He epic failed by modifying the requirements to only a quarter white. As in, he's defeating his own stated purpose by opening it up too much and becoming another scholarship where "majority" white males can be discriminated against. This just shows that the whole thing is kind of being done on the fly.

It's a private organization and from what I see, the colleges aren't affiliated with choosing the recipients at all. It's no different than me lining up a bunch of dudes, telling them to take their shirts off, picking the hottest one and giving him a $500 check made out to wherever he goes to college.

In other words, it's his money. He can do whatever the hell he wants with it. Is he being a racist dick? Yes, maybe, but that's his prerogative. This is FAR from the silliest scholarship ever - one of the scholarships given out at my high school specified that the winner must have "a zest for life."

I don't know why I can't stop laughing.

It's interesting, because although whites may be the power majority, that certainly does not mean that every white person automatically gets a seat at the power table. DrPhil mentioned that there are scholarships that exist just for white people, but they are just not advertised as such. I completely agree, however I think it should be clarified that these scholarships are more or less intended for upper class white people only. They are not beating down the doors to, or even open to, giving those scholarships to the white son of Joe the Plumber even if he looks like the poster boy for the Aryan nation. Those who are truly concerned with keeping the status quo intact are looking for much more than just race...social economic background and the right family is also a huge factor, not to mention the right religions, zip code, sexual orientation, summer camps, whatever.

When I was applying to college, my parents wanted me to take a look at scholarships. We didn't qualify for financial aid in any way, and my parents could afford to pay for it all without using student loans, but college is still expensive and they wanted to see if we could get any money. All the scholarships were either for extreme merit based reasons (which wouldn't work because I was just barely over the middle 50% for USC's stats) or racial/gender minority causes. This included several races that are also not seen as disenfranchised academically/financially in America.

A white male who was not a wealthy fourth-generation USC student truly did not have options in terms of scholarships. So I can see how a scholarship like this is necessary. It's not intended to help out young Thurston von Snobberton IV. It's probably intended to help out the white working class men who wouldn't get stared at if they ended up in the parking lot of the local country club, but who will never be granted a seat at the top of the social pecking order either.

DTD Alum

Ofte being in the middle (especially that lower middle) class is more of a hinderance when it comes to aid in general, from scholarships to WIC to whatever. I would like to see more scholarships aimed at that demographic. They are the people most likely to take out enormous student loans that they probably can't afford to pay off and often alternative options (technical schools, getting an associate degree prior to a bachelors cheaper, etc.) aren't presented as options.

I agree completely. My family is comfortably upper middle class, but I have cousins who are middle class and watching them jump through hoops to afford college was painful. They really didn't qualify for financial aid but at the same time could not really afford college either. Insane amounts of loans were taken out, and right now I'm watching one cousin have to take out an additional loan (and an absurdly high one at that) to go to med school, on top of the loan she had to use to go to college.

So once again I can see why an already financially strained white male could take a look at all the scholarships available and be very frustrated that he could not even qualify for any of them. While every white person in America gets some amount of white privilege, very few are entitled to all of it. Social class is a HUGE factor in who gets what privileges. Nobody is trying to help the white son of a hippie or a dock worker or a kindergarten teacher succeed either.

The thing is though this can be applied to all races. Just because you are black doesn't mean you can come with any GPA and get a scholarship just because its says "Be Black", or whatever ethnic group. That's the issue I always have when people bring up buzz phrases like, "White men being the minority" or "Affirmative Action" like there is this glut of 2.0 blacks taking away opportunities from all these white males that all have 4.0's.

Which is why I don't have an issue with the scholarship itself, we need more scholarships for those of us that aren't carrying 5.0's, 4.0's or heck 3.0's when graduating from high school. Just the justification he is coming up with (Immediately pointing his finger at the minority instead of embracing some of the tenets that "some" minority scholarships do have which is not a tremendously high standard to receive the money).

I guess I just don't understand why he has put any restrictions on it at all. Why not just have a scholarship for people who need money and have good academics?

Because he's making a point about white people being in the minority. It's his thing, even if it's silly and inaccurate and ignores what "majority" means when it comes to power and privilege.

Please take my tone as nonsnarky as I intend it.

"Automatically" is an unnecessary qualifier.

Whites being the power majority means that whites are the power majority. Exactly what comes with that depends on the context and is not to be confused with "being a white person is easier than being a nonwhite person."

The consolation is that the privileges of whiteness are heavily correlated with social class and socioeconomic status, but are not contingent upon social class and socioeconomic status. Poor whites may not get those particular scholarships but the history of racial discrimination highlights the privileges of whites across social classes.

Someone remind me how Joe the Plumber became a catchphrase or common reference for working class white struggles and interests. Oh, that's right, the fact that he is a catchphrase is another example of white privilege.

You are trying to turn this into a formula or an equation and it is not.

Oh, I completely agree. White men aren't a minority in the commonly used sense of the word, and when people say they are it is usually just mindless rhetoric. And I completely understand that minorities with access to those scholarships have fierce competition and are not granted anything.

I'm just saying I understand where this is coming from...white privilege does not mean that all whites are granted privilege in every arena of their lives, and if a white man needs money for college there are few (if any) scholarships available. I don't think he went about creating it in the right way, but the idea behind it is perfectly valid IMO.

No. I'm not. I'm simply stating my belief that I disagree with the idea that the existence of white privilege justifies the fact that, depending on the school, few if any scholarships are even available to apply to for white men. There doesn't even need to be a specific white only scholarship, but the fact is that the overwhelming majority of scholarships intended to help those who have had disenfranchised backgrounds are intended for specific minority groups (and don't confuse this with me saying these scholarships shouldn't exist, they should). If there were even some that had more open guidelines for applying I'd be fine, but in most cases there are not.

No one is saying that whites, white males in particular, do not need money and assistance with school.

We are saying that this man's scholarship has some utility but an inconsistent and inaccurate foundation. I still say that this scholarship was created to make a large social statement beyond the relatively small amount of money awarded.

LOL I just saw where I was paying absolutely no attention to my spelling, when you quoted me. LOL

You are when you're responding to the notion of white privilege.

Having worked in financial aid for years, I can say that this is not really true.

People simply do not research scholarship and grant options; and the options that are publicized tend to be athletic, academic, or minority-based. That is why people see student loans and going into debt to be an alternative--that's often what they have information about and almost everyone qualifies for a loan.

Anyway, this is why some financial aid departments have HUGE binders in their offices that have information about scholarships and grants. They try to give students info and tell them to research so that they don't have to only get loans. Most students, however, will only utilize the info that you force upon them. It never surprised me when we'd get a student (most students were white) who was financially struggling and complaining and then we'd say "here's some info on tons of scholarships that you can read about and see which ones you qualify for and can apply for." Guess how many students followed through...very few. There's actually a lot of scholarship and grant money out there that never gets used because people (across race, social class, gender, etc.) do not apply and the few who apply are sometimes not qualified.

/financial aid rant