A Muslim teenager who wrote #BlackLivesMatter 100 times on his college application instead of writing a personal essay — got accepted to Stanford University.
While some on the Internet have thanked New Jersey high school senior Ziad Ahmed for being an ally to the movement, others have taken issue with his using ‘Black Lives Matter’ for his own personal gain.
via The Wrap:
Ahmed tweeted a screenshot of his Stanford acceptance letter on Saturday, next to a photo of his response to the prompt: “What matters to you, and why?” Instead of writing an essay, Ahmed simply responded with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter repeated 100 times.
“As an ally of the black community though, it is my duty to speak up in regards to the injustice, and while this was not a form of ‘activism’ as it was simply an answer in a college application,” Ahmed told Mic. “I wanted to make a statement.”
According to Mic, the Bangladeshi-American teenager has been a strong activist and has a stellar resume, which most likely also led to his acceptance. He has been invited to the White House Iftar dinner and was recognized as a Muslim-American change-maker under the Obama administration. In 2016, he interned for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and in 2015, he gave a Ted Talk in Panama discussing the stereotypes facing young Muslim teens.
The publication reported that Ahmed was also accepted to Yale University and Princeton University.
Ahmed himself took to Twitter to defend his acceptance to the university on Tuesday. “Also, it’s important to note that this response was one answer on one application. Not my college essay or etc. There’s a lot more to it,” he wrote.
Check out some of the mixed reactions below.
Yeah I'm not sure I find this cute or heartwarming, no way a black kid could get rewarded for doing the same thing. pic.twitter.com/TDUe1d61o0
— Zoé (@ztsamudzi) April 4, 2017
My current crush is the boy that wrote #Blacklivesmatter 100 times in his application form at Stanford and got accepted .
— Bongeka Mfeka (@BongekaVMfeka) April 4, 2017
congratulations and thank you!
— Christiana Amarachi Mbakwe (@Christiana1987) April 4, 2017
I'm thinking about Ziad Ahmed who copy pasted BLM a bunch of times as his college essay & got accepted to Stanford.
— Lara Witt (@Femmefeministe) April 4, 2017
