Whites Swim in Racial Preference

AlterNet ^ | 02.20.03 | Tim Wise

[yankeedame]

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Whites Swim in Racial Preference

By Tim Wise, AlterNet February 20, 2003

Ask a fish what water is and you'll get no answer. Even if fish were capable of speech, they would likely have no explanation for the element they swim in every minute of every day of their lives. Water simply is. Fish take it for granted.

So too with this thing we hear so much about, "racial preference." While many whites seem to think the notion originated with affirmative action programs, intended to expand opportunities for historically marginalized people of color, racial preference has actually had a long and very white history.

Affirmative action for whites was embodied in the abolition of European indentured servitude, which left black (and occasionally indigenous) slaves as the only unfree labor in the colonies that would become the U.S.

Affirmative action for whites was the essence of the 1790 Naturalization Act, which allowed virtually any European immigrant to become a full citizen, even while blacks, Asians and American Indians could not.

Affirmative action for whites was the guiding principle of segregation, Asian exclusion laws, and the theft of half of Mexico for the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny.

In recent history, affirmative action for whites motivated racially restrictive housing policies that helped 15 million white families procure homes with FHA loans from the 1930s to the '60s, while people of color were mostly excluded from the same programs.

In other words, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that white America is the biggest collective recipient of racial preference in the history of the cosmos. It has skewed our laws, shaped our public policy and helped create the glaring inequalities with which we still live.

[jjm2111]

Oh puh-leese. Tell me where I can pick my "power elite" membership card.

[anymouse]

Apparently reading the constitution isn't a hobby for these race baiters. Maybe they should try living just about anywhere else but America and see what institutional racism really is.

Posting stuff from a leftist propaganda site like Alter.net doesn't add value if you don't provide some commentary to go along with it. All you are doing is spreading their lies when you post it without providing your take on it.

[SunStar]

Yawn... Wake me up when the Left decides to stop the racism emanating from their minions. Enough already!!

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Even granting the author's premise (which I don't), injustice is not corrected by perpetrating new injustice.

[laotzu]

"Affirmative action for whites was embodied in...
Affirmative action for whites was the essence of...
Affirmative action for whites was the guiding principle..."

Does the author consider all of the above good things; and justify its continued practice because of that?

Does what is good & bad change depending on which friday of the month it is?

[Question_Assumptions]

I just wish that someone, somewhere, would remember the old saying that two wrongs don't make a right. And if the author payed more attention, he'd realize that the Irish were systematically discriminated against, the Italians and Poles were systematically discriminated against, and, as the author points out, the Chinese were systematically discriminated against yet none of these groups ever needed to get reparations. Indeed, if we were to draw reparations out of the general tax funds, Chinese Americans would wind up paying reparations for slavery that they never practiced and discrimination that they never benefitted from. Or are we going to interview everyone about their ethnic background and assign an individual percentage of blame?

[Hodar]

Gosh, I'm so busy trying to make ends meet; providing for my family ... that I just haven't had time to make it to one of our secret "Keepin' the Black Brothers Down" meetings. < /sarcasm off>.

It's universally easier to blame someone else, for your own short comings. In America, it's the white male that is the cause of all of mankinds ills. Considering what the rest of the world has managed to make of itself, I think 'ol whitey' has something to brag about... but I digress. In the middle east, Israel is the scapegoat, here it's the white race.

[yankeedame]

Oh puh-leese. Tell me where I can pick my "power elite" membership card.

Sam's Club, I think. (grin)

[Dan from Michigan]

My dad grew up poor in different areas, mostly Detroit.

Here's the history of this BS notion of 'white privledge'.
"Irish need not apply".

For example, Michigan awards 20 points to any student from a low-income background, regardless of race. Since these points cannot be combined with those for minority status (in other words poor blacks don't get 40 points), in effect this is a preference for poor whites.
I have no problem with that for everyone.

Then Michigan awards 16 points to students who hail from the Upper Peninsula of the state: a rural, largely isolated, and almost completely white area.
I have no problem with that. The UP is largely a poor area. It's also NOT completely white. There's a large Chippewa population there.

Ten points are awarded to students who attended top-notch high schools,

I had a friend that went to an elite high school. Whites were the majority, but it was a very "diverse" school with a large East Indian, Arab, Asian, and black populations as well.

and another eight points are given to students who took an especially demanding AP and honors curriculum

And anyone can take those.

So the U of M offers 20 "extra" points to the typical black, Latino or indigenous applicant, while offering various combinations worth up to 58 extra points for students who will almost all be white

That is a poor ASSUMPTION. I assume black students from Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, West Bloomfield, East Lansing, and Okemos don't take advantage of that. There are blacks outside Detroit and Flint.

being white has made no positive difference, is rooted in privilege itself: the privilege that allows one to not have to think about race on a daily basis;
Who does have to think about race on a daily basis(outside of your yapping)

to not have one's intelligence questioned by best-selling books;

"Stupid White men"

to not have to worry about being viewed as a "out of place" when driving,

Okay, I'll drive through the middle of Detroit, we'll see what happens. I could get pulled over. Cop: What the hell are you doing here? Drugs?

This article is a load of horsecrap.

[taxed2death]

You're article about being "out of place" really hits home. When I moved my shop into a ratty section of town for cheaper rent, I was pulled over a lot.....sometimes three times a week. Whenever I worked late at night and left for home I was guilty of DWW...... Driving While White.

Whenever the local donut monsters pulled me over, it was always the same thing..."what the hell are you doing in this part of town"? "Why are you here"? "Who do you know in this area"? This went on for about a month or two, until the boys in blue recognized my truck and waved my on by.

I often thought I should contact Jessie, or maybe Big Al Sharpton, to come to my defense.

[Texas_Jarhead]

all you folks don't forget that we stole half of mexico too

[Diddley]

Geez - These people (Wise, etc.) are so transparent.
The replies on this thread are so cogent - from "two wrongs don't make right" to "try any other country".

[Calvin Locke]

Doesn't matter. What's the perverted quote justifying AA? "...we shouldn't let the equal protection clause from ...."

Algor's "living Constitution" theory of inconvenient laws prohibiting tyranny is another variation.

[headsonpikes]

Thanks for the hilarious post!

"...it is hardly an exaggeration to say that White America is the biggest collective recipient of racial preference in the history of the cosmos."

Nope, no exaggeration there...'history of the cosmos'...choke, laugh, and spew!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[NP-INCOMPLETE]

Yeah sure, minorities have all the advantages stacked up against them. So by this author's reasoning, any minority group that has been artificailly kept "down" by the white European majority could not on the whole be as successful as the whites. So I am going to present the following contradictions. 50 years ago the following five groups were heavily discriminated against: Jews, Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, Native Americans. These people were barred from many jobs, most venues of higher education, and really had no inheritance to speak of. Fast foward 50 years and compare the economic stats of these groups with that of the white majority.

Whites(excluding Jews) Median Household income: $48000 Percent Share of the GDP 75% Percent share of total population 72%

Jews Median Household income: $74000 Percent Share of the GDP 10% Percent share of total population 1%

Asians Median Household income: $64000 Percent Share of the GDP 10% Percent share of total population 3%

Hispanics Median Household income: $38000 Percent Share of the GDP 3% Percent share of total population 12%

Blacks Median Household income: $34000 Percent Share of the GDP ~2% Percent share of total population 11%

Native Americans Household income: $25000 Percent Share of the GDP >>1% Percent share of total popultion 1%

All of these groups where equally discriminated against in the past, but when the racist policies where banned the Jews and the Asians did much better than the Blacks, Hispanics and the Native Americans. So saying that past acts of racism gave whites an unfair advantage that can only be remedied by affirmative action is to deny the acheivements of the Asians and the Jews, who have no advantages in the past or present.

[Leto]

Well my family up until they came to America in the 20th century, were tenant farmers for English landowners for a few hundred years. So I don't feel any guilt in the victomization game. When my grandfather came to the US these were signs on establishments saying 'Dogs and Irishmen not permitted'. He didn't whine he built a life. These guys need to get a life, everybody has a sob story.