Am I a Minority?

[lightofmylife]

When I was four years old I was adopted by a Puerto Rican woman and I grew up in Miami. My birth certificate says that my Mom was born in Puerto Rico as well. I was raised hispanic, but my birth parents are white. I feel like the most truthful way of representing myself is to say that my race is white and my ethnicity is Puerto Rican and then addressing the adoption in my personal statement, but I would like to know what other people think before I send in my application.

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[njbmd]

All ethnicity data is "self-reported" data and optional data. You can report yourself as anything you want to report. If you are asking,"Can I expect to get a boost in my application because of being URM"? The answer is probably not. If you want to "drink the SDN kool-aid" and try to "explain" your ethnicity because you believe that being from Puerto Rico will give you an automatic entry into medical school, then you probably don't have much ties with other people of that ethnicity that you now want to be a part of because you believe it will be to your advantage.

Would I "waste" my personal statement trying to make a case for my ethnicity? No, I wouldn't. I would use the personal statement to sell myself to an admissions committee in the most positive light and to explain why I would be a good physician and a good addition to any medical class. To try to "explain" why you are a member of a particular ethnic group is a waste of personal statement space.

 

[lightofmylife]

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I find it insulting that you would assume that I don't have anything in common with Puerto Ricans just because I'm not Puerto Rican by blood, as I said, I was adopted by a Puerto Rican woman at the age of 4 and was raised identically to anyone who would have been their biological child.

I wasn't going to explain my ethnicity as merely a way of rationalization. I am framing it an overall picture of how I come from a mixed background, and how I believe my cultural experiences have shaped my attitudes toward people of different socioeconomic / ethnic backgrounds.

Ethnicity is about the culture you identify with. Is a child who is Puerto Rican and is adopted by an American family more Puerto Rican than me?

 

[Bernoull]

OP, no offense. but I really do not understand how someone, at this stage in his/her life, can be questioning his/her race/ethnicity/minority status. It's one thing if you never knew ur birth parents identity but you know the identity of both ur birth and adopted parents and the culture u grew up in. It's seems u have all the pieces so identify with what you're most comfortable with and you can hyphenate also so it's not a zero sum game.

Another thing that baffles me is why such questions are directed at random, anonymous strangers on a forum. It seems to me that family/friends, who know you best, would be better judges of your identity.

Sorry if i'm ranting, which i don't intend to do, but i've seen these posts time n time again and honestly i don't get it...

 

[FriendlyFace]

When I was four years old I was adopted by a Puerto Rican woman and I grew up in Miami. My birth certificate says that my Mom was born in Puerto Rico as well. I was raised hispanic, but my birth parents are white. I feel like the most truthful way of representing myself is to say that my race is white and my ethnicity is Puerto Rican and then addressing the adoption in my personal statement, but I would like to know what other people think before I send in my application.

if you have to ask someone if you're a minority then you're probably not a minority. some ethnic groups have the luxury of claiming to be whatever they want to be whenever it fits their needs. though, you can't blame a person for doing everything possible to get ahead

 

[lightofmylife]

Thank you all of your responses. I know it seems odd that I am asking this at such a late point in my life. It might be that I'm slow or unaware, but I never realized that ethnicity is different from race. I always assumed that ethnicity was genetic. On the AMCAS, I saw for the first time that race and ethnicity are two separate issues. I talked to some advisors and professors at my campus and they said that ethnicity is the group you culturally identify with, while race is your genetic ancestry. I was raised in a Puerto Rican / Dominican family for the great majority of my life and this is the group I identify with ethnically. But I still look obviously white, so I don't want adcoms to think that I am trying to sell myself as a URM just to get into medical school. Of course I know it is advantageous to be URM, but I actually have a very strong application in other respects so it's not like I'm trying to use it as my ticket in.

 

[somepremedkid]

OP, let me start by saying that this is a very interesting topic. That being said, your question is very difficult to answer. I have a quick question. Do you happen to speak fluent Spanish? (Not to say the ability to speak Spanish makes someone of a certain ethnicity; this could help your personal statement though and make you more attractive as an applicant since we need Spanish-speakers in the medical field.)

Like others have said, only you can determine who you are ethnically. If you identify as Puerto Rican than who are we to question that. I don't know if medical school adcoms will see it that way, though...

 

[lightofmylife]

thanks for your response 🙂

I decided I am going to put hispanic "other" and write in puerto rican, italian american

I have kind of a unique situation with my spanish, too. I completely understand it and can read it, but I have a bit of trouble when it comes to speaking it.

 

[kai35]

The only halfway compelling reason to make a concerted effort to enforce quotas in attempts to increase URMs in health care is that there are, apparently, some studies that show that there are better outcomes when minorities have physicians that are of their ethnicity.

I don't know how true this is. First, it assumes that all members of a given minority group have the same values. It also assumes that someone cannot possibly have full empathy towards the value system of another group. Further, it legitimizes a reverse racism (minority toward majority) and spits in the face of what we should be trying to accomplish: judging a person on their qualities, not their perceived background.

Nevertheless, the only reason ethnicity should be important in medicine is for the reason of cultural understanding. Considering you grew up in a Hispanic household, you would be in as good a position as any blood Hispanic, theoretically, to understand those cultural issues.

I would go ahead and put it. You are, for all relevant purposes, Hispanic.

 

[Jevonsparadox]

No doubt about it you are Hispanic/Latino. It's culture not race per say. If you were to go to Argentina or Uraguary it's very Germanic and Anglo Saxon looking however they are classified as Hispanic/Latino. I'm not sure if it helps or not - that's one reason I clicked on this thread and registered. Does it help?

 

[Jevonsparadox]

thanks for your response 🙂

I decided I am going to put hispanic "other" and write in puerto rican, italian american

I have kind of a unique situation with my spanish, too. I completely understand it and can read it, but I have a bit of trouble when it comes to speaking it.

That is strange. I can speak fluently buy can't read it so much.

 

[lightofmylife]

No doubt about it you are Hispanic/Latino. It's culture not race per say. If you were to go to Argentina or Uraguary it's very Germanic and Anglo Saxon looking however they are classified as Hispanic/Latino. I'm not sure if it helps or not - that's one reason I clicked on this thread and registered. Does it help?

That does help, thanks!