Race categories on standardized tests make no sense

[WinkOsmosis]

Lying in my bed I was thinking about standardized tests. Why? I don't know. But when I took those I always had to say I was "Asian" just because my great grandparents are from India, which happens to be in Asia. Who decided that race should depend on continent (ignoring for a moment the fact that race doesn't exist). Same goes for Arabs and other Middle Easterners... why must they lump everyone together?

Maybe they should categorize students by ethnicity instead of race. In that case I would have put "Caribbean" or "West Indian". I think I have less in common culturally with "orientals" than with white Americans. I should have just put black on all of those. I'm 1/32 black anyway. Hell I could have put a different race on every test, since I'm Indian, Scottish, African, Native (Carib Indian)...

Also, why are there so many categories for islanders? There's "Pacific Islander", "Polynesian", "Phillipino", "Southwest Pacific Islander", etc etc.

 

[Queasy]

A better question is why are there even race categories on standardized tests? If people truly want a world where race is not an issue, why does the government and these standardized test type organizations ask you about your race all the time?

 

[SuperTool]

They should have 2 races on there
"underrepresented" minority
not "underrepresented" minority

They don't really care who you are aside from the above two.

 

[Nitemare]

Why not do away with "race" on forms anyway? The sooner we stop seeing race the sooner the racism ends.

My kid is going to be totally screwed up when it comes to trying to pick one..Mother is filopena and father is caucasian/native american.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

The race statitistics are useful for socio economic surveying. Like how they track that black kids score lower, realizing that SAT determines education not intelligence.

I also think they have races so they can give you scholarships that discriminate based on race.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Why not do away with "race" on forms anyway? The sooner we stop seeing race the sooner the racism ends.

My kid is going to be totally screwed up when it comes to trying to pick one..Mother is filopena and father is caucasian/native american.

I joke with my wife all the time that our 8 month old son is not going to have race until it comes time for him to apply for college scholarships (I am white, my wife is black). Of course, I hope that racial based scholarships are long gone.

 

[Lithium381]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Why not do away with "race" on forms anyway? The sooner we stop seeing race the sooner the racism ends.

My kid is going to be totally screwed up when it comes to trying to pick one..Mother is filopena and father is caucasian/native american.

I joke with my wife all the time that our 8 month old son is not going to have race until it comes time for him to apply for college scholarships (I am white, my wife is black). Of course, I hope that racial based scholarships are long gone.

nope, not yet, about 75%(i think i heard that somewhere) scolarships arne't avaliable to white kids(males specificly)
this whole race thing is stupid.......

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Lithium381

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Why not do away with "race" on forms anyway? The sooner we stop seeing race the sooner the racism ends.

My kid is going to be totally screwed up when it comes to trying to pick one..Mother is filopena and father is caucasian/native american.

I joke with my wife all the time that our 8 month old son is not going to have race until it comes time for him to apply for college scholarships (I am white, my wife is black). Of course, I hope that racial based scholarships are long gone.

nope, not yet, about 75%(i think i heard that somewhere) scolarships arne't avaliable to white kids(males specificly)
this whole race thing is stupid.......

But you have to consider the fact that alot of white people just don't need scholarships. This excludes poor white kids though, while rich black kids get more scholarship money.

Scholarships should be based on the income of a kid's parents.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Why not do away with "race" on forms anyway? The sooner we stop seeing race the sooner the racism ends.

My kid is going to be totally screwed up when it comes to trying to pick one..Mother is filopena and father is caucasian/native american.

I joke with my wife all the time that our 8 month old son is not going to have race until it comes time for him to apply for college scholarships (I am white, my wife is black). Of course, I hope that racial based scholarships are long gone.

Yup, kids do not know race until either we teach them or some other adult teaches them, the same could probably be said about hate as well. The mothers maiden name is Spanish well, so the kid could mark 4 different races as well.

Race will be around until the last Aryans and Rastafarians finally give it up. My guess is standardized tests and governmental forms will have the mixed category on there for all us mutts and halfbreeds out there.

 

[Maetryx]

First, scholarships are very often set up by private individuals and organizations. They can make their selection based on whatever criteria they feel like. Second, saying there is no such thing as race is similar to saying there is no such thing as breeds of dogs. No matter if some are crossbred, there are still breeds. Same with race. Third, the government needs to drop its fallacious assumptions that disparity in outcome is proof of racism. When it drops that false logic, it can stop tracking test results by race.

Or they could simply allow people to select more than one racial background. We're probably headed that way.

 

[Dudd]

Don't worry, in a thousand years we'll all just be a population of mutts, indistinguishable from each other.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: Lithium381

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Why not do away with "race" on forms anyway? The sooner we stop seeing race the sooner the racism ends.

My kid is going to be totally screwed up when it comes to trying to pick one..Mother is filopena and father is caucasian/native american.

I joke with my wife all the time that our 8 month old son is not going to have race until it comes time for him to apply for college scholarships (I am white, my wife is black). Of course, I hope that racial based scholarships are long gone.

nope, not yet, about 75%(i think i heard that somewhere) scolarships arne't avaliable to white kids(males specificly)
this whole race thing is stupid.......

But you have to consider the fact that alot of white people just don't need scholarships. This excludes poor white kids though, while rich black kids get more scholarship money.

Scholarships should be based on the income of a kid's parents.

What about us kids that live on our own without a parents monetary contribution? Any form I attempted to fill out for monetary assistance stated that I had to include my parents income unless I was 21 regardless of whether I was living on my own and paying all my bills. Scholarships should be given for academic performance primarily and economic secondarily. There is really no way to determine how much a kid is getting..stingy parents couls not pay for their childs education, while a poorer one might. Why should the first kid have to suffer because their father is Uncle Scrooge?

 

[TNTrulez]

cause someone whined about race

 

[classy]

Its very important to track race when it comes to tests. This is how you can correct possible problems that a certain race may have when it comes to a certain test. We need to understand that even though we're all Americans, there is differences between us as people. Lots of times race does play a part in many things in life. Its shame that people have to always make race out to be something of a negative point. It can be positive as well. And many times it is.