaders should address these issues (48%). Smaller shares say the U.S. Congress (12%), the U.S. president (8%) or civil rights organizations (2%) bear responsibility.

• According to the survey, 80% of Black adults say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, 10% say the same of the Republican Party and 10% did not answer the question or indicated that they did not affiliate with either party. Among Black registered voters, the survey finds 85% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, 10% identify with or lean toward the Republican Party and 5% did not answer the question or indicated that they did not affiliate with either party. ↩

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After Supreme Court ruling, college applicants still write about race

The court’s rejection of affirmative action in admissions does not mean race is off-limits for students

Walking the streets of England as a Latina teenager, Estefany Cepeda Fana recalled getting “weird looks” around town and even hearing someone call her the n-word. But Cepeda resolved to embrace her multiracial identity as a native of the Dominican Republic.

That experience in a study-abroad program became material for her college essay.

“I quickly realized that being Dominican was what made me special and I shouldn’t hide that,” the 18-year-old from Paterson, N.J., wrote for the Common Application. “I washed my hair and let my curls shine. ... I knew I belonged because I worked hard to get there.”

Cepeda’s essay is one of many this fall that show an enduring — albeit limited — role for race in college admissions despite the landmark ruling from the Supreme Court in June that rejected affirmative action at selective schools . Even as the court majority struck down programs that had allowed race to be a factor in selection of an incoming class, the ruling acknowledged that applicants may continue to write about how race affected their lives “through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

With that green light, counselors and colleges are encouraging applicants more than ever to explore their racial and ethnic identities and their views on diversity. How these essays influence the decisions selective colleges make in coming weeks and months could become another flash point in the volatile debate over the pursuit of racial diversity in higher education. Schools also face the threat of lawsuits from affirmative action opponents eager to widen the impact of the court ruling.

Cepeda, who is applying to highly competitive colleges, told The Washington Post that she moved to the United States at age 8, not knowing any English, and that she is now a U.S. citizen. Her instinct, she said, is to be “more of a private person.” But her school counselor urged her to get personal in the application.

Erica Mickens, Cepeda’s counselor at College Achieve Public Schools in Paterson, said she worried the court ruling could create new barriers for worthy Black and Latino students. “I want students to know the importance of this essay,” Mickens said. “They’re all phenomenal. I don’t want them to be afraid to share who they are.”

After affirmative action, a White teen’s Ivy hopes rose. A Black teen’s sank.

The role of admission essays , from a few dozen words to 650, has long been a subject of fascination and (often misinformed) speculation.

Typically, colleges and universities scour these writing samples to learn more about applicants than they could otherwise glean from transcripts, test scores, recommendations and extracurricular résumés. Essays can be especially helpful for ultracompetitive schools with a seemingly endless supply of applicants who have stellar grades and scores.

In years past, many selective schools would consider an applicant’s race — pulled directly from demographic questionnaires — alongside academic credentials and other factors in a “holistic” review. Advocates said this racial preference was meant to give a slight “tip” on occasion to the chances of applicants from underrepresented groups who were, regardless, highly qualified. Critics said it too often discriminated against those who were White or Asian American.

Now the racial and ethnic profile of an applicant does not automatically appear in the application files an admission officer will read. That is a major change to comply with the court ruling that struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .

Still, race might pop up in a student’s activity list. Or a teacher’s or counselor’s recommendation. Or a student’s essay.

“What if an applicant wrote an essay about how integral their racial identity was to them as a source of pride, and the cultural attributes of the racial heritage were very important?” Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked in October 2022 during oral arguments in the case. “Would that be okay?”

An attorney for Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff opposed to affirmative action, told Barrett that culture, tradition and heritage would not be off-limits for universities to consider. The attorney, Cameron T. Norris, said the plaintiff objected to consideration of “race itself.”

Barrett joined the six-justice majority opinion that sided with the plaintiff. The ruling, from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., said colleges must treat an applicant “based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race.” The ruling also warned colleges not to attempt to “establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”

Generations of applicants have written about race. In 2017, a New Jersey student who was admitted to Stanford University tweeted that one of his application essays consisted of nothing more than “#BlackLivesMatter” repeated 100 times .

This year, in response to the ruling, numerous colleges are asking questions that appear designed to draw applicants out on diversity and identity.

Without affirmative action, how will colleges seek racial diversity?

Harvard asks for up to 200 words on this question: “Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?”

Dartmouth College offers this prompt for up to 250 words: “ ‘It’s not easy being green …’ was the frequent refrain of Kermit the Frog . How has difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity and outlook?"

Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, Lee Coffin, said the ruling’s impact should not be overstated. Essays and other elements of the application will get the same degree of consideration they always have, Coffin said. “The door remains open to holistic review, and to the storytelling of identity when it’s part of a student’s lived experience,” Coffin said in an August podcast episode .

College admission shops across America emphasize that they will comply with the ruling. But they can’t — and won’t — ignore what applicants write.

“As a practical matter, one can’t imagine an alternative in which colleges were somehow required to black out any discussion of race," said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a scholar at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, who was an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case. “That would be so extreme.”

To comply with the ruling and avoid potential litigation, Kahlenberg said, admission officers must focus on individual experiences in an evenhanded way. If the officers are impressed by a student’s story of overcoming racial discrimination, he said, they should also be impressed by stories of overcoming poverty or other disadvantages.

Kahlenberg said it is legally risky for colleges to rely too much on essays to pursue diversity. A safer strategy, he argues, is to also invest more in recruiting and financial aid. “I don’t think they should forget that litigation is also expensive,” he said.

“My background as an African-American has motivated me to help others find a space where they can fit in without judgment or scrutiny,” he wrote. “I have always wanted to help others feel welcomed.” — Ryan Baldwin, 17, a high school senior in Ellicott City, Md.

Ethan Sawyer, a counselor known online as the College Essay Guy, said he tells students that colleges still want to enroll a diverse class. “The short answer is, yes, you can write about race,” he said in September at a convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Baltimore.

But the topic is fraught. “How do I do it in a way that matters and feels authentic?” they ask Sawyer. His reply, echoing the court opinion: Tie the essay to the strength of character and unique qualities you would bring to a campus.

Ryan Baldwin, 17, a high school senior in Ellicott City, Md., who identifies as Nigerian American, wrote about the experience of moving from a majority-Black school to one that was not. Baldwin said he enjoys calculus and is on the school math team.

“As an ‘academically inclined kid,’ ” he wrote, “people don’t pay much notice to you; as supposedly ‘the only academically inclined BLACK kid,’ the surprise in people’s eyes is very obvious.” Baldwin wrote of “feeling the sting of countless eyes when I walk through my school’s sea of racial majorities.” Sometimes, he wrote, “I want to hide my own skin.”

Baldwin also wrote that these feelings spurred him to get involved in his school’s Black Student Union and other groups. “My background as an African-American has motivated me to help others find a space where they can fit in without judgment or scrutiny,” he wrote. “I have always wanted to help others feel welcomed.”

Not done with your college application? No problem. You’re in.

Many students mention their race glancingly, or not at all. Sawyer said it is vital not to push them to write about topics they want to avoid. “Who am I as a White dude to tell students they need to write about their race?” he said.

Scott Albert Johnson, a college admission counselor in Jackson, Miss., said he advises students to think through why they want to write about their identity. “Shoehorning your race into the essay, that’s not likely to be productive,” he said. “I would never advise a student to discuss race or any other aspect of their experience in a way that feels inauthentic or is designed to outsmart the process.”

One Chinese American student from New England, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions for her applications, said she steered away from racial identity. “To speak honestly, there’s a lot of stereotypes associated with people from China,” she told The Post. “That was something I wanted to try to avoid. I didn’t want that to be the only factor that defined me. I have a lot of other interests, a lot of other passions.”

A student from California, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the application process, said she identifies as biracial, with Jamaican and French Canadian heritage. In her applications she worried about whether and how to discuss race in various prompts. “It’s shaped who I am, without a doubt, but it’s not the only thing about me,” she said.

She wrote her Common App essay about her identity and its influence on her academic interests — and then scrapped it. Then she wrote on a completely different topic, but it didn’t sound right.

She went back to her original essay.

“It was so stressful,” she recalled. “I sobbed at least a couple times, writing and rewriting and rewriting. I was reading my essays too many times. They were becoming incoherent.”

But she said she was happy with the result, an essay that explores being biracial and finding inspiration in great works from authors of color such as Toni Morrison. “I became aware of how important these books were more than ever before,” she wrote. “I wanted to make sure the horrors of the past wouldn’t be shrugged off with indifference, no matter how upsetting this history may be.”

3 Nassau Seniors Win LI Essay Contest About Racism

SYOSSET, NY — A trio of Nassau County seniors won a Long Island-wide essay contest sponsored by ERASE Racism of Syosset.

Each winner of the "Raise Your Voice" contest will receive a $500 college scholarship.

• Shania Lall of Freeport High School wrote in her winning essay:

"School environments need to be rooted in DEI values to ensure that students are

abundantly educated in academics as well as racial morale. As a future speech

pathologist, I harbor an unwavering passion to inspire and guide underrepresented

children to secure their spot at the table and demand equity through confident

communication. An enrichment in communication and education will allow our youth to

create a new norm for minorities: strength, success, and greatness beyond wealth."

• Maekyla Massey of Baldwin High School wrote:

"Growing up on Long Island, I’ve experienced firsthand the impacts of structural racism and Long Island’s longstanding history of racial segregation. As a public school student, I attend a majority-minority school district in which resources are not as abundant as those given to students in school districts like Garden City and Merrick, which are districts just a few miles away from where I live. The local school district's funding model, which relies on property taxes, is intrinsically racist, especially in light of the racist redlining policies that were prevalent on Long Island a few decades ago."

• Aidan Morgan of Malverne High School wrote:

"A multifaceted approach is needed to increase the effectiveness of inclusive education. Classroom discussions like those mentioned should be more frequent and structured in a way that encourages active participation from all students. In addition, the inclusion of iinclusive topics in different subjects of the curriculum can strengthen their importance and relevance in everyday life. Beyond the classroom, broader strategies are needed to develop an inclusive and equitable learning environment. Implementing comprehensive diversity training for teachers at the district level can give them the tools they need to navigate sensitive topics and create inclusive spaces. In addition, creating support networks for marginalized students, such as kinship groups or peer tutoring programs, can provide a sense of belonging and empowerment."

ERASE Racism is a civil rights organization based on Long Island that exposes and addresses the

devastating impact of historical and ongoing structural racism, particularly in public school

education and housing.

Each student will be celebrated at ERASE Racism's annual benefit on Wednesday.

The article 3 Nassau Seniors Win LI Essay Contest About Racism appeared first on Rockville Centre Patch .

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Trump’s Harder Line on Immigration Appears to Resonate, Polls Show

As the 2024 presidential election ramps up, here is what polls say about public views on the growing number of migrants.

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By Jazmine Ulloa

Reporting from Washington

Former President Donald J. Trump has described his plans to remove large numbers of unauthorized immigrants from the country if elected to a second term by citing the mass deportations under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s.

In that initiative, federal agents and law enforcement officers used military techniques such as sweeps, raids and surveillance checkpoints — as well as a blunt form of racial profiling — to round up undocumented workers and load them onto buses and boats. As many as 1.3 million people were expelled, mostly Mexican and Mexican American workers, some of whom were U.S. citizens. Critical to the initiative — named Operation Wetback, for the racial slur — was intense anti-immigrant sentiment. Officials at the time used that sentiment to justify family separations and overcrowded and unsanitary detention conditions — practices that the Trump administration would deploy decades later in its own immigration enforcement.

As the 2024 presidential election heats up, some Latino advocacy and immigrant-rights groups are sounding the alarm that Mr. Trump’s tactics could amount to a repetition of a sordid chapter of American history. But recent polling shows that Mr. Trump’s position on immigration appears to be resonating. About half of Americans have said they would support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a CNN poll conducted by the research firm SSRS in January .

Authorities have reported record numbers of migrant apprehensions at the southern border for three straight years, including 2.4 million apprehensions in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. Although the numbers have dropped sharply in recent months, immigration remains an albatross for President Biden: Even some Democratic mayors have complained that they need help from the federal government to contend with the migrant populations in their cities.

Americans’ views on immigration are complex and constantly changing. Here is a snapshot of where public attitudes on immigration stand now.

Public support for more immigration has ebbed after rising under Trump.

Mr. Trump’s restrictive approach to immigration, both legal and illegal, helped push Americans of various political stripes to support more permissive policies.

During his first term, Mr. Trump narrowed the path to asylum, sharply reduced the numbers of visas and refugee admissions and enacted a travel ban on people from several countries, most of which had Muslim majorities. His administration rolled back protections for immigrants brought into the country illegally as children, and it separated migrant families at the southern border.

By the time he left the White House, more Americans favored increasing immigration for the first time in six decades of Gallup polling.

But more recent surveys from Gallup and others have found that the number of people who believe immigration is generally beneficial to the country’s culture and economic growth has been slowly eroding from a recent high. A small but growing minority of Americans are increasingly concerned about its impact on drugs, crime, taxes and national identity.

An open-ended Gallup poll released on April 30 found that, for the third straight month, most Americans cited immigration as the most important problem facing the United States. That was the longest stretch that the issue had topped the list in the survey’s 24-year history. A Gallup poll released on Friday showed immigration dropping to second on the list in May, still high by historical standards.

It is not just unauthorized immigration causing consternation. A different poll in March from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Americans have become more worried about legal immigrants committing crimes, though many studies have found no correlation between immigration and crime, regardless of whether people entered the country legally or not.

In February, a nationwide New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 49 percent of voters either strongly or somewhat supported making it harder for migrants at the southern border to seek asylum in the United States, slightly more than the 43 percent who either strongly or somewhat opposed doing so.

Americans’ views on immigration largely split along partisan lines.

As Democrats and Republicans have drifted further apart on immigration, Republicans are far more likely to cite immigration as a top concern.

A Pew study in February found that 70 percent of Republicans described the challenges at the southern border as a “crisis,” compared with just 22 percent of Democrats. Another poll last year from Gallup showed 73 percent of Republicans wanted immigration to be decreased. By contrast, only 18 percent of Democrats said they wanted the same. Republicans were also far more likely to see immigrants as worsening the country’s social and moral values, job opportunities and taxes.

While the nation has experienced waves of anti-immigrant sentiment since its founding, immigration scholars and lawyers trace the emergence of the modern rift to the 1960s. The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 — which was influenced by the civil rights movement and aimed to abolish the immigrant quota system based on nationality, race and ancestry — prompted an increase in immigration from Asian, African and Latin American countries. It set in motion the national demographic changes against which today’s political dispute is playing out.

And yet, there are some areas of agreement.

For years, a plurality of American voters said they wanted compromise from lawmakers: equal priority given to providing legal pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the country, as well as border security and stronger law enforcement measures. This was the case in Pew surveys from 2010 to 2018 .

But in recent years, a majority of Americans have come to see the situation at the border as a problem, according to the Pew study in February. Most Americans — including majorities of both Republicans and Democrats — have given the Biden administration negative ratings in its handling of immigration. Matt A. Barreto, a Democratic pollster who works with the Biden campaign, said that polling should not be seen as a reflection of support for proposals like mass deportations, but that it does capture frustration with Washington’s inaction on the issue. Biden campaign officials say the administration has sought to address that sentiment.

“President Biden worked in good faith with Republicans and Democrats to negotiate a deal that would have delivered additional resources and personnel to enhance border security, expanded lawful immigration pathways and began fixing our broken immigration system,” said Maca Casado, the Biden campaign’s Hispanic media director. But Republicans blocked the bipartisan legislation twice , the first time after Mr. Trump vocally opposed it .

Despite the gridlock in Washington, that February poll from Pew also showed that most Americans agreed on policies to address the situation. About 60 percent — including about 40 percent of Republicans — believed that increasing the number of immigration judges and staff members at the border would improve matters. Nearly as many, about 56 percent, believed that creating more legal pathways for people to come to the United States would make things better as well.

Ruth Igielnik contributed reporting.

Jazmine Ulloa is a national politics reporter for The Times, covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in Washington. More about Jazmine Ulloa