"Bohannan's group isn't the first to offer scholarships only for white students. In 2006, Boston University's College Republicans created a program with similar requirements. A Republican group at a university in Rhode Island offered a similar award in 2004.posted by ericb at 12:24 PM on February 26, 2011
Those groups claimed the scholarships made a statement against affirmative action. Bohannan said his group is not taking any stance for or against affirmative action.
'It's time in our society to look at the way our culture views race,' he said. 'It's time to give everyone an equal shot.'" *
" ... It’s hard to commend the association for risking their reputation by offering a scholarship to a group that has historically been on the favored side of favoritism, so to speak. Colby Bohannan, Texas State student and FMAFE president, said in The Star last week, 'The board members of FMAFE are not trying to put anyone down or make any race or cultures seem inferior.' The irony of the association’s objective is clearly lost on Bohannan.posted by ericb at 12:31 PM on February 26, 2011
Discrimination, regardless of whom it benefits, is still discrimination.
... I recognize the right of FMAFE as a privately funded organization to offer aid based on its own set of criteria, but advancing equality, as indicated in its title, should not include further prejudice and bias. In the interest of equal rights, scholarships (even those privately funded) should be given based on merit and necessity alone.
"The 501(c)3 nonprofit was formally incorporated with the state in March. The group hasn't received any applications, Bohannan said. ... [The group] is offering five $500 scholarships exclusively to white male students. ... Bohannan said the group is raising money — as of Monday , the group had raised $485, according to its website — and that he hopes to award scholarships by July 4. The money can be used to go to any college, not just Texas State, Bohannan said."*Also, the fund is being managed by some who have had difficulty handling money in the past.
"A search of public records indicates Bohannan pleaded no contest to charges of theft of property of less than $500 in 2001 and of issuance of a bad check in 2003. William Lake , the group's treasurer, pleaded no contest to issuance of a bad check in 2008."posted by ericb at 12:54 PM on February 26, 2011 [3 favorites]
The Reuben BakerScholarship at Harvard College is for "a resident of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, or, there being no such resident, a resident of the western part of Pennsylvania." The Borden Scholarship is for people "bearing the surname of Borden or Anderson." The Arthur Anderson Brooks Scholarship is for "deserving Protestant Christian young men . . . preferably of New England stock." The Helen E. Millington Memorial Scholarship is for "students whose fathers are deceased and whose mothers have not remarried." The Henry Harrison Sprague Scholarship is for those "in whole or in large part of New England Colonial descent." The Augustus Woodbury Scholarship is for those who "prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy." The list goes on for 250 pages.20 years and people are still banging this particular gong.
The point is not that it still sometimes helps to be white. (Harvard, in practice, guarantees financial aid to all comers.) The point is that fate spews out all sorts of arbitrary advantages and disadvantages. Yet some people in government seem obsessed with one tiny category: the occasional advantage that comes from being black.
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posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:23 PM on February 26, 2011 [15 favorites]