We recently read in class a piece entitled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, written in 1988. The summary of the piece was broken down into fifty points, which the author believed were privileges that she had because she is white and that someone of color would not have. Some of the points seemed more obvious than others, and some made you stop and think; most of the time, I agreed, though there were a few where I wasn't sure I completely agreed. For example, one of the latter points stated "I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race." Maybe it was not true when the article was written, but there are quite a few historically black universities, and it is against the law to deny entry to a college based on race (although I believe this still happens).
However, McIntosh made two very interesting claims, both of which I had never really stopped to think about, but I believe are true. One stated, "I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group." I never realized it, but people of minority groups, I feel, are often asked to state how their entire racial group feels about a certain topic. There is no regard for the fact that people's views can differ within these groups. For example, we read an article about women on college campuses today (women are not numerically a minority, but I feel that they are legally a minority), and many of the interviewees made rather broad generalizations about how women handle certain situations or their behavior. Often, the class did not agree with these statements, and we felt that the author should not have used these broad statements as evidence. The white majority, however, is never asked to represent the views of their entire racial group, but why? Another interesting point stated was, "I can chose blemish cover or bandages in 'flesh' color and have them more or less match my skin." I believe that as part of the white majority, I never stopped to think about, or perhaps I never realized that they were labeled 'flesh' color; the fact that they matched my skin color was one of the things I simply took as the way things worked.
What do you think about academics? And do you think that people purposely single out minority groups or give an advantage to the white majority on purpose? Why?
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I think that in modern America, affirmative action does give advantages to blacks applying for college. Schools want to look diverse and they have no choice from time to let in less qualified black applicants. I am a strong believer in most cases of affirmative action, and for the most part, this is no exception. I think that colleges should give the advantages that they hand out to black students to black students who come from impoverished areas. I have no problem knowing that I was rejected because a less qualified black man who grew up in an adverse environment got in (I guess I'll have to rethink that after I go through the application process). I do have a problem with someone who had all the same chances getting a leg up because of their skin color. I have tried many times to justify blind affirmative action based solely on skin, but I can never seem to justify it.
ReplyDeleteIf we agree that the point of affirmative action is to remove people from the cyclical poverty that many urban blacks face, then this type of affirmative action would hurt that cause as well. It seems doubtless that this type of affirmative action will create a class of elite African Americans who continue to be the most qualified for jobs and schools because of their parent's wealth, and will deeper entrench urban blacks in the cyclical poverty we were trying to remove them from.