Letter to the Editor: Let’s push for the inclusion of more racial categories
With USC’s Common App open once again, thousands of students are grappling with the limited range of options for the race question. According to the Wall Street Journal, the most agonizing question on a college application consists of four words: “What is your race?” And to this day, on any application, it’s the question I dread the most.
As a previous Common App applicant, I was taken aback when I did not see any references, allusions or even any indications of a Middle Eastern or North African category on the application. This was especially jarring after just completing the UC application, where I was boldly and proudly able to identify with my true racial identity. Every year, on forms such as the Common App, thousands of Middle Eastern and North African Students have to choose races that do not represent their reality or lived experiences as an unacknowledged invisible minority.
Due to historical reasons stemming from U.S. citizenship discrimination against people of color, the MENA community had to fight for naturalization, and their only spear was to persuade the U.S. government was that they were of white descent. This strategy was adopted by many immigrants including those of Syrian, Lebanese and Mexican backgrounds. To this day, the U.S. Census continues to classify MENA individuals as white regardless of the ceaseless efforts pushing to add a MENA category to the census. The resounding reality is that MENA individuals, such as myself, are classified as white but without the many privileges of whiteness, and it continues to cause resounding problems within the MENA community. This is particularly evident in the lack of statistics and transparent data on the MENA population, resulting in a lack of health research, community funding and programs such as language assistance to newly arrived refugees and immigrants.
This past summer, I applied for a radiology volunteer program and the form lacked a racial option I could identify with. I emailed the program coordinator about the issue, and it was a victorious moment when my email finally made a difference, and the program coordinator added a MENA Category. This experience made me dream wilder and envisage a day where all USC forms and the Common App would also include MENA and other racial categories.
However, it seems like I have been clutching at straws trying to reach the right person in the Undergraduate Student Admissions at USC. I have sent email after email, made call after call, hoping someone would direct me to the right person to change the status quo and end this cycle of incorrect racial reportage.
Part of what’s kept me motivated is knowing the omission of the MENA category from official forms doesn’t just affect me but so many other students as well. As my brother applied this cycle he chose to racially identify as “White and Black” on the USC Common App Form due to the lack of a MENA category present. This confusion leads students who identify as “Middle Eastern North African” to choose Black, white, Asian and our favorite by far, “Other.”
This results in data that will only contribute to misinformation in the University’s census and monetary expenditure. The most conspicuous implications of the lack of racial recognition on the University census are integrated into USC’s student health services and professional programs. For instance, due to the absence of a MENA or North African category, there is an absence of culturally-specific and competent therapy appointments for these students within the USC counseling and mental health services. The USC Mental Health and Counseling Office boasts multiple culturally-specific therapy programs where students meet with a therapist that shares the same cultural background as them. These appointments can be made through “the Student Equity and Inclusion Programs: APASS, CBCSA, La CASA, LGBTQ+ Student Center and First Gen+ Success Center.” This lack of a MENA category is inextricably linked to the absence of a USC MENA Alumni Association leaving students without a dedicated space to foster connections with people of a shared background and without resources that other groups have.
Looking at the UC and the CSU application, I unequivocally believe that there is hope for change at USC. In 2009, students pushed, the UC Application to “expand terms of ethnic identification.” The result of this unity was the expansion of the UC application’s racial identification boxes to include sub-categories within each race ranging from Middle Eastern to South Asian to North African, making students heard and seen.
The lack of racial recognition in university forms and the Common App will continue to strip students of their racial identity. If you wish for a more inclusive USC with equitable resources and accountable minority funding, sign the petition to push for the inclusion of more racially inclusive categories including a MENA category on all USC Forms and especially the Common App.
Only our unity can make change possible.
Sign the petition for racial inclusivity on University forms here.
Patricia Gerges, USC Viterbi School of Engineering