Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories Forum

Share experiences and seek insight regarding your experience as an underrepresented minority within the legal community.
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about bar exam prep. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."

What is your family immigration history?

Born in US (both parents native born)
16
29%
Born in US (one or more parents is an immigrant)
23
41%
Immigrated to US (now a citizen)
8
14%
Immigrated to US (not yet a citizen, but let's hope I still can be now that Trump is president)
2
4%
Foreign National (just came here for the education)
7
13%
 
Total votes: 56

Mjvance2

New
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:04 pm

Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mjvance2 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:35 pm

So, I'm hoping this isn't a controversial topic and doesn't get political, but I was recently reading a book about the migrations of black people in America. The book was talking about that since the immigration act in the 60s the foreign born population of black people in America has dramatically increased and that the singular "black experience" of slavery, Jim crow, and discrimination/segregation was no longer a common thread that united all black people. That sort of that got me thinking about the the following question in the context of higher education.

Are minority/URM categorizations for graduate/professional school overrepresented by immigrants (or children of direct immigrants) more than native born applicants?

Now, I'm not asking the question with any malicious intent, but the question kind of came to me. My wife (who is Nigerian) and her family all have multiple degrees or professional degrees (lawyer, doctor, pharmacist, engineer). While in my family we all have bachelor degrees, but I am the only one pursuing a graduate/professional degree.

The church my wife and I attend is full of Nigerians and almost every single one of the kids there are in college and have plans to attend grad/professional school. My home church (mostly native born African-Americans) is kinda mixed. There are some kids who go to college, some just work or join the military, and others aren't really doing anything. It's much more of a mixed bag than the church we currently attend.

My experience attending an HBCU down south (it was a Christian SDA school so that may have skewed the demographics) was that many of my classmates were children of immigrants whether that be from the West Indies, England, or parts of Africa.

So I wanted to see what the background of most of the URM applicants on these threads were and if you all had any particular feeling about the representation of immigrants in grad/professional school.

You can fill put the poll and respond with any comments as well. If you are an immigrant you can also include your families country of origin.

(I apologize for the clunky language, but I'm writing this quickly on my lunch break on my phone.)

User avatar
Mr_Chukes

Silver
Posts: 1162
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:01 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mr_Chukes » Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:57 pm

Maybe it's a Nigerian thing. Our families come here wanting to make something of themselves and purse higher education. My father immragted from Nigeria and went to UNC Greensboro. He got a Bachelor's in Business. My brother has his MBA. I am pursuing law and my sister is pursuing her PhD in psychology.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:00 pm

.
Last edited by sfn91 on Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:10 pm

.
Last edited by sfn91 on Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:05 am, edited 2 times in total.

Mjvance2

New
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:04 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mjvance2 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:38 pm

I just think a lot of the talk centered around minorities in higher education gloss over the fact that the dismal representation numbers we do see include many from backgrounds that aren't really reflective of the population as a whole.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:42 pm

Mjvance2 wrote:I just think a lot of the talk centered around minorities in higher education gloss over the fact that the dismal representation numbers we do see include many from backgrounds that aren't really reflective of the population as a whole.
Yes, that's correct. Take those dismal numbers and add this variable to the equation, and law schools are even more elite and unrepresentative than the numbers account for at face value.

ThePoetKnowsIt

New
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 9:59 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by ThePoetKnowsIt » Fri Apr 21, 2017 3:23 am

sfn91 wrote:If your family had the resources to immigrate to the United States from abroad (like Nigeria, or Colombia, or Vietnam), you're likely in a privileged position in some way in your native country. Whereas African-Americans and Mexican-Americans just statistically don't have those resources. I think that is a simple way to explain the black representation issue in higher education that you're highlighting, and law schools' alleged preferences for some Hispanics over others.
This may not necessarily be true. There are many immigrants (specifically speaking about Nigeria) who immigrate to America as a result of winning the visa lottery. This does not put them in a privileged position, but rather is a result of chance.

*I'm speaking from my experience as a child of Nigerian immigrants*

20171lhopeful

Bronze
Posts: 239
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2016 5:12 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by 20171lhopeful » Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:41 am

ThePoetKnowsIt wrote:
sfn91 wrote:If your family had the resources to immigrate to the United States from abroad (like Nigeria, or Colombia, or Vietnam), you're likely in a privileged position in some way in your native country. Whereas African-Americans and Mexican-Americans just statistically don't have those resources. I think that is a simple way to explain the black representation issue in higher education that you're highlighting, and law schools' alleged preferences for some Hispanics over others.
This may not necessarily be true. There are many immigrants (specifically speaking about Nigeria) who immigrate to America as a result of winning the visa lottery. This does not put them in a privileged position, but rather is a result of chance.

*I'm speaking from my experience as a child of Nigerian immigrants*
second this, my parents were lucky, not privileged.

YBF-W

New
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:06 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by YBF-W » Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:56 am

20171lhopeful wrote:
ThePoetKnowsIt wrote:
sfn91 wrote:If your family had the resources to immigrate to the United States from abroad (like Nigeria, or Colombia, or Vietnam), you're likely in a privileged position in some way in your native country. Whereas African-Americans and Mexican-Americans just statistically don't have those resources. I think that is a simple way to explain the black representation issue in higher education that you're highlighting, and law schools' alleged preferences for some Hispanics over others.
This may not necessarily be true. There are many immigrants (specifically speaking about Nigeria) who immigrate to America as a result of winning the visa lottery. This does not put them in a privileged position, but rather is a result of chance.

*I'm speaking from my experience as a child of Nigerian immigrants*
second this, my parents were lucky, not privileged.
+1. Had family members who won the lottery and pooled resources to have the rest of us join. From there it was working at Micky D's to obtaining American degrees lol.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 3:35 pm

YBF-W wrote:
20171lhopeful wrote:
ThePoetKnowsIt wrote:
sfn91 wrote:If your family had the resources to immigrate to the United States from abroad (like Nigeria, or Colombia, or Vietnam), you're likely in a privileged position in some way in your native country. Whereas African-Americans and Mexican-Americans just statistically don't have those resources. I think that is a simple way to explain the black representation issue in higher education that you're highlighting, and law schools' alleged preferences for some Hispanics over others.
This may not necessarily be true. There are many immigrants (specifically speaking about Nigeria) who immigrate to America as a result of winning the visa lottery. This does not put them in a privileged position, but rather is a result of chance.

*I'm speaking from my experience as a child of Nigerian immigrants*
second this, my parents were lucky, not privileged.
+1. Had family members who won the lottery and pooled resources to have the rest of us join. From there it was working at Micky D's to obtaining American degrees lol.
I said likely, I *never* said it was a universal or necessary truth. There are obviously many different ways and reasons to immigrate to a country but the likelihood of scenarios for different subsets of immigrants varies widely and within those subsets is in many cases more constant than not. Are there going to be wealthy Mexicans immigrating to the United States? Yes. I went to college with several whose parents were diplomats or lawyers in Big Law who worked out of the offices in Mexico City and LA. But that doesn't make their experience the likely scenario.

Even just having the know-how to enter a visa lottery in many developing countries indicates a certain level of privilege. I want to emphasize that I am not discounting the struggles or the immigration experience of anyone. I am not saying people from XYZ country don't deserve a leg-up, and as I said above the experience of being a POC does not go away regardless of your education or wealth. I was just noting that there are likely and less likely scenarios for different groups of people depending on what country they are coming from, and because of that the boosts for URMs vary. After all, public policy is based on generalities.
Last edited by sfn91 on Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:06 pm

The facts speak for themselves.

61% of Nigerian immigrants hold a bachelor's degree or higher

http://www.tadias.com/10/15/2014/census ... ts-in-u-s/

User avatar
Mr_Chukes

Silver
Posts: 1162
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:01 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mr_Chukes » Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:51 pm

sfn91 wrote:The facts speak for themselves.

61% of Nigerian immigrants hold a bachelor's degree or higher

http://www.tadias.com/10/15/2014/census ... ts-in-u-s/
My parents both came from Nigeria. My father has a bachelor's in business from UNC Greensboro. He instilled in us his love for knowledge. When he came him and my my mother were sleeping on the floor of his cousin's house and working while in school.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:33 pm

Mr_Chukes wrote:
sfn91 wrote:The facts speak for themselves.

61% of Nigerian immigrants hold a bachelor's degree or higher

http://www.tadias.com/10/15/2014/census ... ts-in-u-s/
My parents both came from Nigeria. My father has a bachelor's in business from UNC Greensboro. He instilled in us his love for knowledge. When he came him and my my mother were sleeping on the floor of his cousin's house and working while in school.
That's awesome! Love immigrant success stories.

YBF-W

New
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:06 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by YBF-W » Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:52 pm

sfn91 wrote:
YBF-W wrote:
20171lhopeful wrote:
ThePoetKnowsIt wrote:
sfn91 wrote:If your family had the resources to immigrate to the United States from abroad (like Nigeria, or Colombia, or Vietnam), you're likely in a privileged position in some way in your native country. Whereas African-Americans and Mexican-Americans just statistically don't have those resources. I think that is a simple way to explain the black representation issue in higher education that you're highlighting, and law schools' alleged preferences for some Hispanics over others.
This may not necessarily be true. There are many immigrants (specifically speaking about Nigeria) who immigrate to America as a result of winning the visa lottery. This does not put them in a privileged position, but rather is a result of chance.

*I'm speaking from my experience as a child of Nigerian immigrants*
second this, my parents were lucky, not privileged.
+1. Had family members who won the lottery and pooled resources to have the rest of us join. From there it was working at Micky D's to obtaining American degrees lol.
I said likely, I *never* said it was a universal or necessary truth. There are obviously many different ways and reasons to immigrate to a country but the likelihood of scenarios for different subsets of immigrants varies widely and within those subsets is in many cases more constant than not. Are there going to be wealthy Mexicans immigrating to the United States? Yes. I went to college with several whose parents were diplomats or lawyers in Big Law who worked out of the offices in Mexico City and LA. But that doesn't make their experience the likely scenario.

Even just having the know-how to enter a visa lottery in many developing countries indicates a certain level of privilege. I want to emphasize that I am not discounting the struggles or the immigration experience of anyone. I am not saying people from XYZ country don't deserve a leg-up, and as I said above the experience of being a POC does not go away regardless of your education or wealth. I was just noting that there are likely and less likely scenarios for different groups of people depending on what country they are coming from, and because of that the boosts for URMs vary. After all, public policy is based on generalities.

I understand what you're trying to say, but it is helpful to add some perspective and nuance to the statement about the likely privilege of those who emigrated to counter how easy it is to be one-dimensional and simplistic about the implications of Africans migrating to the U.S. and Africans in general.

Also, I'd even hesitate to think of it as true "privilege" in the same way one might in the US, even though obtaining higher education does indicate some level of opportunity that not everyone in is able to take advantage of. Getting an education is often not indicative of some significant level of opportunity and power because of the economic realities and lacking institutional structures that would otherwise have allowed you to reasonably expect legitimate job opportunities after completing educational requirements.

And even when individuals are educated in Nigeria, those same degrees very often do not afford the same opportunities as degrees in the US. I think of my mother who arrived to the U.S. as a computer engineer. Mind you, this is as a result of other family members foregoing their own education so they could invest in the greater likelihood of one child being able to bring about some level of social mobility for the rest of family. All of this just to arrive to the U.S. and realize she'd basically have to restart her education because those degrees didn't relay the same expectation of understanding and skills the same American degree might. So she relived poverty, but American style.

It's not uncommon to hear similar stories of people educated in Nigeria who had to change careers or re-obtain degrees to gain socioeconomic traction. But this is not the typical way one would think about privilege. The overwhelming majority of Nigerians I know have similar stories, but they often ended successfully.

Instead of thinking about west African immigrants as particularly privileged, I often think about it this way. When you decide to uproot from your home country to another like the US, you usually do so to take advantage of economic opportunities that aren't as accessible in your native country. It tends to be a very purposeful leap of faith, so the numbers of immigrants you see here utilizing those opportunities and experiencing significant upward mobility is not particularly surprising or telling on some unique privilege back home; it's often because this was the point all along.

ThePoetKnowsIt

New
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 9:59 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by ThePoetKnowsIt » Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:14 pm

Mr_Chukes wrote:
sfn91 wrote:The facts speak for themselves.

61% of Nigerian immigrants hold a bachelor's degree or higher

http://www.tadias.com/10/15/2014/census ... ts-in-u-s/
My parents both came from Nigeria. My father has a bachelor's in business from UNC Greensboro. He instilled in us his love for knowledge. When he came him and my my mother were sleeping on the floor of his cousin's house and working while in school.
Similar situation for my parents when they first came to this country. I think using the ends overlooks the means by which a lot of Nigerians got their degrees.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 8:38 pm

.
Last edited by sfn91 on Thu Jul 06, 2017 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Fri Apr 21, 2017 8:43 pm

YBF-W wrote: Instead of thinking about west African immigrants as particularly privileged, I often think about it this way. When you decide to uproot from your home country to another like the US, you usually do so to take advantage of economic opportunities that aren't as accessible in your native country. It tends to be a very purposeful leap of faith, so the numbers of immigrants you see here utilizing those opportunities and experiencing significant upward mobility is not particularly surprising or telling on some unique privilege back home; it's often because this was the point all along.
I'm going to have to say that this is a very facile view of things. Just take a look at statistics of Latinos in higher education.

cheaptilts

Silver
Posts: 593
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 11:29 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by cheaptilts » Fri Apr 21, 2017 9:28 pm

Mr_Chukes wrote:Maybe it's a Nigerian thing. Our families come here wanting to make something of themselves and purse higher education. My father immragted from Nigeria and went to UNC Greensboro. He got a Bachelor's in Business. My brother has his MBA. I am pursuing law and my sister is pursuing her PhD in psychology.
Maybe i'm making a bald-faced assumption but the odds of your parents either being from (a) Lagos; (b) working in gov't [just lol]; or (c) attending boarding school in Nigeria is quite high.

I don't think Nigerian-American children (and other West Africans) taking up most of the AA slots have much to do with familiies having a better desire for "making something of themselves" and everything to do with the fact that they likely could read and write in Yoruba prior to emigrating and understood that with literacy and some work, you could literally do whatever you want. Many of them had decent-to-good jobs in Naija too. Some, though albeit not many, even spoke okay british english. Even if that's an assumption, it's still the case a large part of the time. Nigerians who couldn't read and write in Ibo or Yoruba aren't emgirating to the US and becoming Drs and lawyers after learning English.

AA policies benefit everyone except actual descendants of slaves in like rural Mississippi. I don't know how we fix it tho. If your grandma didnt know how to read and your mom didnt know how to read and your dad is in jail how tf are you supposed to know the 'value' of an education or strong literacy or anything?

User avatar
Mr_Chukes

Silver
Posts: 1162
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:01 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mr_Chukes » Sat Apr 22, 2017 12:36 am

cheaptilts wrote:
Mr_Chukes wrote:Maybe it's a Nigerian thing. Our families come here wanting to make something of themselves and purse higher education. My father immragted from Nigeria and went to UNC Greensboro. He got a Bachelor's in Business. My brother has his MBA. I am pursuing law and my sister is pursuing her PhD in psychology.
Maybe i'm making a bald-faced assumption but the odds of your parents either being from (a) Lagos; (b) working in gov't [just lol]; or (c) attending boarding school in Nigeria is quite high.

I don't think Nigerian-American children (and other West Africans) taking up most of the AA slots have much to do with familiies having a better desire for "making something of themselves" and everything to do with the fact that they likely could read and write in Yoruba prior to emigrating and understood that with literacy and some work, you could literally do whatever you want. Many of them had decent-to-good jobs in Naija too. Some, though albeit not many, even spoke okay british english. Even if that's an assumption, it's still the case a large part of the time. Nigerians who couldn't read and write in Ibo or Yoruba aren't emgirating to the US and becoming Drs and lawyers after learning English.

AA policies benefit everyone except actual descendants of slaves in like rural Mississippi. I don't know how we fix it tho. If your grandma didnt know how to read and your mom didnt know how to read and your dad is in jail how tf are you supposed to know the 'value' of an education or strong literacy or anything?
My Dad came from Farmers. He snuck on a plane to get here. He had no money when he came here. My Dad's father sold much of his belongings and some of his land to send my father to boarding school because he wanted him to do well.

Being a direct descendant​ of slaves does not matter. We all get the same discrimination. The only difference is Nigerians come here to do better. They strive for education. While other black Americans think the system is holding them back and they can't do anything but take up sterotypical roles. Africans say I can make it here. We simply have a different mindset.

Also I'm part of a community of Nigerians in the community and none of them came from money. They all fought hard to obtain visas.

cheaptilts

Silver
Posts: 593
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 11:29 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by cheaptilts » Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:16 am

Mr_Chukes wrote: My Dad came from Farmers. He snuck on a plane to get here. He had no money when he came here. My Dad's father sold much of his belongings and some of his land to send my father to boarding school because he wanted him to do well.

Being a direct descendant​ of slaves does not matter. We all get the same discrimination. The only difference is Nigerians come here to do better. They strive for education. While other black Americans think the system is holding them back and they can't do anything but take up sterotypical roles. Africans say I can make it here. We simply have a different mindset.

Also I'm part of a community of Nigerians in the community and none of them came from money. They all fought hard to obtain visas.
Your response actually made me laugh. You somehow managed to both (a) prove my point about most Nigerians coming to the United States with literacy in at least one language (kudos to your dad's dad for being able to sell property to send your dad to a private school) and a parental background that emphasized education; (b) and the arrogance of Nigerians in thinking that they just have an inherently better mindset. We're privileged as fuck; it has nothing to do with not thinking the system is holding us back and everything to do with having generations of individuals who can read/write and know the value of reading/writing in any language.

Also, your description of the Black community in the US is pretty disgusting

User avatar
Mr_Chukes

Silver
Posts: 1162
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:01 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mr_Chukes » Sat Apr 22, 2017 2:15 am

cheaptilts wrote:
Mr_Chukes wrote: My Dad came from Farmers. He snuck on a plane to get here. He had no money when he came here. My Dad's father sold much of his belongings and some of his land to send my father to boarding school because he wanted him to do well.

Being a direct descendant​ of slaves does not matter. We all get the same discrimination. The only difference is Nigerians come here to do better. They strive for education. While other black Americans think the system is holding them back and they can't do anything but take up sterotypical roles. Africans say I can make it here. We simply have a different mindset.

Also I'm part of a community of Nigerians in the community and none of them came from money. They all fought hard to obtain visas.
Your response actually made me laugh. You somehow managed to both (a) prove my point about most Nigerians coming to the United States with literacy in at least one language (kudos to your dad's dad for being able to sell property to send your dad to a private school) and a parental background that emphasized education; (b) and the arrogance of Nigerians in thinking that they just have an inherently better mindset. We're privileged as fuck; it has nothing to do with not thinking the system is holding us back and everything to do with having generations of individuals who can read/write and know the value of reading/writing in any language.

Also, your description of the Black community in the US is pretty disgusting
You want to know how many of my friends thought they couldn't be anything. Always thought that they could not move up because they are black. So many of my friends just tried to he artist or worked minimal jobs thinking that this is the best that they can achieve. It's not arrogance. It's literally how Nigerian are taught to see. That we can make something of ourselves. We can come here and do well. I think one difference is we have more representation at home. In Nigeria there are many Nigerian doctors, lawyers, government officials, those people are all educated as well. We have models of people who are doing well. While blacks in America are underrepresented in most of these fields.

Also one of the reasons that I want to do by getting my law degree is to encourage my friends to achieve their dreams. I want to be an example of someone who sets out to do what he wants to achieve.

Sorry if some of what I said came off a little harsh. I'm just so tired of people saying Nigerians have it easy. We work hard to get where we are.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:44 am

Mr_Chukes wrote: I'm just so tired of people saying Nigerians have it easy. We work hard to get where we are.
No one ever said that.
Mr_Chukes wrote: Being a direct descendant​ of slaves does not matter. We all get the same discrimination. The only difference is Nigerians come here to do better.
Are you kidding me bruh? Being a direct descendant of slaves does not matter? That is one very warped view of history and the African-American experience in the United States.

YBF-W

New
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:06 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by YBF-W » Sat Apr 22, 2017 7:17 am

cheaptilts wrote:
Mr_Chukes wrote:Maybe it's a Nigerian thing. Our families come here wanting to make something of themselves and purse higher education. My father immragted from Nigeria and went to UNC Greensboro. He got a Bachelor's in Business. My brother has his MBA. I am pursuing law and my sister is pursuing her PhD in psychology.
Maybe i'm making a bald-faced assumption but the odds of your parents either being from (a) Lagos; (b) working in gov't [just lol]; or (c) attending boarding school in Nigeria is quite high.

I don't think Nigerian-American children (and other West Africans) taking up most of the AA slots have much to do with familiies having a better desire for "making something of themselves" and everything to do with the fact that they likely could read and write in Yoruba prior to emigrating and understood that with literacy and some work, you could literally do whatever you want. Many of them had decent-to-good jobs in Naija too. Some, though albeit not many, even spoke okay british english. Even if that's an assumption, it's still the case a large part of the time. Nigerians who couldn't read and write in Ibo or Yoruba aren't emgirating to the US and becoming Drs and lawyers after learning English.

AA policies benefit everyone except actual descendants of slaves in like rural Mississippi. I don't know how we fix it tho. If your grandma didnt know how to read and your mom didnt know how to read and your dad is in jail how tf are you supposed to know the 'value' of an education or strong literacy or anything?
This understanding is so rudimentary.

Your point on literacy is overextended. English is the official language of Nigeria after all. Most people work and live and operate in English daily. And even when you know English, you tend to also have a different mother tongue (of which there are hundreds, more than just Igbo and Yoruba). Most people don't actually read and write in their mother tongue. English is also the language of instruction in schools, unless maybe you're looking at the primarily Islamic north. It's also just silly to be narrow about where ppl are coming from. Lagos is a state home to Lagos city, Nigeria's business hub that attracts international attention for all the reasons you'd imagine. Go to Abuja, Nigeria's Capital, and you'd see a different business hub. And there's​ also everywhere else, to say the least. And more often than not, people rely on other ways to get by besides someone in their family having a government jobs.

But my point is still there. The reason you can more easily say Nigerians "value an education" is because that's the opportunity they often come here to exploit. Nigerians that are visible in education are those who actually made it that far amongst those who emigrated, then there's still everyone else. What you're doing then is casting the Nigerians with this specific mindset against the general group of black people descended from the enslaved whose presence here is a given post slavery. These are people who are just here whether or not education is a primary motivator. AA policies in education benefit those that are most readily willing and able to take up those opportunities, and many of those people are immigrants.

Also, I wouldn't say slave history doesn't matter to the type of experiences black people face here. Even while no one has yet to stop me on the street to clarify my nationality before deciding to whether to racially harass me, there are ways the history of slavery manifests in institutional violence that immigrants are less likely to experience. I'd also say the Nigerian experience often differs due to a certain model minority standard projected unto Nigerians.

User avatar
Mr_Chukes

Silver
Posts: 1162
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:01 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by Mr_Chukes » Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:07 am

sfn91 wrote:
Mr_Chukes wrote: I'm just so tired of people saying Nigerians have it easy. We work hard to get where we are.
No one ever said that.
Mr_Chukes wrote: Being a direct descendant​ of slaves does not matter. We all get the same discrimination. The only difference is Nigerians come here to do better.
Are you kidding me bruh? Being a direct descendant of slaves does not matter? That is one very warped view of history and the African-American experience in the United States.
His whole statement kinda implies this.

Let me clarify, immigrants may not face the same discrimination all their lives but they still face it when they get here. Also their children do. Being born in America I very much see myself as Black American as well. Growing up I've been faced with racism and discrimination. People don't ask my family origins before they harass me. I very much look and identify as Black when I walk around the street. Being connected to the soil, I feel connected to the slaves that helped build this country and the other Black/African Americans here. Sure I have my Nigerian culture but I only really bring that up when talking about Nigerians or to other Nigerians. I think it is stupid to try to divide people or section them off from other Black/African Americans. We all share common ancestors from Africa. Like Nas said we are also descendants of kings and queens. I'm sorry but when people ask about Nigerians in education being over represented, I always feel like I'm being attacked. It feels like my fellow Black/African Americans are envious of the positions many Nigerian Americans are in. When they speak on these things, it feels like they are saying we don't deserve to be there. It shows a divide in the community. Kinda in the same way Black Americans would call immigrants African booty scrathers. When all that isn't necessary. We need to band together to help each other out. We shouldn't be dividing ourselves into subgroups. Like Jay-z said, when you see me see you.

Oh also Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. There are millions of Nigerians. The ones here come for education purposes and creating a better future for their families. So it makes sense that there would be so many Nigerians here who are in higher education.

Also I didn't mean to offend anyone in my streak of consciousness.

User avatar
sfn91

Bronze
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:43 pm

Re: Representation of Immigrants in URM Categories

Post by sfn91 » Sat Apr 22, 2017 12:37 pm

Mr_Chukes wrote:
sfn91 wrote:
Mr_Chukes wrote: I'm just so tired of people saying Nigerians have it easy. We work hard to get where we are.
No one ever said that.
Mr_Chukes wrote: Being a direct descendant​ of slaves does not matter. We all get the same discrimination. The only difference is Nigerians come here to do better.
Are you kidding me bruh? Being a direct descendant of slaves does not matter? That is one very warped view of history and the African-American experience in the United States.
His whole statement kinda implies this.

Let me clarify, immigrants may not face the same discrimination all their lives but they still face it when they get here. Also their children do. Being born in America I very much see myself as Black American as well. Growing up I've been faced with racism and discrimination. People don't ask my family origins before they harass me. I very much look and identify as Black when I walk around the street.
Right, which is why I've said repeatedly being a POC doesn't change issues of discrimination regardless of country of origin or education level. But to say that it doesn't matter whether or not your family is descendant from American slaves because in the end we're all black is BS. It matters a lot.

But with that, I think I'm gonna peace from this topic. I think this thread is devolving into what Mjvance2 didn't want (or has already).

Post Reply Post Anonymous Reply  

Return to “Underrepresented Law Students”