[PhDiva]

Explain to me your thoughts on my "unearned skin privelege." Seeing as how I am white, I would like to know why you feel I havent earned the right to well, be an affluent white person.

I didn't say you didn't have the right to be an affluent white person but has your race been a deterrent for you in your pursuit of that affluence? Race has been used indiscriminantly to determine who has access to wealth, power, and opportunity. Race has been used to determine who was a slave, who had to sit in the back of the bus, who could attend certain schools, who could marry until miscegenation laws were banned in 1967 and who is more likely to die from infant mortality, breast cancer and yes, street violence (<---I'm not blaming this on white folks so don't waste your breath trying to say that I am). Unearned privilege means that you can walk into most stores and have a reasonable expectation of getting good service or if you are stopped by the police, you usually think that you aren't being stopped b/c of racial profiling. Unearned skin privilege allows many white folks to believe in that rhetoric of meritocracy when all of us knows that most promotions are predicated on nepotism and networking. Dubya has been passing himself off as a self-made man when we know he's a blueblood through and through. For more on unearned skin privilege, check out Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Janet Helms or any work on white identity development theory.

You have every right to pursue affluence, I sure as hell am pursuing it. But I know that my race AND my gender puts me at a disadvantage even if I am a 4th generation college graduate. So I've taken steps to try to circumvent that disadvantage by earning a Ph.D. It definitely helps but it's not a cure all.

You say that people of color aren't "willing" to join our organizations like we are throwing bids at them and they are declining them. Rather ignorant if you ask me. You speak like MCGLOs being put into place is a bad thing? I don't see how. Its a good place for people of like minded culture and traditions to be together and form relationships.

What's ignorant about saying that people of color aren't willing to join your organizations b/c they don't necessarily feel comfortable? What does your organization do to make minorities feel welcomed? Shinerbock says that his org. doesn't think black people "fit" - whatever that means. If he's judging on the person like he claims he doesn't, what does race have to do with fitting? Just because you haven't seen a black person want to join your organization that knows the difference between Glenlivet and Glenfiddick doesn't mean they don't exist.

As for the comment about me thinking MCGLO's are a bad thing, you need to re-read my comments. I talked about why they initially came into existence. I never ever implied that they are a bad idea. In fact, as you point out, MCGLOs provide like minded individuals a place to belong and feel comfortable. Thus, I defend their right to exist.

Once again, we don't really discriminate. We don't feel black people will fit in our fraternity, so we don't actively recruit them. They're not banging down our door for a bid.

Shinerbock - Probably, if you checked your prejudice at the door, you might find some black folks who might want to join your org. but with assumptions about black folks "fit", they will never bang your down down. You fail to see how your prejudical beliefs are becoming self-fulling prophecies.

PhDiva