http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6794001.htm
I wanted to see what everyone’s opinion of this is. Personally I think that there is nothing wrong with it, but apparently there are some people who disagree with me. How do you guys feel?
Alright!!! Finally a club for us honkies!!! Power to the people!! Thrusts fist in air
Best quote from the article:
The NAACP is suddenly worried about racial division? Pot calling the kettle, and all that.
Sounds like a tongue-in-cheek way of poking fun at the whole hyphenated-American culture.
my first reaction was “oh those unfortunate oppressed rich white people”, because there is no plight i feel quite as much empathy for as the well-off white people at expensive universities who feel like they’re being held down by the man, in the man’s obviously successful effort to empower the black man.
please.
but after reading the article, i sort of had to rethink that. yes, there is a general note of the idea that some white people think they have to fight back against the “racism” the experience. but if these people genuinely want to explore the race issue, i say more power to them. maybe in their studies of “white history” they can spot the origins of racism, and actually learn something. i just hope they don’t think they’re doing something noble fighting the oppressed rich white man’s crusade.
Me? I think the first person who objects to such a thing deserves all the ridicule he gets.
Now, if people decide that they aren’t going to allow Black student clubs, and Asian student clubs, and Hispanic student clubs, and White student clubs, fine. But to decide that Joe Average Caucasian can’t have a club of his own because his family has the wrong skin color is such an obviously racist sentiment that the first person who would utter such utter tripe should be run out of town on a rail.
/liberal whine mode ON
“But EVERY club is a Caucasian club!”
/liberal whine mode OFF
I agree with the “tongue-in-cheek satire” interpretation of their motives, and in that light, I’m all for it.
The point I see in this kind of stuff is to show that the goal of most minority groups has changed from one of integration and equality to one of seperation and reperation.
If minorities get to form clubs to further socially and politically seperate themselves from society, then why shouldn’t white people? And keep in mind that I’m NOT outright dissapproving of it, I just don’t see why it should be racially specific, and apparently neither do these kids.
…
Ok, I’ll make one concession: White culture basically IS the commonly pushed American “standard” culture, so what exactly are they trying to seperate themselves from? Maybe if they were in a pre-dominantly black school…
What do you call a society where a huge percentage of the newspaper articles, TV news stories, educational institutions, businesses, and government break everything down by race and gender? From politics to health, if you pick up the newspaper there is often a racial spin put on the articles.
What is the effect on society if we constantly analyze everything through the prism of race over the long term ?
Too many questions. Personally, I don’t think it is healthy. It’s a bit too much like apartheid South Africa for my tastes, or New Orleans in 1830. I’m not suggesting that we can make racial distinctions, or the perception of racial distinctions, go away. OTOH, resegregating college campuses, into racial dorms and such, did I really read that somewhere?
I guess whitey shouldn’t bitch. Fine, I’m not. OTOH, it’s hard not to notice some of the racism in the minority community that I’m not supposed to.
:yawn: What a boring club.
I suppose they can spend their time talking about the under-represented white community that’s left out of their textbooks. Folks like the Pilgrims, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, etc… :rolleyes:
That said, maybe it could be done right. Many white folks seem to be completely unaware of how their race affects their place in society. Perhaps recognizing that you don’maybe when they realize they don’t really have anything important to do, they’ll wise up.
I understand that ultimately we’d all like to give up racial distinctions, but we shouldn’t do it in such a way that it denies many people their history and culture. Until folks are well represented, just shutting our eyes to endemic tendencies of society won’t eliminate racism or under-representation, it just eliminates the debate and a chance for us to understand our differences.
If he feels a need, I guess I’m all for it.
In college, I know I was tempted to start a poor people’s club. It was a shock to go from a neighborhood where people were mostly like me to a university where only a handful of people of people shared my background.
I really longed to feel like I wasn’t alone with the challenges I faced. I wanted someone to share the kind of humor that only people familier with povery really get. I wanted a support network that could help with financial aid, budgeting and other important aspects of poor life. I wanted someone to discuss the subtle biases and not-so-subtle classism displayed by the University and many students with. And I wanted a group of people to complain about my roomate’s habit of buying three hundred dollar shoes to.
So I can understand wanted to form a club based on a specific background, and as long as it is open to whoever wants to join and doesn’t hang around insulting other groups, I’m all for it- especially in a University setting where people are exposed to a world that is often very different than the one they are used to.
I suspect, however, that this particular club is being founded less as a useful source of support and more of a “neener neener”, which does get my goat in a small way.
I don’t understand how people can say that this club is any less warranted than the need for an Asian American Club or a Black American Club.
I propose an experiment. Let’s have a white male show up at both the black club and the asian club observe, observe. Now, let’s have a black male and an asian male show up at the caucasian club observe, observe. No hijack going on here, just think about it.
Shouldn’t a Caucasian Club be geared to Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, and Chechens?
No hijack either here, but why would white people in America think they need their own club? That would be kind of post-post-irony, wouldn’t it?
None of which count, of course. Because you know those Dutch, German, Irish-Italians, they’re already considered number one in society. All the same, really.
Seriously, though, if she’s not just trying to be ironic then good for her. Your average “white” person is as full of color as white light. If they expore that, more power to them. If they’re just trying to be funny, well, ha-ha, I’ve heard that one before.
syncrolecyne: Yeah, calling it a “Caucasian Club” shows about as much ethnogeographical knowledge as calling it an “Aryan Club”.
I don’t see anything wrong with a club for students interested in, say, Celtic (Scottish/Irish) culture, or Italian (or Roman!) culture, or Dutch culture, or even German or English culture. European culture (which is what is meant by “Caucasian”) is sufficiently diverse to merit a variety of clubs. So, for that matter, would be Asian or African culture (though most African-Americans are from certain parts of Africa – I wonder why that might be).
Of course, we realize that this is not meant to be a club for people interested in European culture. It’s meant to cause controversy. (It’s not mentioned in the article, but I have a feeling she wants to be a lawyer.) It’s the same idea as the “straight pride clubs” some 15-year-olds have also tried to start.
I don’t think this kind of adolescent behavior can be justified by saying that white students are jealous of the sense of belonging non-white students get from being able to call themselves African-American or Latino or whatever, which is an argument I’ve heard before. For one, I wouldn’t want to give up my sense of not being judged as a criminal or an illegal immigrant or whatever for a “sense of belonging” – and identity isn’t a racial issue anyway. This is either one of two things: an ambitious student looking for attention, or an actual racist trying to oppose non-whites.
Traditionally, minorities have sought organization to provide a sense of community and a place of refuge from a misunderstanding and sometimes hostile majority. Members of a majority group do not need this; they’re more likely to find their peers in a group based on something other than ethnicity.
I don’t agree with the irony interpretation; 15 is a bit young to have acquired the disillusioned bitterness required to appreciate irony on that scale. =) The “learn more about their history” comment is obviously ironic, but I doubt a “Caucasian Club” would discuss slavery, ethnic cleansing and the exploitation of aboriginals any more than the Black Student Union would discuss African warlords selling people into slavery or the Asian Club would discuss the Great Leap Forward or Pearl Harbor. I imagine most of the clubs are primarly about music, gossip, clothes, and the failings of teachers – this is, after all, high school.
When I lived in the Bay area, my son and I were in the minority. We were the only white people in our 400 unit plus apartment complex and only about 10% of the student population at my son’s school was white. There were clubs at his Jr. High for black students, asian students, and hispanic students. He had friends in each of these clubs, and got to hear tales of all the fun activities they had the opportunity to take part in. They had such fun things as trips to Great America, Magic Mountain, campouts, club member only school dances, etc. It all sounded like a great deal of fun and of course there were no such clubs for white students.
I don’t really believe that there should be a caucasian club, but if there are going to be special exclusionary clubs for other groups, then it’s only fair. Wouldn’t it be so much better, however, if they just had clubs that anyone could join? Why continue to segregate people?
Hey, they are just going by the little check box on the gov’t forms. You know, African-American, Pacific-Islander, Hispanic, Caucasian, etc.
I hope this club is being formed with a strong sense of irony. The very fact that the NAACP has offered criticism on the matter is endlessly amusing.
Let’s start a "Good Guys"Club-just you and me…on second thought, just me!