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Ok. Some people here are old enough to remember a time when things like the United Negro College Fund were the ONLY possibilities for black americans. Since colleges prohibited the admission of blacks prior to being forced to do so (eventually, by a forward-thinking non-majority who were right when the majority would have continued the oppressive state of affairs even while being supposed patriots), a slew of colleges were established with the goal of educating blacks. EVERY scholarship program in the nation was for whites only, and didn't need to be called the "white college scholarship program" because black people were considered inferior, sub-human, and dirty (a conception perpetuated strongly by many churches). Black colleges attempted to marshal their resources to provide some financial assistance to black students desiring a small chance. This became the United Negro College Fund... and it was only established in 1944. Many - perhaps most scholarship programs in the country remain effectively if not overtly for whites only. It will be interesting in the next 20 years to see how whites handle becoming a minority in the U.S.A.
This issue seems a response to affirmative action ("finally, a whites-only scholarship for poor down-trodden whites in response to the many, many minority scholarships out there ensuring every privilege of the world to every minority who so desires," so I thought I'd add a few comments on that issue as well.
With regards to affirmative action, it's more complicated than asserting as a fact that the only sensible policy is to eliminate it or to start reverse affirmative action programs. Asserting this demonstrates either a non self-reflective racist regard to the world, or an ignorance of the subtleties of the issue.
The fact of the matter is, we're barely fifty years removed from a norm of segregated schools, bathrooms, and buses. The attitudes and institutions promulgated by private citizens and businesses, industry and academia saw no need to heed the laws requiring equal treatment of the ancestors of persons originally harvested from half a world away to serve as free labor. Grandparents and parents passed along both vitriol and subtle bias, slowly and gradually hiding it from public view. But rest assured, it is ever present.
I've moved around a lot. I lived in Atlanta for several years, and saw first hand how many people, businesses, and even government programs left unminded and unchallenged revert to abusing those who aren't white and male. I'm currently a paralegal at an employment and discrimination law firm and can assure you that even in the most liberal city in the most liberal state (technically commonwealth) in the union (with the possible exception of California), discrimination based on race is alive and well. People, even with the coercions of government in their schools and imposing MLK day and crafting anti-discrimination legislation, continue to treat people who are different from themselves without humanity.
It's no longer commonplace for these biased views to be expressed in public. During my own lifetime, however, there have been candidates for major office who espouse such ideas openly. But the actual bias lives in the everyday locking of doors when someone different walks by, snide remarks regarding rap music, jokes about monkeys, crossing the street, selective renting, decreased access to credit, etc. Worse still is the silence that greets such comments/action by those who do not share the sentiments. None of these have seen deep improvement having been left to individual responsibility. Rather, those who take no responsibility at all for perpetuating the attitudes turn instead to knocking down the weak protections granted to minorities to fight against the tide of bias. Reverse discrimination is claimed, whites-only scholarships are initiated, and new biases grow.
We grew out of tribes, and there is interesting research regarding the evolutionary advantages of in-group loyalty and out-group disdain. But we've reached a point in the development of humanity at which we have conclusive proof that the differences between our races is carried on in our attitudes and not in our DNA. No government body can compel someone to change what they think. But, a government that serves ALL of it's people has a duty to try.
So, the USA decided, with the lack of individuals taking responsibility for espousing sensible non-biased ideals that it was important to try to do something substantive to make a difference. After compromise and sell-out, affirmative action came to be. The idea was that when a reasonably qualified minority candidate applied for something, that he or she would get a fair look. Incredibly, business and industry didn't immediately start to hire the African American Harvard graduates in large numbers, but persisted in hiring mainly white people regardless of qualifications. The rules eventually had to become so coercive to require certain numbers of hires be minority hires. This became necessary because of the failure of businesses and individuals to act in a societally responsible manner. And still, they don't.
Rather, new laws are constantly in the works attempting to make better and generally discourage the poor choices being made by individuals and groups of them. Personal responsibility, with regards to making anti-bias laws unnecessary, has in large measure failed, and continues to fail. The coercion is required because businesses and individuals don't do the right thing.
It's a complex problem. Denial does not make the disparity in public education and opportunity equal. Affirmative action does not make it equal either. But it achieves the end of giving at least somewhat of a shot to those who would otherwise be denied the shot. And to state that it is only sensible to want it eliminated (as do many whites who believe that the time is past when AA had a role to play) is, frankly, foolish. It's more complex than that.
So we have to look at the mechanism we have in place that ostensibly exists for no reason except to hold us accountable to the standards of our society. It's our government. Through government (which, I'd argue separately, is in serious need of reform) we establish and police our collective vision of society. It was never designed to be majority rule, Hamilton ensured. Majorities will eagerly legislate things in their own interest at the expense of others if they are able- it's been proven again and again. Here, we allow surrogate proxies to make decisions in the best interest of society. We outlawed slavery when it was economically to the great disadvantage of a majority. We protect our fellow citizens when businesses put profits ahead of safety and security of the populace. We tell school boards that it is not OK to attempt to interject creationism masquerading as intelligent design into school science classrooms, even when a plurality of the residents of the area and perhaps even the nation consider intelligent design or creationism to be reasonable.
We should be able to see racism where it is, and we should reject it in every form. This scholarship is one any college-bound white person should be ashamed to consider applying for. It's a $500 white-power tattoo on the college application/resume which ought to earn a rejection for bad judgment every time.
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