I'm taking an anthropology class right now at school. At first we learned a lot about biology, human variation, genetics, and so forth. Every now and then a debate over race perception would be intermingled with the lecture, but lately we've spent most of our time with students reading essays in class and discussing the hot topic of racism.
We've discussed controversial topics such as affirmative action, white supremacy, and white privilege a lot during class. What I've found, is that nearly all the anthropology and philosophy major students and others who publicly proclaim that they are an "intellectual" are only really concerned about one thing, which I'd like to call: White Guilt. I define White Guilt as the desire for Caucasians to feel bad for being white. Why is it that everyone assumes white people are racist? It seems that in the racism war that the media, teachers, politicians and equal rights groups spend so much time trying to teach people that there is no sin in being Chinese, African, Native American, etc, but shame on us white people for our ancestry and their crimes against humanity.
I never owned slaves. As far as I can see back in my ancestry, neither did my family. I'm not saying my ancestors weren't racists, maybe they were, I don't know. And even if they were, is it fair to tell me that because of something they did, it makes me a racist? Or that I should suffer for the things that they did? There are plenty of scholarships available for minority groups where the only qualification, it seems, is to have graduated high school and be black or latino. But what about the underprivileged members of the racial majority? How is it fair to give scholarships to just latinos or just blacks, and not be considered racist? If there was scholarship available for students who's household income was less than $20,000 a year and who are white, law suits would be inevitable.
We have somewhat of a diverse classroom. There are several racial groups represented who have been able to share their experiences growing up or living in a society with a white majority. I don't mean to say they haven't suffered prejudice or challenge in their life, it just seems that some of the experiences they share in class are exaggerated to make whites feel bad as if we had all committed the act of which they are speaking. And many of them have only had a few experiences where they've been emotionally hurt because of racist related incidents.
Everyone gets bullied at some point of their life. It seems they were mostly bullied for skin color. Others are bullied for being accused of, viewed as, or being geeks, homosexuals, poor, socially awkward, underprivileged, and the list goes on and on. I don't mean to say in anyway that being bullied for skin color is not emotionally damaging. I understand that it is, I recognize the pain that some groups face during their life. But they are not the only ones in pain. There are plenty of white people who are bullied by white people who suffer severe emotional and mental damage that results in prescribed medication and therapy. There are as well blacks bullied by blacks, Asians by Asians, Native Americans by Native Americans, etc, who suffer equally as bad as blacks bullied by whites, or Latino by Asians, whatever it may be.
Is there such thing as white privilege? Yes. Are there white supremacists? Yes. And you can look up all the statistics you want about inequality in the workforce, discrimination in job selection, medical care, and what have you. But the average person does not feel resentments or prejudice against every person that is not like them. It's unfair to say all of this race are this, or all of that race are that. Individuals are individuals. Some individuals are racist, others are not.
Oh and I'm sure that by simply bringing up the topic will earn me the label of being racist because racism against white people is a taboo topic. It's assumed that if you're white and feeling effects of racism towards you, you must be a hater anyway and are seeing what you want to see.
In class we watched a film of a study that a professor did. He is Chinese American and approached random people in the streets of San Francisco and asked them all one question: What does it mean to be white? Some of the people he asked were white, others were of other ethnicities. What he found was a trend in nearly all the white people he spoke to. They all tried to disassociate themselves with whiteness! They all tried to say things like they were Italian, Irish, British, or avoid the question by saying people are people, we're all the same under the skin, etc. And why? Because even the word "white" has as much of a negative connotation to it as "black" when used in certain ways. By saying I'm white to people of other ethnicities automatically earns me other titles like bigot, hypocritical, self-righteous and narrow-minded.
Most Mexican Americans are proud of their heritage, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if I were to say I'm proud of my heritage, what is the world's perception on that statement since I'm white? Isn't it assumed by most that by saying "I'm proud of my heritage" what I'm really saying is "I'm sure glad I'm not anything else?"
It would seem that in this world that is supposedly taking greater steps towards racial equality and acceptance, that equal rights still don't create equality. Instead of pushing for "equality" which is virtually impossible due to intolerance to religion, culture, sexual orientation, political views, etc, why not push for equal opportunity?
I'm a white college student who does not have a scholarship. My grades were just as good as a girl I know who got a very generous scholarship just because her mother is from Spain. Even the scholarship she got was titled, Diversity Scholarship. Why should anyone gain privileges over another simply for ethnicity or race? She wasn't born in Spain, her mother was. According to the criteria, they should have offered the scholarship to her mother, if anyone. She didn't speak spanish, had only visited Spain once or twice, and otherwise had no real connection with her mother's culture.
Equal Opportunity means that anyone who wants to should be able to go to college, no matter their income. People with good grades should be able to receive scholarships based on merit, not on the basis of having a more diverse university. If it were equal opportunity, universities wouldn't have to pay extra so that half-spanish students choose their school over another.
All I'm trying to say is that today's society has added another term to be analyzed, debated, and frustrated over: White Guilt. Which means that it really doesn't matter if your racist or not, if your white you should be ashamed of yourself because, well, because. You have no other excuse. Some of your peers are bad people, so be ashamed for them. Look at all the terrible things that are happening to other people, and in some way it has to be your fault, you're white. If you're as great as you think you are, you'd put a giant band-aid over all these problems and they'd go away. But you can't, so you're an even worse person than we told you you are.
Thanks society, I think I'll just mope around and complain about how hard life is for me too.
Very well said, my sweet.
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