"A Boston University student group is offering a scholarship for white students to protest financial aid programs in the United States that select by ethnic background, university officials said..."
These students and others who oppose affirmative action and diversity programs miss the point. This is a multi-cultural world, but economic opportunity is not equal. Diversity programs are designed to help traditionally disadvantaged and oppressed people. Most white people (especially those who can afford to go to elite universities like BU or U of M) are privileged because of their race.
However, this scholarship only offers $250, and is therefore a symbolic political statement that has no real merit. If they really wanted to help whites, they would offer a scholarship to white students who suffer from real disadvantages as tution rates increase and the middle class shrinks. Many minority scholarships (including the one that helped me through school) are contingent on proof of financial need.
Instead the students make a mockery both of students who come from oppressed populations and of the poor whites who can't get into BU. This shows just how out of touch these kids are and proves that they are in need of a more diverse environment. They are obviously clueless and have no understanding of life in the real world.
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Poor whites, blacks, and everybody else can go to any university that they like, provided that they have prepared hard enough to qualify for admission. Once admitted, they all have access to a combination of loans, grants, and waiting tables. The more that they must rely on loans, the more pressure they will face to select a major that offers a financial pay-off. What a horrible life!
I am very interested to learn about the race-based "oppression" that you have faced, Nadir, especially living as you do in the capital of the KKK and the American Nazi Party; Westland, Mi.
The students who have created the white scholarship are making a statement against racial segregation; they aren't really trying to target white people for help.
Nadir: Just because the scholarship is symbolic in no way means that it lacks merit. If they had raised $25,000 you would have a criticism for *that*! I oppose AA, but I would not spend my time working against it as these guys have.
If their opposition to AA stems from concern for the academic advancement of blacks, I suggest that they put their time into tutoring black high school students, or freshman. (Although, I suppose, those of us who want AA to end owe some thanks to those willing to perform this work that does not appeal to us, which is to specifically address ending AA.)
If their opposition stems from "unfairness" to white students, I suggest that they look around and count how many black students they see: not many at an elite school. And: disproportionately dropping out, getting low grades, and clustering in lightweight majors.
Having students major in social work, obtain low grades, and drop out actually helps the students who work hard in serious majors. So if you oppose AA because you fear that harder working students are getting screwed, consider that only a few seats relative to the overall number of seats get reserved for AA, and they tend to go to students who won't pose a challenge in academic competition.
"If their opposition stems from 'unfairness' to white students, I suggest that they look around and count how many black students they see: not many at an elite school."
This is my point. Their scholarship is a waste of time. Perhaps it draws attention to the "oppression of white people in America" (bullshit) but it has no practical merit whatsoever. If it was a real scholarship ($25,000 or $25 million) that helped disadvantaged white students, it would at least have merit and would actually prove the point.
Paul, you have no interest in learning about any "race-based" oppression that I have faced because when we have discussed it repeatedly over the years, you tell me I am not facing racism. Obviously you know more about what it is like to be black and to face racism than I do.
I admit that your skin color makes you smarter and more observant than me. I couldn't possibly face racism in this bastion of freedom where poor whites who don't have good enough grades to get into college think it is the fault of blacks.
I bow humbly to your superior white knowledge of what it is like to be black in America. Your white privilege makes you more objective about such things. Thank you for even allowing me to participate in this discussion with you.
Nadir writes: ==========
Obviously you know more about what it is like to be black and to face racism than I do.
==============================
Your are missing, somehow, my point. You seem to claim that because you are black, you have a 100% accurate racism detection device built into your head, such that if you judge an interaction with a white person to derive from racism, the accusation itself constitutes irrefutable evidence proving the accusation; accusation = conviction.
I have asked you to describe cases where you have experienced anti-black racism from white people. If I asked Rosa Parks, she could provide many examples, such as: "I sat on a bus, and the white driver told me that because I was black I had to give up my seat to a white man, and he pointed to a sign that stated just that."
If you asked me, I could provide many examples, such as: "The white kids in my neighborhood formed a club called 'The Nigger-Haters' club. I attended the founding meeting, in which we devoted our club to terrorizing the first black family that had just moved in. We collaborated to construct a plan, which we implemented according to the plan, to gather rocks, take them to the house, threw rocks at the house busting windows and hitting the father who came to door, and shout 'Niggers Go Home'. After my father took pizza and sodas to the new family and forced me to apologize, these same kids beat me several times in the neighborhood and at school, calling me and my family 'Nigger Lovers'. From that first day, our family on a daily basis received mailed and dropped-off letters, and phone calls, threatening our lives for being 'Nigger Lovers'. The letters were signed by, and the callers identified themselves as, 'KKK'. We also received regular acts of vandalism."
Here's another: A girl I was fond of in Atlanta became very serious about me, and I her. She invited me to Thanksgiving dinner to meet her family. After dinner her father asked to speak with him in the kitchen. We sat at the table and he explained to me that he disapproved of me dating his daughter because I was white and she was black. He became very loud and smashed his hand down on the table a few times in emphasizing his point. His daughter and wife came into the kitchen at some point, and the girl started crying. I left the house feeling very humiliated and hurt; I even cried in my car because I had been excluded from something to which I wanted to belong.
I have even experienced acts of racism from you. For example, you tell me that because I am white, I lack the capacity to perceive acts that you judge as absolutely, positively, and without question "racist", though of course other whites such as Tim Wise mysteriously do possess this capacity, which disproves your assertion that white people cannot.
Rosa Parks and I can explain these acts of racism to Indians, Chinese, unfrozen cavemen, and visitors from outer space. You and I, who have never been to India, can read books and understand the racism known as the "cast system" in India. I understand that some people can commit racist acts without understanding what they are doing. Perhaps Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were not aware that they had succeeded in excluding all black actors from their show. However, you do not "have to be black" to understand that this is what they did.
So, Nadir, please explain to me some examples of racism that you have experienced. I have as much of a capacity to ascertain and assess your stories as any human who has ever walked this earth who were not eye-witnesses, surely as much as Tim Wise and Howard Zinn.
Nadir: I agree with you that now that AA has ended at UM-AA, white kids with the grades and test scores of the honkey plantiff still won't get in. Though her credentials coincided with a 100% acceptance rates for black applicants, and a 0% acceptance rate for whites and Asians, the only thing that AA's defeat will do is also exclude blacks with her unspectacular credentials. The statistics for black students admitted under such conditions of special lower standards at elite schools indicate that admitting her would have placed her into a category of students who get below-average GPAs and half the graduation rate.
The most convincing opponents of AA would say that this girl belongs not at UM-AA but rather at MSU. In other words, she did not get unfairly denied, the black kids with her credentials got mismatched with UM-AA. Thus she is factually incorrect to say that she got denied a seat in order to make room for a black kid with lower credentials. Instead, black kids with her same credentials got in, when no kids with her credentials should have.
Logically, the amount of the scholarship is irrelevant to their making a point; a large amount would merely provide Nadir with a different target for criticism. The point of their scholarship is to spark discussion, as they have stated. Nadir's post proves that their effort satisfied its aim.
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