The Altruism of Youth

Via a posting on Discriminations, I perused this Washington Post article about some high-school students talking about race on college applications. Irony and unintentional humor run deep in the article; basically the minority students want to be judged on their merits, but have few qualms about grabbing the race advantage.

In deciding his qualifications, Brounson would prefer that college officials consider the strength of his character along with the obstacles he faced growing up in New York City.
But will he leave his race off all his applications?
"If it's a safety school I could care less about, I probably won't do it," Brounson said. "But if it's a school that I really want to attend and I think it will help me, I'll use it."

But it was this moment of principled bravado that made me laugh out loud:

Several minority students said they had already been debating internally whether to mention their race on college applications. As it happened, Camille Rivera-Garcia applied for a scholarship moments before joining the discussion.
When the application asked her ethnicity, Rivera-Garcia proudly filled in Hispanic. An hour later, she began having second thoughts.
"I'm thinking that maybe I'll change it," said Rivera-Garcia, a senior from Puerto Rico. "I want to be accepted for what I've accomplished, not just because I'm Hispanic."

Surely they’ll never guess your ethnicity, Ms. Rivera-Garcia!