05:02 am - Irony, Sweet Irony
BRISTOL, Rhode Island (AP) -- A student group at Roger Williams University is offering a new scholarship for which only white students are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action.Pretty much anyone that follows my journal, or my personal life, or has heard me rant -- at length -- about Affirmative Action knows where I'm falling on this one. To suggest I laud outright parody and mockery of such a gross insult to the hard-working minority members who work hard and compete equally and equitably with more mainstream society is to imply the Pope wears a funny hat. It goes without saying. Its as implicit as my distaste for unfairness of any front, and Affirmative Action really side-steps the real issues by not eliminating real imbalance, but by inducing others. Its like trying to cure obesity by replacing Little Debbies with pork rinds.
The application for the $250 award requires an essay on "why you are proud of your white heritage" and a recent picture to "confirm whiteness."
"Evidence of bleaching will disqualify applicants," says the application, issued by the university's College Republicans.
Jason Mattera, 20, who is president of the College Republicans, said the group is parodying minority scholarships.
"We think that if you want to treat someone according to character and how well they achieve academically, then skin color shouldn't really be an option," he said. "Many people think that coming from a white background you're automatically privileged, you're automatically rich and your parents pay full tuition. That's just not the case."
I don't like Affirmative Action. Let me be clear. In my mind, its very much like saying, "Oh, you poor little brown/yellow/off-white fellow, there's no way you could really compete with us inherently superior mainstream folks, so we'll throw you a little bone. Be a good boy and beg for scraps now!" When what we should really be saying is, "Hey, you, get off your lazy ass and work, and you can have just as much as anyone else, we'll make sure of it." But, hey, the latter would require making such ghastly things as value judgments and personal accountability and those things just aren't done in this day and age.
So, ultimately, in my mind -- its entirely fair to have scholarships that only white people have access to, if you're willing to support the same for blacks, Asians, or women ("womyn," if you're so inclined and socially maladroit). Of course, I'd support a National Association for the Advancement of White People (under my benevolent iron tentacle, rather than the thin veneer over racism that the real one enjoins), and the establishment of White History Month. (Some even go so far as to suggest a White Male History Month, but that might be too much too fast. After all, that's a lot of history to cram into one month -- the only credible comparison with the same or more diversity and depth would be Chinese History Month.)
This, reasonably begs the question: Can you even say such things without being considered a racist? The answer, logically, has two possible outcomes:
- No, because you're stating a definite discrimination against others.
In such case, why is it different if you replace "white" with any other colour in the Rainbow Coalition? Is it just because its "white"? Do minority groups in the US suddenly have the right to behaviours considered offensive, derogatory, or imbecilic if performed by majority group members? Why? Do we just expect less of them?
- Yes, because its a reasonable projection.
In which case, why aren't more people saying them? People who don't sound like insane racist bastards with ridiculous agendas, that is. Is it a generalized fear of being considered improper, that most ultimate of American social control strategies, shame?
For my own position, I don't think there's any task that a sufficiently motivated black, Asian, or woman can't accomplish that an equally talented white man can reach. There's no need to artificially inflate their efforts -- those efforts are only made lesser by the act. A better approach is to require more emphasis on objective standards, more demands for equal treatment given equal situation, and less coddling of those who play the Squeaky Wheel Card and try to best succeed by whining loudest. Make the punishment for provable discrimination cold and harsh, and require objective measure. The problem cures itself.
But I'm a rational agent, and I think with a rational mind.
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Oh, random note I forgot to mention. My copy of 