"Of course, on an even more basic level, to complain about so-called unfair preferences for students of color, be it in terms of scholarships or affirmative action policies in admissions, is to ignore the many ways in which the nation's educational system provides unfair advantages to whites, from beginning to end." (P. 2)
I think that white students do receive many "unearned advantages" throughout their school careers. This is particularly true for those white children who come from families who have the means and resources to ensure quality education for their children. The truth is that, as Wise points out, the majority of non-white students come from backgrounds with less money and less education than their white counterparts. I believe that this is a cycle that continues to get perpetuated. I believe that this cycle is deeply rooted in our country's racist history. The effects of this history continue to play a role in the lives of people of all races in our country. As Allan Johnson suggests, these issues need to be acknowledged rather than ignored if we ever truly want to achieve a society where equality exists for everyone.
"Since scholarships would have been more equitably distributed between the races in a system without a history of institutionalized discrimination--and to doubt this is to assume that folks of color still wouldn't have qualified for them, which means that one would have to believe in inherent inferiority on their part, which belief is the textbook definition of racism--to now steer scholarships to such persons is only to create a situation closer to that which would have existed anyway, but for a legacy of racial oppression." (P. 4)
This is an interesting quote. I believe that in 2010 one would be hard pressed to find someone north of the Mason-Dixon line and under 60 years of age who was willing to admit to the belief in the "textbook definition of racism." Unfortunately, I think that the belief that people of color are less than white people is still more of a prevalent attitude in our society than most would want to admit. By and large, I believe that white people still see themselves as the norm, while non-whites are seen to fall outside the norm. This, to me, is one of the most insidious aspects of modern racism. If no one is willing to acknowledge that it exists, how can it be overcome?
"Surely scholarships for people of color are not predicated on intolerance for whites, nor are they based on some kind of blind contempt for whites as a group." (P. 4)
If we agree with this quote, then clearly scholarships for people of color are not racist. They exist, rather, in an attempt to rectify some of the injustices done to people in this country based on racism. I firmly believe that affirmative action policies and scholarships for non-white students need to continue and be broadened in an effort to try to undo the damage that racism has done to our country.
I enjoyed this article, and found myself agreeing with the points made by Tim Wise. Equal opportunity for everyone should be an important goal for our country. I believe that in some ways we have been taking baby steps towards that goal over the course of the last century, but I do not think that we are yet close to achieving the goal.
I like that you see affirmative action as an important principle to uphold. It is a topic that gets argued, as we saw in class. I went to a private school which cost $12,000 a year. I went the first year it went co-ed so they needed to add girls to their all boy campus. I was there 6 years and in all those years there was one minority student in my grade whose family could afford to send them. Other than that, the only way there were black students in my school was because of scholarships. I ended up befriending the only black student to graduate in my class- the other students had left the school by then. She was voted most likely to succeed, went on to graduate from George Washington University, and is now a financial analyst for the the government living in DC. Before that she had been one of two daughters being raised by a single mother. They rented an apartment where her and her sister shared a bed growing up. She didn't have a lot of opportunity due to money but she did have intelligence, hard work, and desire. Without the affirmative action scholarships my school offered she would not have gotten a chance to go there and the other students would not have gotten the exposure of other cultures. I feel like I would have missed out just as much as she would have, if she had not gone there.
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