Carl’s comment did not say that people of all races are already equal; he said that race is a completely constructed way of looking at the differences between human beings. The color of a person’s skin has nothing to do with that person’s culture¬. Culture really is different between groups of people, and the differences really matter. The color of someone’s skin is not necessarily indicative of their culture.
At Countryside, both Carl and I knew a black student, one of only three or four in a school of 135, yet he was no different in culture from any of us middle and upper-middle class whites. His family owns apartments in Champaign and they drive a Hummer. He was completely a part of upper middle class culture, just like all the white and Asian students, despite the color of his skin. He lacked for nothing in terms of privilege. Favoring him or someone like him because of skin color is nothing short of nonsensical.
Having a culturally diverse school is a reasonable goal, and as Carl suggested, it’s reasonable to ask thorough questions about culture instead of simply checking a box for race.
This brings me to my next point: race is only a crude approximation of class. Class issues tend to line up roughly with race issues because of the socioeconomic status of blacks after the Civil War. There is still a disparity between the number of minorities in poverty and the number of whites, but affirmative action-type things fail when middle class minorities become favored over poor whites. If you’re looking for a group “in power” in America, it’s not whites, it’s the rich, regardless of what race they are. More programs like Head Start that are designed to help poor people, black or white, would be more useful than race-based programs.
Race vs. Class
Carl’s comment did not say that people of all races are already equal; he said that race is a completely constructed way of looking at the differences between human beings. The color of a person’s skin has nothing to do with that person’s culture¬. Culture really is different between groups of people, and the differences really matter. The color of someone’s skin is not necessarily indicative of their culture.
At Countryside, both Carl and I knew a black student, one of only three or four in a school of 135, yet he was no different in culture from any of us middle and upper-middle class whites. His family owns apartments in Champaign and they drive a Hummer. He was completely a part of upper middle class culture, just like all the white and Asian students, despite the color of his skin. He lacked for nothing in terms of privilege. Favoring him or someone like him because of skin color is nothing short of nonsensical.
Having a culturally diverse school is a reasonable goal, and as Carl suggested, it’s reasonable to ask thorough questions about culture instead of simply checking a box for race.
This brings me to my next point: race is only a crude approximation of class. Class issues tend to line up roughly with race issues because of the socioeconomic status of blacks after the Civil War. There is still a disparity between the number of minorities in poverty and the number of whites, but affirmative action-type things fail when middle class minorities become favored over poor whites. If you’re looking for a group “in power” in America, it’s not whites, it’s the rich, regardless of what race they are. More programs like Head Start that are designed to help poor people, black or white, would be more useful than race-based programs.
-Jacob Druker