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)