quote:Originally posted by jazzyj:
Everyone should really check this site out. I went on Oprah.com today and there's a bunch of white people on there talking about white people being discriminated against which I think is off.
You now, I don't doubt that whites face discrimination, but in my experience (and only my experience, mind you) the actual instances are pretty low and "equality" is often mistaken for "discrimination". My favorite example of this is the number of people who insists that they didn't get into the college of their choice due to the spaces being given to less qualfied minorities via affirmative action. Despite the fact that there aren't nearly enough minorities to account for all the supposed "taken spots", despite the fact that when AA is in play it overwhelmingly benefits whites women. Case in point: Black students compose well under 5% of the undergraduate student body of most prestigious universities, and Hispanics don't do much better. Assuming that every single non-white (or non-Asian) got into the school merely because of their race and nothing else--no academic merit, no unique talents, etc.--that would take up 10% at the very most (more like 6%). Where the hell all of these phantom minorities are coming from to "steal" the rest of the spots, I don't know.
This is also a common complaint in the job market. It is a well documented fact that when identical job applications or resumes are submitted to employers, those with "Black sounding names" or which has "African-American" checked for race receive less job offers (up to 50%!!!!!) than the applications with "traditional" names or which has the "white" box checked. Even more amazing, white ex-convicts are offered entry level jobs at a much higher rate than Black men with similar backgrounds, and level than Black men with no record! In light of this, I find it odd to believe that affirmative action is discriminating against whites, although I'll concede there may be a few cases where this is a valid complaint. If anything, though, studies like the one with the job applications just seem to highlight the fact that racism is still out there.
The most interesting thing though is that when someone confides
these thoughts to me, and I politely explain why they're most likley incorrect (I even send them to pdf files for the studies in full, to verify that I don't just pull facts out of my ass), they just don't seem to want to believe it. They'll try to find some other reason why the studies are wrong, or say nothing in response and end up using the same damn complaint a few months later! I'll be like, Damn, are you allergic to facts or something? Humans confuse me.Link to study on "Black sounding names" and employment
Link to study regarding impact of race and criminal record on employment
I can't find my link to the study about the difference in callback rates and self-identified ethinicity on identical resumes, but I'll keep lookng and post it here when I do find it.