The ACLU has recently defended the right of a College Republican group to issue a "whites only" scholarship on free speech grounds. Even before knowing the ACLU (of which I am a proud member) was involved, my sentiments pretty much mirrored their's.
"whites only" scholarship
by crownboy 24 Replies latest jw friends
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Satans little helper
This is interesting, I guess it comes down to whether you thinmk affirmative action is right or not.
Personally I think that rascism is a terrible thing in any form but affirmative action is an attempt to even the complete lack of balance in your society. It's almost like a guilt payment for all the crap things you have done to the blacks over the years. The action of the Republican group may be seen as a free speech issue but to be honest it smacks of a 'well if you can be rascist to us then we'll do it back to you' which is not only petulent but ignores the obvious inequality that already exists.
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blondie
My grandfather always said, "You can't legislate morality."
I was almost 25 before I realized that that meant.
Blondie
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ball.
I am always struck by the double faced standards that some of the Western world has to racism. I think particularly the current US president Bush has a nationalism that sometimes falls into racism. He gave one particular speech about the US which went something like, " we are the best workers, the best farmers, the best steel makers, the best etc etc" and I'm not sure if people who are actually in America know how this sounds to the real world outside.
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spiritwalker
Why not whites only clubs? Schools? Scholarships? etc. They have blacks only that do this. Equal time!
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nilfun
Whew! Good thing he got his $5,000 "minority only" thingie before his club thought up that "whites only" scholarship.
I call that great timing, LoL.
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eteacher
This almost not worth a reply. However, I as a college educated African-American (Black, with some indian, and some other stuff just in case someone wants to know.), I don't really care if there is a "whites only" scholarship. I just wonder if the Irish person who doesn't get the scholarship will hate the Polish person who does. Or maybe the Italian person who gets it will be sued by the Swedish person who doesn't get it. I hope that no one forgets to give the Hungarians, Poles, Yuogslavians, and Germans, not to mention the Dutch, Norwegian, and whoever else are descendants of the European continent there fair shot at this scholarship. Are there degrees of whiteness? Can someone be whiter than someone else? What are the boundaries that govern whiteness? When will this divisive trash stop making its way into national headlines?
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Hyghlandyr
Eteacher, your statements demonstrate the very reason they created the scholarship. They believe that affirmative action is a divisive policy. They use examples of black men or others that could not pass certain tests (such as required to become a fireman) still getting the job while a white person who did pass the test was not allowed to get the job. They feel this is the solution. They also then ignore the many cases where affirmative action is run properly and benefits society. I myself used to be against it because of the aforementioned examples, which are the very ones they highlight. They do have a point in those cases. In other cases they do not. (The solution in the aforementioned case I beleive is not to necessarily give the job to a white person who passes the test, nor to give it to the black person who doesnt pass the test, but to either assist the person who failed the test to pass and then give him the job, or to find someone who is black that can pass and give him the job. Thus affirmative action is assisted and with a qualified person).
As far as are there degrees of whiteness? I must emphatically state yes. Just as some americans of african descent have disputes with those of lighter or darker skin, so to with Europeans. The Irish have for the last thousand plus years been disparaged by all of the races of europe. Poles too have faced great prejudices. Anglos generally feel superior to all of the other races, including the other germanic tribes they sprouted from. Though they give more acknowledgement to those germans than to others.
Race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, religion, creed, language, nationality, geography, high school of attendance or college, politcal party, moral choices, favorite television show, and on and on are all various things that people choose to think of as something different enough to allow themselves to feel superior to others. While at the same time we are told that we are all equal. We will continue to believe that myth and thus continue to try to control the lives of others instead of working together to lift each other economically.
Personally I know I am superior to you since you are a woman. I also am aware that you are superior to me since I am a man. You are superior by virtue of your ancestral history. I am superior because of mine. You are superior in your knowledge. So am I. You deserve to hold great pride in your personal identity, however you define that. I too deserve the same. Are these natural laws? No they are my personal opinons based on my world view. Everyone is superior to everyone else.
Goddess Bless (thyself)
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Euphemism
I hate to say it, but fair's fair... if it's legal to have scholarships for blacks, then it's legal to have scholarships for whites.
Personally, however, I'm against race-based affirmative action. If you want to equlize society, then it makes more sense to me to do it based on actual inequalities--e.g. economic disadvantage--than to stereotype based on race. The child of a single white mom who works at WalMart seems to me to need help much more than the child of a black doctor or lawyer, for example.