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Defined as “the tendency of whites not to think about whiteness or about norms, behaviors, experiences or perspectives that are white-specific,” the transparency phenomenon of white privilege has negatively impacted the conversations about race, minority and ethnicity issues on campus. This obliviousness to white privilege, and the ignorance towards the role that race plays in the daily lives of minorities, has created the belief that a significant amount of the minorities on campus were admitted solely to reach racial goals.
Plan 2008 programs such as the PEOPLE (Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence) program have been incorrectly labeled as a system of “handouts,” and its alumni on campus are unfairly judged as under-qualified. The PEOPLE program is a pre-college pipeline for students of color and low-income, but it does not guarantee admission into the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most PEOPLE students are the first in their families to potentially attend college and without the program would not have had the support and guidance most of their white classmates receive from birth. Priority for admission into the PEOPLE program is given to students eligible for the free and reduced hot lunch program.
Although PEOPLE scholars are often seen by other students as under-qualified, it can be argued they have put in more work to get here than almost any other student. Along with the many struggles the PEOPLE students on campus have had to overcome as minorities, they also gave up 20 weeks of their high school summer vacations to complete residential programs on campus in order to prepare themselves for a successful collegiate career.
Unfortunately, this hard work is overlooked by white students who believe negative stereotypes about their minority counterparts. These stereotypes are primed by the yearly opinion pieces published in campus newspapers that call for an end to programs like PEOPLE.
Due to a lack of factual evidence, these articles assume there are a significant number of minorities on campus who are not qualified, and that the authors are more qualified than these students. In order to improve the climate on campus this type of unfair discrimination and the association of pre-college enrichment programs to race-based admissions must end.
To those who believe most of the minorities on campus do not deserve to be here: if you ever sit next to me in a lecture hall, do not ask yourself whether or not I deserve to be there, but instead, ask yourself if you deserve to sit next to me. Then ask me, and I will be more than happy to provide you with a list of high school and collegiate accomplishments that will make you reconsider what minorities on the UW campus are capable of, and where you stand amongst them. Once we stop judging each other based on unfair assumptions we will finally be able to move toward a truly inclusive campus. It is not just a matter of numbers. What our campus really needs is an increase in the acceptance and interaction between the many different types of talented students that are proud to call themselves Badgers.
Jay D. Flores
Junior, BS mechanical engineering & Spanish
IP hash: 6238faaf
Well Jay, if most blacks valued education like almost everyone else, there would be more blacks attending college. It seems like the only ambitions you hear among them are that education is a waste of time and they’ll never get anywhere in life because they’re black, etc. They brainwash themselves into thinking that self-motivation is pointless and that “Whitey” is to blame for all their problems. Then comes the dubious task of all the rest of us to convince these kids that that is not true, that they are worth more and that they CAN succeed.
Call me a racist, but today’s black civil rights activists are totally off the mark if they think blaming white people will do any good anymore. I want to see black doctors, black lawyers, black executives, black teachers and black engineers. The only way to get them is to get them off to a good start right back at the beginning, long before they are ready to think about college.
IP hash: 097b9d5a
Hey Jason Smathers, how does it feel to know this is the riff-raff your paper caters to?
Keep up the “dialogue.” You’re doing a great service to this campus.
IP hash: d3a931a3
just scraping by with 6 figures? you’re an idiot. you can keep you’re small town. they are and stay small towns because fuckin hicks like you make it a miserable place to live.
IP hash: f13f4493
Ahhhh… another narrow minded, foul mouthed liberal, contributing nothing to the national dialogue on race relations except their bigoted screed. Another Eric Holder coward, in full edumacated voice, embracing only your thin perspective of “diversity” and disparaging all others!
IP hash: 48f88df9
Dude, the guy said he’s from New York City and he’s Jewish. Does that sound like a hick to you? Read the fucking comment, asshole!
IP hash: 48f88df9
9:35AM, did you post on the wrong board? I think this is where you meant to post:
http://badgerherald.com/oped/2009/12/08/raceandbackground_.php
That’s the only page on the BH website today that has anyhting about 6 figure incomes and small towns.
IP hash: 48f88df9
Posting on the wrong board? What a dipshit! Man, I always thought conservatives were the only idiots in town!
IP hash: 46544a44
yea you’re the smart one eh? “you can keep you�re small town”
IP hash: f151ec33
�the tendency of whites not to think about whiteness or about norms, behaviors, experiences or perspectives that are white-specific,�
Notice what this statement means: whites refuse to be racist.
Attributing ideas (norms, behaviors, experiences, perspectives) to one’s skin color is racism. In reality there is no such thing as a “white perspective” as the variety of comments on this list aptly demonstrate.
IP hash: 1b1d30d0
How can you possibly believe your world view has not been impacted by being white? By the way, I’m about as pasty white as they come and am well aware that this has played a role in how I see the world and how others view me. My race and ethnicity do not, of course, define everything about me, as they would not define students who identify as being Black, Latino, Asian, Native American. We are more than our skin color, but skin color does play a huge role in our identity development, in how we view ourselves and in how we view what goes on around us. We also know that skin color is strongly correlated with socioeconomic status, which is yet another factor in developing our perspectives on life. This is not just about race, but race does indeed still matter. We should not strive to be color blind. We should strive to recognize the many different values, strengths and perspectives we all bring to the table. An important step for whites will be to admit that we, too, bring values, strengths and perspectives that differ from those around us. White is not the norm, and white is not the baseline.
IP hash: 48f88df9
No, moron, white is the card we were dealt at birth. And I’m not about to try to let anyone make me feel bad about it. I don’t go flaunting my whiteness like I’m God’s gift to humanity, but I’d like to be able to go places and not have to worry about my safety. Seriously, do you see roving bands of skinheads running around town beating up nonwhites. The last time white supremacists came to town in any significant number was that stupid neo-Nazi rally at the capital a few years ago, and they were booed and shouted down non-stop by a mostly white crowd. And the last serious hate crime committed against a black person here in Madison was about ten years ago, when two carloads of Asians attack a black man on a bicycle.
It sounds to me like liberals in this town bring up the race issue just to stir the pot, just for the purpose of bashing total strangers so they have something to brag to their friends about. Whatever happened to live and let live? Too boring? Try apathy, the old stand-by that works every time.
IP hash: 5ab91905
To: Dec 8th @ 3:57pm-
No one is trying to make you feel bad about being white. And if they are let that person say what they want and don’t pay it any mind. On the other hand though, being white, we do need to realize that we have certain advantages that many other races do not, regardless of our socioeconomic status. I think that is what the author was trying to point out. We do not need to feel bad about it, but we do need to acknowledge it and try to work towards equality. And, there are many more “hate crimes” going on than you think in this town and on this campus, they just go very under-reported. You would know this if you spent any time in the minority community. It’s really disgusting actually to witness acts of hate in this day and age.
To: Dec 8th @ 2:01pm
I know that in the Madison Metropolitan School District starting in Kindergarten and going all the way through high school a student’s race often determines what classes he or she will be tracked into. And once tracked into low-level classes in elementary and middle school, before the student knows any better, good luck getting into challenging classes in high school and being ready for them. (This is blatant racial inequality that the student himself cannot change)
Also, being judged negatively in a job interview is another place where race becomes involved. I am a white student who grew up in a low income, single parent home. But when I graduate with a degree from UW-Madison and walk into an interview with expensive clothes and white skin, my potential employers will judge me on almost everything else but race. However, when my (maybe even wealthy) minority friends who grew up with both parents and big families walk into that same interview, I bet one of the first things that cross that employers mind are the applicant’s race and generalizations about it. It’s sad and true, and it needs to change.
IP hash: 48f88df9
“No one is trying to make you feel bad about being white. And if they are let that person say what they want and don�t pay it any mind.”
Really? OK, so I can just tell all those punk-ass race baiters to go fuck themselves and that they are to blame for their inferiority. Thanks, now I feel a whole lot better!
“However, when my (maybe even wealthy) minority friends who grew up with both parents and big families walk into that same interview, I bet one of the first things that cross that employers mind are the applicant�s race and generalizations about it.”
Uh, I grew up with both my parents too, OK, city boy? And since I’m not supposed to feel bad about being white, then I guess I won’t give it a second thought about getting better consideration by employers because I’m white. And I don’t know why you’re giving me crap about it. Go get in some employer’s face if, like you say, they’re the ones who are so racist.
IP hash: f151ec33
“but skin color does play a huge role in our identity development, in how we view ourselves and in how we view what goes on around us.”
Well, give us an example. What view or views has your skin color had a huge role in determining?
IP hash: f3de2dad
That’s exactly the point! The fact that you are asking this question, that you think there are certain views that are not shaped by your race - that’s white privilege. White privilege means you don’t have to think about your race and how it has impacted your life.
BTW, I am white too, but I’ve had a lot of training in anti-oppression. It is life-changing to realize that people of other races have a vastly different day-to-day experience than white people. It’s not about guilt, but about recognizing that there is a problem we need to solve together.
IP hash: f151ec33
What’s your point? I asked for an example. If you’re alleging that skin color plays a huge role in shaping your views, give me an example of a view that was shaped by your skin color.
IP hash: cfb2ca22
What a racist, arrogant ASSHOLE. Go fuck yourself, ass. Let’s define white privilege for real, shall we? “The fiction invented by the lazy bums of minorities to justify sitting on their asses and then accusing white people of being racist and thus getting fucking handouts”. And now minority privilege: “being a lazy bum and then getting handouts because people were slaves ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO!” This is what’s wrong with America today. A bunch of minorities where instead of education and hard work being valued, are given status by number of times arrested, number of police officers assaulted, and number of people they killed. And then they bitch that they get nowhere in life cause of white people. ITS YOUR OWN FUCKING FAULT. This fucker is so fucking arrogant as to ask ME to wonder whether I am GOOD ENOUGH to sit next to him. And then you wonder why whites are pissed at all your bitching and whining. Go fuck yourself. Go the fuck back to Africa or Mexico. It’s nice there; they dont have white people.
IP hash: cfb2ca22
And if a white person said HALF the shit this asshole of an author said, there would have been a fucking riot outside the Badger Herald offices. And he would have been fired, would’ve dropped out of UW, and never would have gotten a decent job again. Its FUCKED up that minorities can say whatever the hell they want and get away with it cause theyre not white. They are all WAY more racist that white people. And I’d like to exclude most Asians from the previous comments. They are not racist, arrogant asses, they actually work hard, and I respect them.
IP hash: 680ab74b
My comment was in no way meant to be arrogant, and your response proves my point, THANKS! My intent was to place �those who believe that most of the minorities on campus do not deserve to be here,� in the shoes of a minority. Your reaction to someone asking if you are �GOOD ENOUGH� to attend the same university as them shows how offended someone could be if such a comment or attitude was directed towards them. This is the attitude that many whites on campus hold towards minorities. Now you know how we feel on a regular basis while on campus, and if that attitude is not changed there is no way that we can obtain a truly inclusive campus (AKA the point of my article).
IP hash: 680ab74b
150 years ago is only a few generations ago. 150 years ago slaves were not allowed to read, write, or receive any type of education. 55 years ago schools were segregated by law, and to this day there is a great level of segregation. What type of education do you think a newly freed SLAVE could provide for their children or community? To this day there are many forms of racial inequality between and within schools.