Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidd Finch
When you say "white people have to give something up" for things to change, are you referring only to the view that you refer to at the end? Or are you saying that the change you are calling really requires a sacrifice from white people?
If you mean the latter, I would challenge it. Maybe affirmative action policies mean white people give something up, but overall I would say that white people should realize that we have a lot to gain by curing this nation of its legacy of racism. I mean, if you offered me a choice between what we have now, and what they had in the south in the 1950s, or the 1850s, I'd choose what we have now in a heartbeat. Part of the problem is that people with the upper hand in an unfair society see a zero-sum game.
If you mean the former, well..... never mind.
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The fact that we get something back doesn't mean we don't have to give something up. Might be a very good trade, but you have to acknowledge that there is a cost.
I've been involved in a number of recent conversations with relatives (white ones) about college admissions, and even among supposedly enlightened good white people, there is a feeling that if their kids were black they would have gotten into X which they didn't. And when I remind them of the number of kids in our extended family that are legacies, that have gotten favoritism because of their genes, they always view that as somehow "earned" favoritism while affirmative action based on race, instead of legacy status, isn't.
This is fucked up. And it's the tip of that particular iceberg of resentfulness and privilege.
Yeah, it's important that whites give up some stuff. And that privileged Americans of all colors give up stuff, too,* while we're at it. But the world we get in exchange would be way worth it.
*Not scotch.
