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Originally Posted by smooth
Interesting.
If someone wants to discriminate against me, I only need to appear or possess a drop of minority blood.
If I want to obtain some benefit, real or otherwise, I have to prove some undeclared amount of blood resides in my body.
FYI, I don't know what kind of process you went through for your kids to "secure" their heritage or whatever way you want to refer to it. Someone should have told you the basic fact--you don't have to register as anything to claim Native American heritage. I wonder what you and others considered their heritage to be before obtaining official recognition of their status.
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If someone is going to be given preferential treatment because of their heritage, shouldn't that person be compelled to prove the heritage?
Otherwise, we could all claim whatever we want and demand the benefits that go along with it.
Wouldn't that effectively dilute and negate such things as Affirmative Action? Otherwise, I could claim whatever heritage will benefit me the most in the particular situation.
Personal example: I was on the list for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. However, because I was a white male, my waitlist time was unknown. However, if I had been a minority or a female, I would have started the next available acadamy date. It turns out that my time on the list was over a year long and I didn't get my acceptance until after I was out of boot camp.
So, if I didn't have to prove my minority status, I should've claimed some kind of minority status so that I wouldn't have spent eternity on the waitlist.
If I don't have to prove it, I can claim anything I want.
It just seems potentially disasterous to AA if we don't place some kind of burden of proof on the person trying to get benefits from AA.
On a different note, I get the impression that it is very different in the Native American community. It is almost arrogant. However, I have no problem with it since the rules are made by the tribe elders. If that is the way they want to do it, that is fine by me. They certainly deserve it, in my opinion.
As for my family, it was important to them to have that little yellow card, so I supported them 100%. They are very proud of their heritage and carry the little card proudly. However, they don't use their minority status to benefit them in any way. I find a certain level of respect for them in that matter--everything they have accomplished, they accomplished on their own having never received any benefit for being an "official" minority.
I think Churchill screwed up because he just didn't claim to be a Native American, he claimed to be a member of a specific tribe. Native Americans are very picky about their tribal membership and don't like to have anyone pretend to be one of them when the person is not--they take that as an insult.