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Comment by 1cvmask | Hacker News Reader

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal

And more do Native American. That's an easier one to check on the checkboxes for whites. That's why there has been an exponential increase of the self-identified "Native American" population since the 1960s. Elizabeth Warren is one of the more famous self-identified Native Americans (her siblings never knew they were).

In the last census their increase has been the most in the richest counties in the US with the most number of applications to elite colleges.

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To be fair to her siblings, they didn't know they were Native American because they were not in fact Native American.

That's why they should have to list tribe enrolled & blood quantum. At this point, I wish the tribes could sue these people for fraud. The continued closing of doors on the most downtrodden minority is pathetic.

I'm 1/8th. Is that enough? 1/4th? Where's the line?

My state gave out grants to small businesses during the pandemic and directly said on the application that preference would be given to minorities. I didn't check both white and native only because a local organization would be dispersing the funds and I live in a rural area.

Quite frankly, I'm sick of "reverse" racism. That was my state government all but telling me that my small business didn't deserve funds because I'm (mostly) white.

> I didn't check both white and native only because a local organization would be dispersing the funds and I live in a rural area.

I don’t see the logic. Are you saying that you’d become persona non grata in a small community for claiming these funds?

That was the fear. It didn’t seem worth the risk in today’s climate. I try to keep my business non-political.

Well, the US government has 1/4 but some tribes go down to 1/8. If the position / scholarship says decent the tribes have that documentation too. You can get a document that says you are not enrolled but are a descendent of the tribe. If you are talking about the COVID funding, I think some documentation from the tribe that you are 1/8 in would suffice. Also check the tribal constitution and minority business rules of your state.

I'm not going to comment on reverse racism, but if a position or grant was set aside for a Native American then claiming heritage one does not have is bs.

Well the blood thing is just a complete nonsense way of assessing oppression/opportunities. Someone who is the child of a full blood Native American who was working as a bartender when she met a white corporate lawyer that she later married and moved to Bethesda lives a completely different life to a child growing up on the reservation. That’s why you’ll find that income-based affirmative action has vastly more support than race. I personally would have no problems with my kid losing a spot in something to a kid who got similar scores to him with a tenth of the family income, because I know that the latter is a strictly tougher thing to do.

Well, tribes have their own type of sovereignty in this country and, for the most part, Native Americans moving off reservation has been a disaster, particularly when forced (the suicide rate is extreme).

We live in a country that has special programs for certain races. If those programs continue to exist, then the money / opportunity set aside for Native Americans should actually be used by people provably Native Americans.

> We live in a country that has special programs for certain races.

Yes, and those programs are immoral if they give a boost to the child of a Nigerian immigrant cardiothoracic surgeon for reasons ostensibly rooted in the oppression of American slavery.

In our family it was a secret - my grandma died thinking she was 100% German and my great aunt still thinks that. They just think that’s what people from southern Germany look like.

However, my great grandpa didn’t inherit the farm he was supposed to because he married the “wrong” woman. That combined with how they look gave a hypothesis and DNA testing on me proved it.

So there’s no real documentation, and I don’t know for sure what tribe I descended from.

The point wasn’t that there was money set aside for Native Americans, but that it was set aside for anyone other than white people. That’s straight up wrong, and if black person could have checked a “white” checkbox to circumvent discrimination in the 50s I would have been all for it too.

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