# A Congressional Black Caucus is ok but a Congressional White Caucus is not. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 22, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743 "2011-11-22T13:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/101 "2011-11-25T20:36:50Z")
> [@BeaMyra](#): > > There’s more too it than white people don’t need one. > > For instance if I were in Washington DC or Detroit which have black majorities and founded a “white caucus” dealing with that city, I would be called racist, regardless of the actual racial make up or control is Being a minority has more to do with power structures and not simple numbers, although the latter often dictates the former. South Africa was a prime example. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/102 "2011-11-26T00:04:51Z")
> [@BeaMyra](#): > > There’s more too it than white people don’t need one. > > For instance if I were in Washington DC or Detroit which have black majorities and founded a “white caucus” dealing with that city, I would be called racist, regardless of the actual racial make up or control is Building on what JSexton said, In DC, white people still effectively have the great majority of the wealth and power. The Federal government, the private sector, and the MD & VA suburbs are largely white, and control all the wealth and most of the political power. Black politicians are nominally in charge of the DC government (for the time being), but they’d be insane to discriminate against whites in any meaningful way. Doing so would end their careers in short order. Something similar is true in Detroit. Which points out the flaw in your overall argument: the analogs to the Congressional Black Caucus would be the Irish Catholic Caucus, the Italian American Caucus, the Jewish Caucus, the Mormon Caucus. Not the White Caucus. No one at all would call you racist for starting a German American Caucus, for example. It hasn’t been started because no one sees it as necessary. German Americans have been entirely assimilated into American society. Now, there is in fact an English/Scots-Irish Protestant Southerner Conference. It’s called the Republican party. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/103 "2011-11-26T00:24:32Z")
> [@Buchanan](#): > > In 30 years when the US is majority minority, can whites then have racially-based groups fighting for increased white power and influence? Or would that still not be fair? Can white South Africans have such groups or is that racist against the ruling ANC? > > I have a feeling the future’s new majority will not be nearly as kind to the minorities as whites have been since 1965, where in only one of the few times in history, a majority has passed laws not leveling a playing field, but actively discriminating against themselves. Name a law passed in 1965 that actively discriminates against whites. You can’t, of course. You traffic in alarmist propaganda. The “whites will be a minority soon” argument only works if you count Hispanics as non whites. But this just isn’t true. Hispanics are almost entirely European in religion and culture, and substantially European in ancestry. They intermarry with whites rapidly after the first generation of immigration. Whites (many of Hispanic ancestry) will continue to be the dominant majority in the US for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/104 "2011-11-26T00:37:58Z")
> [@Buchanan](#): > > I agree. And if we keep ignoring our group interests, the entire US will look like California, Brazil, or South Africa in our future. Wake up. 60 years ago whites were ~30% of the globe; now they are ~10%. Whites are the real minority to be protected - that is, if you value modern medicine, democracy and human rights, the internet, airplanes, electricity, rule of law, space exploration, or any of the other contributions they nearly exclusively create but which all benefit from. I don’t mean to shock you, but here in California, we have modern medicine, democracy, human rights, the internet, airplanes, electricity, space travel, and the rule of law. Arguably, we’re actually pretty far ahead of the curve on most of those things, too, as compared to the rest of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/105 "2011-11-26T01:41:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t mean to shock you, but here in California, we have modern medicine, democracy, human rights, the internet, airplanes, electricity, space travel, and the rule of law. Pull the other one. It’s got bells on. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/106 "2011-11-29T15:34:13Z")
> [@strumtesco](#): > > There is no Congressional White Caucus. Nor is there … a National Association for the Advancement of White People. There certainly is a [NAAWP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAAWP). I mean it might not be the kind of people you want to hang out with (or, on the other hand, it might be). But it does exist, and we can judge it by its actions. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/107 "2011-12-16T19:17:08Z")
> [@Buchanan](#): > > I agree. And if we keep ignoring our group interests, the entire US will look like California . . . What would be wrong with **that?!** ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743/108 "2011-12-17T02:29:40Z")
A caucus is a meeting. It’s a political group aimed at certain goals or sharing ideals. Let’s see…Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) is part of the [anti-immigration caucus](http://solidarityusa.org/anti-immigration_reform_house_republicans_create_new_caucus.htm)…there’s the non-brown Tea Party caucus…the [Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Asian_Pacific_American_Caucus) allows white, black & brown folk…there’s also the unofficial Jewish caucus. What I’m really angry about, though, is the fact that the Turkish Caucus has, like, no Turks in it, and some of them are even Joos. Talk about gubmint infiltration! [Your issue has been raised before.](http://www.forward.com/articles/6867/) [More than once](http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/26/nation/na-tancredo26). And usually by a Conservative White Guy. I’m assuming part of the OP’s anger is that the Congressional Black caucus limits membership to blacks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-congressional-black-caucus-is-ok-but-a-congressional-white-caucus-is-not-why/603743.md?page=5)