Thursday, December 10, 2009
Minority Privelage
As a white woman of a middle class background I think that I have had more opportunities than some others who have grown up as minorities and may not have always been affored the same privelages as myself. Having said that, I do not believe that these facts allow for others to be awarded more privelages simply due to their minority status and any discrimination they or their ancestors might have faced in the past. When looking into college and law school admissions, most schools have quotas that need to be met. These quotas are not publicized, but are still well known and known to affect the admissions of all applicants. The same is true for scholarship opportunities. My roommate is 1/4 Jewish and for the past four years she has gotten a scholarship for $8,000 annually because she is a good student of Jewish descent. Looking over the terms of her scholarship a few days ago, we found that in order for her to be qualified for the scholarship she only needed to be 1/8 Jewish and maintain a 3.0 GPA in college. Are you kidding me? When applying for scholarships and to universities in the past, I always knew this type of reverse discimination existed, but I did not know to the extent that it does. As a white middle-class female, I risk not being admitted over a student with the same criteria as me simply because I am not of minority descent. Why should someone who is 1/8 Jewish be able to get such a wonderful gift that has nothing to do with their intelligence level? Yes, I'm sure that her GPA played a role in achieving this scholarship, but I still find the whole thing appaling. Just because I haven't lived life as a minority, don't have enough of a certain ethnicity in myself, am not gay or lesbian, or suffered in some other way, does not mean that I have not worked just as hard if not harder to attain the goals I strive to reach. I do not believe that anything other than one's qualifications and hard work should ever put them ahead of another.
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I've always wondered something: what would happen if somebody or some organization put forth some sort of whites only scholarship? I know that there would be a media firestorm and backlash from the public with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at the forefront. Even I would think it was in bad taste. However, this has to be legal if it is legal to have "Jewish only" scholarships.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, there are plenty of restricted scholarships that some people have access to and others don't. For example, I got a scholarship because I'm the son of a man in the Navy, and another because I played hockey. Plenty of white people receive scholarships every year, so it's no skin off my back if there are black, hispanic, and jewish scholarships.
I do not agree with reverse discrimination at all. However, you have to look at the chain of events. Now i do not mean to generalize for an entire race because that is impossible and wrong but take African Americans for example. A black man living in America 30 years ago did not have the same advantages and opportunities has a white man. So in general, they did not group up to be wealthy or powerful. So when they have a child, that child is not going to be well-off and when apply to colleges they have to keep a price budget in mind. This is not fair to that individual. They should have every opportunity to go to any university they can get into. This is where the whole scholarships for different races and ethnicities comes into. Even though it might not sound fair, they are just trying to give everyone a chance.
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