Racism isn’t just for whites

In recent years the dialogue surrounding racism and racist attitudes has gotten ever more strident and progressively more bizarre. The latest doozie on racism emanates from the University of Delaware, which until last week had a plan in place that required student residence advisors to acknowledge that "all whites are racists". Following an uproar of monumental proportions university President Patrick Harker cancelled the program.

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"While I believe that recent press accounts misrepresent the purpose of the residential life program at the University of Delaware, there are questions about its practices that must be addressed and there are reasons for concern that the actual purpose is not being fulfilled. It is not feasible to evaluate these issues without a full and broad-based review," Harker wrote on the university web site, announcing the program's cancellation. More and more the idea that racism is responsible for the destitution and misery of certain minority members of society is gaining traction and whites are used as scapegoats for that misery. While it cannot be denied that racism was once a rampant force in American society, to make that accusation today is disingenuous. Moreover, those minorities who actually lead their lives believing that white people are keeping them from achieving their potential are deceiving themselves and abrogating the responsibility for their own lives. It's easier to say that minorities will remain poor forever because they are being "kept on the plantation" by Whitey than it is to get an education, acquire a career, abstain from using drugs and make one's own way. Complaining about the lack of opportunity for minorities because of racism flies in the face of reality, given that affirmative action programs are now discriminating against whites in an effort to level the playing field. As for the assertion that only whites are capable of being racist, is selling racism short in that all people regardless of their own racial background have the capacity for being racist. In fact, the assertion that only whites are capable of racism is in and of itself a patently racist statement, which makes a gross generalization about white people. It's on par with the claim that all black people have rhythm or that Orientals are incapable of driving. If minorities were really interested in bettering their lot, then they would make the effort to do so, rather than do nothing and complain about the white power structure. Bull Connor is no longer responsible for law enforcement in Birmingham, Alabama. In fact, he's been dead for nearly 35 years, as has institutionalized racism. A much better and more effective strategy for economic and social advancement would be to look within one's self. It's a fact that dropout rates in the U.S. have risen dramatically and most dramatically among schools with high percentages of minorities. While the graduation rate in most American high schools is somewhere on the order of 70%, schools with high percentages of minorities tend to graduate only some 50% of its students on average. The areas where the dropout rates are highest tend to be in the South and Southwest. "Part of the problem we've had here is we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education," said Jim Foster, a spokesman for South Carolina's Department of Education. Residents of South Carolina were once able to acquire good jobs in textile mills without a high school diploma, but those jobs have largely disappeared due to globalization. These jobs weren't lost because of the racist white power structure's efforts to keep minorities down. Globalization is a new reality to which all of us must respond. Until such time as minorities take the attitude that their future is in their own hands instead of some evil white racist cabal, poverty and misery will persist. Those within the white power structure, like the luminaries at the University of Delaware who are insisting that poverty among minorities is the fault of whites, all of whom are racists, are selling minorities short. It would be infinitely more helpful to encourage everyone to take responsibility for their own life and let others, including the alleged white racists, do the same.