If I read this correctly, they don't want to be defined as "white" 'cause they'll lose certain benefits and privileges? Or did I read that wrong?
Are they bringing back "swarthy"?
Students push UC to expand terms of ethnic identification
Middle Easterners want alternatives to 'white' and 'other.'
Nicole Salame...Her Lebanese-born mother told her Arabs are considered white, but Salame didn't believe her. Her high school counselor told her the same thing. "It did not make sense to me, it's so far-fetched," said Salame, who ended up checking "Other."
For years the federal government has classified Arab Americans and Middle Easterners as white. But confusion and disagreement have led some students to check "Asian" or "African," depending on what part of the Middle East they came from. Some, like Salame, simply marked "Other."
Now several UCLA student groups -- including Arabs, Iranians, Afghanis and Armenians -- have launched a campaign to add a Middle Eastern category, with various subgroups...The "white" label can hurt them with universities and companies that use the information to promote diversity, they say, and can result in the gathering of little or no statistical data on important issues, such as health trends in the community...
...UC officials are aware of the UCLA students' campaign...But any change in ethnicity categories could affect data trends, Robinson said. For example, if those who in the past would have checked white were to start checking another category, it would appear as a sudden drop in white applicants.
"It's reasonable that Middle Eastern people don't like to be lumped in with white, so I think there's a lot of sympathy for the issue," Robinson said. "But there are also a lot of issues" to consider.
...Gabrill, the son of Jordanian and Egyptian parents, said he had difficulties with the college application but, because he was seen as white, he wasn't identified as someone who needed extra help from high school counselors.
"So it's kind of like we're in between. We're not white, but we're not as disadvantaged as the other groups so we don't get any of that aid," he said. "So we're kind of invisible in that way."
What will happen to Israelis?
We've got white, light, black and in-between.
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