Campus Newspaper Confab

Andrea Arango of the University of Virginia's Cavalier Daily tells us that white people's complaints about their being stereotyped are ... not that important. After all, Mr. and Mrs. Caucasian, you have the power in this society.

White people may profess that they too are victims of prejudice, but the fact remains that they are the majority and the connotations associated with that word will never be the same as those linked to the word "minority." Whites may claim that African-Americans are as racist towards whites as they are to them, but whites were the free dominant people, while for much of American history, enslaved African-Americans had little chance to dispute the stereotypes that degraded them.

So there, you pesky pallid pupils! Since the prejudice projected towards you is not as "bad" as those experienced by the country's minorities, you'd do well to remember that and, well, shut the hell up, eh?

One assumes, for example, that white people can't dance. Nevertheless, whites can easily disassociate themselves from the stereotype by taking dancing lessons or by declaring dance to be irrelevant to them. A stereotype that can be dispatched with little difficulty, such as this one, is not restrictive, as the person does indeed have a choice.

In contrast, the stereotypes attached to the groups that universities generally refer to as ALANA (African American/Latino/Asian American/Native American) are almost impossible to escape. For example, in a recent study, one Latina student told anthropologist Bonnie Urciuoli, "The only thing that bothered me is automatically it was assumed that just because my writing wasn't very good it had to be because I'm Latina and my first language is Spanish, which is not true. It could just mean that I didn't learn the proper way to write an essay...or that day I was just like whatever about the paper. It could've been so many other things."

We'd like to think Ms. Arango is not this dense. After all, if a white person who is accused of being a lousy dancer can "merely" take dancing lessons to "overcome" a lousy [white] dancer stereotype, or declare that dancing is irrelevant to him/her, it surely stands to reason that a Latina can overcome the "lousy writer stereotype" by ... taking writing classes or -- get this -- declaring "good writing irrelevant to them."

But think about it: Why is thinking that a Hispanic's poorer writing abilities may indeed be due to second language difficulties ... a [negative] stereotype? We think this is a quite reasonable hypothesis one may hold knowing quite a few English-as-a-second language Americans. We also know a few [first language] English-speaking Americans whose second language (Spanish, French, whatever) is not nearly on par with their native lingo. So?

The University is not immune to this, either. "It's very easy to argue that whites stereotype blacks and blacks stereotype whites, but they have different consequences in day to day life," explains University Anthropology Prof. Richard Handler. Handler continues, "Students of color routinely, I think, experience discrimination by students who think their only reason for being here is affirmative action. Nobody questions a white's right to be here."

We would query "Why isn't wondering -- deep down -- that perhaps, just perhaps, that [black] student is attending the university merely because of his skin color?" Isn't that what programs like affirmative action do, at least in the way [campus] liberals utilize it? Look at the whole debate about affirmative action in the landmark Michigan cases (Gratz and Grutter). In the one case, blacks and other minorities were given more points -- merely because of their skin color -- than whites, and a certain total accumulated points resulted in admittance. So, again, how is thinking that affirmative action results in unfair college admittance ... discriminatory?

In addition, we know of many folks -- including ourselves -- that express disdain at [white] "legacy" admissions as well as various sports-related admissions of students whose IQs barely rise above that of your average Neanderthal. The good professor Handler is whistling Dixie (no pun intended) on that one, we're afraid. He is just "handling" what his "handlers" would have him spout for "the good of the cause."

Whites, as the ethnic majority in the States, are not as subject to racial restriction as other ethnicities. Yes, they can argue that they are also victims of stereotypes and ethnic jokes. But the fact remains that whites, as the majority, still hold more power in society than other races, making it impossible for them to ever be constrained by a stereotype as other ethnic groups are.

This, too, is plain vacuous. The biggest stereotype which constrains whites more than anybody is the stereotype that all whites are inherently racist! As evidence, we merely point you back to Prof. Handler's comments about affirmative action. If you think that affirmative action results in unqualified [minority] students being granted acceptance to a university, you're engaging in [racially] discriminatory behavior.