teh Forum

On my college campus today, students aligned with the conservative Republican party (USA) were showing their opposition to affirmative action by selling cookies that were priced according to ethnicity. Obviously they were trying to cause a commotion (they did, the cops came and dispersed the large gathered crowd before aggitations led to violence)

I find the absolute absurdity of privileged white males "protesting" their perceived "oppression" by "quotas" to be extremely ignorant. Every time some white male complains to me "why is there a black Ms. America? Why does Congress have a Black caucus? Why is there a Black Entertainment Television? Aren't those racist against whites?" I answer that there is a white Ms. America - it's the Ms. America, there is a white caucus in Congress, it's the whole rest of Congress, and there are white television networks: ABC, NBC, FAUX(FOX), CBS. Sure, the powers that be will throw the minority groups a bone now and then (Cobsy Show, Bernie Mac, a rare black Ms. America, Colin Powell), but the point is that minority groups are largely shut out of anything that confers power upon its members.

I think that the college republican stunt today was flat out racist, anyone care to offer input of substance on this?

I can't really comment on affirmative action itself because I don't know much about it. But I can offer a few semantic quibbles.

Given that the Republican students were protesting racial discrimination (albeit of a kind intended as being beneficial) I don't see how their protest can be said to be 'racist' in itself. It could be called provocative, or mean-spirited, or of inappropriate analogical content, or any number of other expressions, but I wonder about racist.

The terms "racist" and "discriminatory" are glossed over by the euphemism "affirmative action" - it should really be called "positive racial discrimination" or the like. Then when people discuss it, they won't fall into the traps that are laid by the term "affirmative action". That leaves people freer to discuss the issue of whether it is better to try not to discriminate at all, or to try to discriminate positively.

(I started off confident that I knew what I was talking about, but I find that looking throught the prism of race skews the view badly every time, and now I'm not so sure... I still wouldn't call them racist though.)

I refer the event as a "racist" one due to the fact that racism itself is an institution that subjugates others. I think the act was racist in that it was insensitive and purposely trying to subjugate minority students to the dominant opinion of a group with priveliged status within society. I support the right for any group to protest or demonstrate, but just because the KKK or some other group veils their ideology with some clever gimick doesn't mean that it isn't essentially racist. Does that make sense?

I disagree.

I don't think racism is an institution. Racism is words or actions that people say or take on a moment by moment basis, and it may or may not subjugate somebody else. Having been on the receiving end of racism in this country, I can safely say that it has not subjugated me. It has made my life very difficult sometimes and upset my wife, but to say that it subjugated me would be nonsense.

Discussing the end of affirmative action isn't subjugation - far from it. Also there's a huge gulf between the avowedly racist KKK and the Republican party - the KKK want to subjugate people due to their race, while the Republicans there are simply discoursing on issues relevant to race.

If you are to say that calling for the end of affirmative action is a priori racist, then you are essentially saying that it is a taboo subject for decent white people to discuss (while presumably leaving the subject open to those blacks who oppose on it the grounds that they don't feel subjugated or whatever).

It seems to me that trying to discuss such a potentially sensitive subject through the medium of a not-clever gimmick involving cookies is pretty crass. But by calling it inherently racist denies the word its real meaning. Can I recommend you have a browse through the Storm Front or Aryan Nations websites to get a feel for real racist discourse?

I just got out of a conference with the Black Student Union, several minority group representatives and the Seattle NAACP chapter leader and they all seem to be under the impression that it was a racist event. As a privaliged white male who has never been subjected to racism, I'm going to take their word on this one and assist them in educating people on this issue. I also am going to educate myself more about "white privilege" and the ambivalence and denial of whites to the existance of this phenomenon that I have been intrigued by for quite some time and attempt to become part of the solution in bringing about true equality.

Sorry about the KKK ref. I wasn't comparing them, just trying to make a point through an extreme example.