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[quote]
Colby Bohannan said that when he first applied to college, his family didn't have a huge stockpile of money set aside to pay for school. He found many scholarships for women and minorities, but none aimed at people like him: white men.</p>
<p>"I felt excluded," said Bohannan, a Texas State University student. "If everyone else can find scholarships, why are we left out?"</p>
<p>So Bohannan, a mass communication major and Iraq war veteran, and others formed the Former Majority Association for Equality a San Marcos-based nonprofit group that is offering five $500 scholarships exclusively to white male students.</p>
<p>Bohannan, the group's president, said the name comes from the idea that "if you're not a male, and if you're not white, you're called a minority." However, he said, "I'm not sure white males are the majority anymore."</p>
<p>OK, I’ll touch this one. Hmm… my first reaction was that this was a scholarship that was started by some redneck trying to make a point. After a couple of minutes, I can say that I do like the male only part (not sure the “white” thing is appropriate). I’m in the classroom and I can tell you that boys are now the ones who are at a disadvantage. There needs to be a equal amount of scholarships for boys only as there are for girls only–otherwise it is discriminatory against boys.</p>
<p>The “white” thing kind of bugs me–they could make it of a certain decent (like Irish, Polish, etc) as there are scholarships especially for certain races. But I think we all know that “white male” is meant to be discriminatory. It’s too bad. I would encourage parents not to let their sons apply fir it.</p>
But a lot of scholarships are ‘discriminatory’ based on certain attributes - AfAm, Asian, hispanic, female, left handed people, short people, tall people (seriously on these last few!), parent was a teacher, kids who grew up in a particular town, perhaps being a member of a particular religion, etc. 'Irish, Polish, etc. ancestry is also discriminatory. It’s arguable whether all of these are acceptable or not. </p>
<p>If those types of scholarships are deemed acceptable then I don’t see why a white male one wouldn’t be. If private individuals are funding them then they can give away their money as they see fit. However, if I were to decide to start a scholarship fund I wouldn’t make it based on irrelevant attributes like race, height, etc. - I’d likely make it strictly based on academics.</p>
<p>On the positive side - all of these give away money to people to help fund their college so that’s all goodness.</p>
<p>^totally agree with you–just don’t know how to make it more “fair”. I have often let my HS know that when they accept “special treatment” for girls in any subject, they must make sure that it is equal for the boys (if you’re not in education, you may not realize how strong “girl power” is).</p>
<p>We cannot make any particular group benefit at the expense of another. In the real world that is pretty hard to do. Don’t know the answer to this one, I sometimes wish some things were more black and white (no pun intended). I agree that top colleges should be looking for the best of the best, but sometimes these students are hard to find when their life circumstances get in the way. I wish everyone was on a level playing field so that no one would feel they had been “cheated” out of something they had worked so hard for.</p>
<p>I know that the UC system has made affirmative action illegal. They have found that the result of that has made their universities very non representative of the CA population. The top UC’s are now considering (or have already gone to) a more holistic evaluation—to try to sneak affirmative action in the back door. IMHO it is a good thing (and I am the mother of white males)</p>
<p>Love to hear other’s opinions and think we should all be open minded in order to have an intellectual conversation/debate about the topic.</p>
<p>Currently, white students enrolling as freshmen at UC campuses are URM in a literal sense (though not in a policy sense) at all UC campuses except for perhaps Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. So “back door affirmative action” could very well help white applicants.</p>
<p>I agree that is their money and they can do with it what they want. I assume they will also be looking on the basis of financial need, and at the very least, it’s people getting money to go to college which is not so terrible a thing.</p>
<p>However, I don’t agree that we need to right some inequity in the scholarship world that there are no scholarships out there for white men. White people may need a scholarship for having financial need, for being from a certain geographic area, for being the first in their family to go to college, for making excellent grades through high school, for being handicapped, even in some places, for being men at all (although men do still disproportionately occupy leadership positions in business and government), but they are not a disadvantaged group that needs a scholarship just for being white, because being white is not a disadvantage.</p>
<p>It may be frustrating to think “I can’t get that scholarship because I’m not black/I’m not handicapped/I’m not from Arkansas applying to a northern college/my parents are still alive” but then again, each one of those things is an example of a privilege you get to enjoy, so maybe life isn’t so bad.</p>
<p>There are some weird scholarships out there and this organization has a perfect right to offer scholarships to any candidate they choose, and can do so predicated on the fact that they are white men. But I certainly don’t think it’s a necessary scholarship, or existing for more of a reason than some entitled dude wants to make an ill-thought out point.</p>
<p>Yes, “25% Caucasian” would include a significant percentage of people ordinarily seen as black in the US, and a very large percentage of Latino or Hispanic people by census definition (being Latino or Hispanic is a separate question from the race question).</p>
<p>Unless, of course, “Caucasian” is used in a strict sense, as in Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, etc…</p>
<p>2plus2: I see your point, but not everyone would agree that in today’s world being black or Hispanic is a disadvantage in and of itself. One could argue that to the extent to which being poor and ill-educated may or may not be tied to race, that is the real disadvantage, not the skin color per se. As the system currently works, especially on the local scholarship level in our area, the black kid who grows up in a big house in a nice neighborhood will have way more private scholarship funding open to him than the poor white kid who lives in a trailer park. Indeed, a black young lady we know, has well-educated professional parents, lives in a new, large house in a nice neighborhood, and was educated her whole life in our excellent suburban school district. Nonetheless, she was eligible for, and took advantage of, a number of programs for black students that were clearly designed to target the disadvantaged, urban type of kid. But being black was sufficient, because people still wrongly assume that being black is essentially equivalent to being disadvantaged. In fact, she went to her elite college early to participate in a special summer school for black students designed to help them get an academic edge, which supposedly they need due to having gone to inferior high schools. Hmmm.</p>
<p>Furthermore, kids around here know instinctively that even though the town’s black citizens group can come into our schools and give a college scholarship open only to a black student, there’s no way in heck a white citizens group could even form itself without being suspected of being the Klan, much less come into the school and offer a scholarship only for a white kid. So, even if these guys are racist rednecks, it’s time we address the double standard. If their scholarship can help do that, I’m all for it.</p>
<p>S - who is black - went through a related ethical dilemma last year. his SAT score was high enough to be considered for National Achievement, but not National Merit. H and i are both veteran school teachers who make a decent salary and own a nice house, so S was really adamant in not going through with the process for National Achievement because he felt like he was cheating the system - there was a full blown Cuban Missile Crisis between him and H. I tried to stay out of it. lol.</p>
<p>I can’t blame any minority kid from taking advantage of a poorly-designed system that happens to offer him an edge in admissions – what blue-blooded white kid wouldn’t take advantage of his family’s Ivy League legacy status, an advantage that is perhaps even more undeserved? Frankly, I would rather see these ethical kids TAKE the advantage and then work toward rebalancing the system later in life, once they have the power and connections to do so. If and when the system DOES get fixed, it will have to be with the aid and support of successful minority representatives as well as the white elite.</p>
<p>My son found it amusing that there were a number of restaurants in Moscow that advertised that they specialized in caucasian food, in part because Russia is overwhelmingly white. Of course the food was of the type common to the Caucasus region of Russia.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s their $$ and they can do whatever they want with it. Congrats to the winners.”</p>
<p>interesting how many comments here would judge how others should spend their money, or maybe more to the point - how others’ money should be spent. i believe there’s some political group that is known to favor that approach. bet some are reading this right now.</p>
<p>Socioeconomic privilege and racial privilege are different things, you’re right. But I don’t think anyone would argue that racial privilege doesn’t exist, and that white people don’t benefit from being white in a million tiny different ways most never notice every single day.</p>
<p>Not saying scholarships need to rectify that, but being black or Hispanic is a disadvantage in and of itself because being white is an advantage in and of itself, and it’s one black people and Hispanic people have no access to. Now that may or may not be a disadvantage that has to be monetarily rectified, but it is a disadvantage all the same.</p>
<p>It’s only fair that if one skin color can have a scholarship, others can, too. It’s obvious they’re just trying to make a point.</p>
<p>However, you know how people who are mixed race can apply for scholarships based on being part-African American or part Hispanic? I wonder if you can do that with this one. Like, “My great-great-grandfather was white, and I have his nose.”</p>
<p>A great idea.
With scholarships based on other races, religons, left handedness, etc military support, Scouts, girls who study math etc…so why not?
This doesn’t take away from those at all and my guess is it will go to deserving young men w/ merit and need.</p>