On April 29, Prince William and Kate Middleton (pictured) will join the long line of centuries-old British tradition, displaying patrician majesty, pomp and circumstance and lavish courting that the world is familiar with when it comes to royal weddings. They will enjoy the eyes of their subjects the world over, British Commonwealth and beyond, as people tune in to watch them as they did William's parents a generation ago.
William and Kate are two very blessed young people, rich or poor, because they have fallen in love and decided to wed, and I can only hope William continues to be his mother's son, opening his heart to the world.
But let's be real, the entire planet will stop, once again, to worship wealthy white peopleWealthy white males have had vice-tight global control of the world's economy for the better part of the last millennia, but now there is a Texas organization of students who say white males have fallen so far off the zenith of civilization, there is now a need for scholarships just for them.
It must represent an absolute failure that in all the generations and generations of dominance in American politics, industry and the military, white guys still can't make it.
It's certainly disappointing for me, because every place I've ever worked was run by a systematic oligarchy of white men, who, if they did not come from privilege, certainly achieved it by the time they got to their posts.
So I'm left thinking that with one particular category of men so well-placed in leadership positions everywhere in society, they must be: a) much smarter than everyone else; or b) the beneficiaries of a self-perpetuating social hierarchy that rewards people who aren't even consciously looking for such a benefit.
Cable news shows, pundits and columnists are going to debate this, as they do every time an affirmative action case comes to prominence in the media. They will talk about how minority groups have scholarships because of historical disadvantages, discrimination and an uneven playing field. They will accuse these young men of courting bigotry, even though they deny it. They will try to explain all the whys and hows of racism.
But I won't do any of that.
Instead, I'll try to wrap my head around the idea that, despite the best efforts of white dudes like (slave owners) George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who founded our nation with philosophies borrowed from the great thinkers of the ages, we still need to create special opportunities for their descendants based on their white maleness.
Something must have gone terribly wrong.
This organization is offering really only a paltry $500 - barely enough to buy a semester's textbooks at most colleges - for anyone who can prove he is a male, at least 25 percent white, has a 3.0 grade point average and demonstrates need.
Now this scholarship probably won't hurt those that go to women and people of color, or those who can get school money for being tall or for living near a Best Buy. Plus, I'd rather see this than any more damage done by people like Ward Connerly, who has consciously tried to undo decades of progress.
But what all this really says is a very old system that thought of itself as organic, which placed white men in positions of leadership and resulted in libraries full of laws and statutes that once purposefully kept them there while relegating everyone else to second-class citizenship, is now too complex for a new generation of young people to take advantage of.
These guys are saying the millennial generation of white males not only needs its hands held, but must be pushed in a wheelchair through the door of opportunity.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a staunch advocate of anyone demonstrating financial need for the benefits of a scholarship, be they white, black or whatever. I also lean toward making affirmative action more class-based than race-based, as have others. And I am certainly not going to say that minorities can only succeed with the help of a special program.
But the important question is this: With an overall unemployment rate that is 85 percent lower than blacks, with 24 percent of black children living below the poverty line (compared with 8 percent of white children) and with black males six times as likely to be incarcerated as white males, how much more of a leg up do white guys need?
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Saturday, March 5th 2011 at 3:17AM
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