Lemme also just add one thing:
Trevor. What a fuckin’ British South African name. Add Selwyn, Wolfred, Arnie, Cecil, Gavin, Edwin (thankyewverymuch), and Gary to that. That covers a good chunk of my parents’ friends’ names.
Okay, is anyone else noticing that since I wrote this, 4 out of 5 of the following posts are illustrating my point? None of this would be an issue if it weren’t for the term “African-American”. Even though everyone knows that “African-American” means American black people who are largely descended from former slaves, the use of that term opens the door to all sorts of semantic wrangling.
The only “extremely successful political statement” these students made is that “African-American” is not a very good term.
On preview I see that John Mace has made a similar point. Like him, I am not commenting at this point as to whether such an award is a good idea. I’m just saying the terminology is perhaps counter-productive.
I think that it is time to retire awards based on race. There was certainly a time for it when schools were first integrated and not all races had had access in earlier years to equal educations.
The oppportunities have been the same within the schools for a long time now and taking advantage of that is largely an individual choice. (When there is discrimination, it should be reported up the line until a solution is found for the problem.) It is insulting to assume that special accomodations have to be made on the basis of “race.”
My last school has a “Bootstrap” award which is based on merit and need. I like the name.
I’m still waiting for my European-American award. I think that “white” is insensitive and does not accurately describe me.
Damnit, Long Road, you beat me to it. FWIW, during the 2000 census, I put off mailing back the form in time and one day found two workers at my door to fill in the form. When asked my race I said “European-American”. The lady holding the clipboard did a quick blink and said “huh?” I repeated. She said that wasn’t an option and I was obviously white. So I went ahead and asked for the choices. Keep in mind this was early Saturday morning and I was a bit hungover. Oh…all right…I was prolly still buzzed. She rattled off the hispanic, asian, Native American, Inuit, et al before getting to African American and white. I again answered “European-American”. I could see the consternation in her eyes and simply insisted that if we were counting people based on heritage, then that’s what I am.
4 days later her supervisor called to express his displeasure. When I asked how they would classify Sammy Sosa (from the Dominican Republic) he stammered till I hung up. Small pleasures, but take what you can get.
Small, indeed, to take such great satisfaction from harrassing some poor volunteer for the heinous crime of following the rules set out by distant bureaucrats. Do you also enjoy giving grief to the cashier in the express line because the sign says “12 items or less” instead of the correct “12 items or fewer”?
I am surprised that the use of European-American caused such consternation, when a google search shows that “European-American” is being used. Sometimes it is in what looks to be a racist context ("We must preserve our proud European-American heritage in the faces of those who seek to destroy it!); more often it is as a neutral descriptive term (European-American vs African-American quilting techniques).
I had a class on a African-American novelist, and the teacher rarely said black or white. He said African-American and Caucasian-American. Since the writer wrote about black families in the forties-seventies, and the teacher was putting his work into the context of race relations and societiel changes, he said African-American and Caucasian-American a lot. It was one of those long night classes; he had a lot of time to fill, and I guess the many syllables helped make the evening pass.
I thought ‘African American’ was no longer the term du jour. I thought it was now “People Of Color”. Which in my opinion is even broader and more vague, though perhaps that’s the point.
I do find it odd that you still can’t say “Colored People” but you can say “People Of Color”.
(Even if I should be spelling it Colour)
If there’s no such thing as race, why do liberals get so ass puckered over it?
Quote:
Small pleasures, but take what you can get.
Small, indeed, to take such great satisfaction from harrassing some poor volunteer for the heinous crime of following the rules set out by distant bureaucrats. Do you also enjoy giving grief to the cashier in the express line because the sign says “12 items or less” instead of the correct “12 items or fewer”?
Tom~
Should have clarified that for ya, figured I’d have to.
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They were paid workers, not volunteers.
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Did I forget to mention they knocked on my door? I’ll say what I damn well please. Just as I once answered to Jehova’s Witnesses stark naked. (that was kinda fun)
Quote:
Small pleasures, but take what you can get.
Small, indeed, to take such great satisfaction from harrassing some poor volunteer for the heinous crime of following the rules set out by distant bureaucrats. Do you also enjoy giving grief to the cashier in the express line because the sign says “12 items or less” instead of the correct “12 items or fewer”?
Tom~
Should have clarified that for ya, figured I’d have to.
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They were paid workers, not volunteers.
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Did I forget to mention they knocked on my door? I’ll say what I damn well please. They want compartmentalize me on my dime, you bet I’ll invoke the free speech deal.
Cashier?!? Good analogy. I make enough money to make my shopping worthwhile. Dream up something better. :wally
Of course, when you start with a false premise, your conclusion will be in error and your question will be silly.
damnit, just now noticed the double post
self :wally
Lib,
There is no such thing as “race” as a meaningful biological concept. There is very much such a thing as race as a meaningful sociological concept. Just like the existance of “God” can be proven for “God” equalling a concept of God does not mean that one can prove that God exists.
And I can’t speak for any other liberal, but my ass gets puckered waiting for you to kiss it.
When we stop encouragin idiocy, idiocy will, well, it won’t cease, but it will be lessened.
Lib,
There is no such thing as “race” as a meaningful biological concept. There is very much such a thing as race as a meaningful sociological concept. Just like the existance of “God” can be proven for “God” equalling a concept of God does not mean that one can prove that God exists.
And I can’t speak for any other liberal, but my ass gets puckered waiting for you to kiss it.
Ummm…sickle-cell anemia for one. yes, there is a difference. Recognizing a difference isn’t racist. Using an ideology based on race is. Why can’t we admit there are some differences? It doesn’t make one better than another. It’s just fact. We’re all human, obviously, lest we wouldn’t by posting. Thicken the skin, recognize we all have different attributes, and let’s move on.
Side note: why does multi-culturalism seem to breed divisivness? If you let me buy you a beer, we’ll probably have a blast, regardless of your background.
The kids a junior, so that makes him about 16-17 years old, yes? I don’t know about you lot, but I was not as sensitive or as wise (if you will) as I am today. I suspect the same is true for a lot of you.
The kid has a valid argument in questioning the meaning of African American. The execution may have been a bit flawed, but it smacks of two things that really appealed to me at that age:
- Idealism
- Mischief
At 17, the world was pretty black and white (no pun intended) - I’d been raised to believe that discrimination on the basis of race is a bad thing. So, were my school giving out a “Distinguished African American Award”, I would have seen it as blatant hypocrisy. I could easily see myself involved in a stunt like this. On the one hand, I’m fighting The Establishment[sup]TM[/sup], and of the other I’m making a my statement: Practice what you preach! Trevor is an African American, but will you consider him? Or do you really mean "Distinguished Black Person Award"? Down with hypocrisy!!
So I can’t judge the kid too harshly. He’s got a good point, but he needs to learn how to argue it without alienating his audience.
Did you mean unlike him? I clearly stated that I thought the award was a bad idea. Just wanted to set the record stragiht.
Sickle cell has nothing to do with race. It is a genetic condition that affects peoples whose ancestors lived in regions of high-incidence of malaria. There are people (nice “Caucasian” types) living in Greece, Italy, and Jordan who are susceptible to sickle-cell and people in Southern Africa (nice “Negroid” types) who can never get it. It appears to be a “racial” disease in the U.S. because the overwhelming number of slaves imported to the U.S. came from locations with high rates of sickle-cell while relatively few European immigrants originated in the malarial regions of the Mediterranean. (There is also a mutation of the alleles giving rise to sickle-cell that causes the same effective diseease to carry another name from the Middle East through India.)
I’m just chiming in to say that the award is kinda, um, creepy. Not because it discriminates against whites, but because it makes black achievement seem like something that’s special or spectacular rather than normal.
It harkens back to that old tired backhanded compliment: “You’re a testiment to your race”. If someone gave me an award like that, I’d be weirded out and embarrassed.