Student discusses privilege and racism

I am not a stranger to my privilege. For the longest time, I struggled with white guilt. I hated myself because I did not look like my friends, my parents were not like my friends’ parents, my family did not have to struggle like my friends and their families. I hated myself because the people who looked like me hated my friends. The majority of my extended family talked down about the people who were just like my friends, my step-siblings, my adopted siblings, etc... The overwhelming majority of the people who look like me openly support a man who threatens every single piece of my life. When we discussed liberal ideologies in class, I really identified with the excerpt that said that the liberal cannot be content with what they have when what they have means that someone else isn’t getting it as well. 

In the $2.00 A Day book, the authors said that a white person could send out three applications for a call back, but a black person has to send out six or more resumes in order to receive a call back. We read that part of the book a few weeks ago, but it is still echoing in my mind. One time, I applied for three jobs and was interviewed for two of them, and then I had to decide which one to accept and which one to turn down, and that was just in high school. More recently, I went for an interview to be a tutor at a school, and walked out with an additional position as an Activities Specialist for a Boys and Girls Club after-school program. In class, we discussed that affirmative action in university admissions existed for only a short time, and as soon as one white dude sued because he didn’t get admitted, affirmative action ended (in 1978’s Regents of the University of California v. Bakke 438 U.S. 265 and 1996’s Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932). As soon as Affirmative Action ended, there was a decrease in the rate of black college attendance and a decline in the growth of African-Americans entering higher-paying professions. Affirmative Action evened the playing field (Cross & Slater, 1999). If the difference between a black student having a teacher who looks like me is affirmative action, then so be it. Similarly, the book $2 a Day also drew attention to the different scale of problems for white and black men with a felony on their record. White men with a felony are more likely to receive a job than black men without a felony. Black Americans make 12-13% of the U.S. population, yet there are slightly more black people in prison and jails than their white counterparts. The school to prison pipeline is brought up many times in class because the education system is not equal, and unfortunately, diverse schools tend to be poorer. 

A comment that I made one day in class after watching the movie “I, Daniel Blake” is “What do people get out of being assholes?” It is because of the illusion of power that someone might have. It makes me think of the book Why Are They Angry At Us? from last semester when Larry E. Davis said that white people continue to treat blacks horribly because they are afraid that the blacks will get into power and treat them how they treated the blacks for so long. The idea that people have to rationalize and justify their racism to keep a socially constructed pedestal is just sickening to me. 

It is scientifically proven that racism and discrimination exist, but people dismiss it so easily because they don’t want to acknowledge it. In addition to the study mentioned before, there have been other studies where actors of different races go to buy a car or house; every time, the people of color were given a higher price than their white counterparts, and in some of the older studies, the people of color were even turned away. Going back even further to the Clark Doll Experiments (run by Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s), which I talk about a lot, this study showed the negative effects of segregation and pervasive racism. This phenomenon, empirically recorded in the 1940s, is still happening today. My seven-year-old sister has said many times that she wishes to be white and prefers to play with light skinned dolls. I try to combat this by saying things like “I want you to braid my hair like yours” when she plays with my hair and “Where’s your barbie with pink hair? I want to play with her” referring to a black barbie with a pink afro. We are now in 2020. 

If reparations were successfully implemented during the Reconstruction Era instead of the creation of Jim Crow laws and the likes of that, then I really believe that this country would not be in the state that it is. We would’ve had a better infrastructure to work with. My AP US History high school teacher said that many people who fall into the category of racist and conservative argue that people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but black Americans never had any bootstraps to do so, and I would say that many still don’t. If true equality was given during the Reconstruction Era, then maybe white people wouldn’t be so set on enforcing policies that don’t give parents enough time off of work when their child are born, don’t help parents pay for high quality daycare while they go to work, don’t give schools the same resources to work with, etc... I don’t know why people talk about the American dream because as long as the country has been founded, it has worked to drive people apart. 

I don’t struggle with my identity as much as I used to. I like to say that “I am nothing, and I am everything.” I have grown up around so many different types of people, who aren’t just “black” or aren’t just “gay” or aren’t just “latino.” So I am more than just “white.” I try to help people realize their privilege, starting with my family. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but I know that at the end of the day, I will be an ally, not an asshole. 

Reference:

Cross, T., & Slater, R. (1999). Only the Onset of Affirmative Action Explains the Explosive Growth in Black Enrollments in Higher Education. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, (23), 110-115. doi:10.2307/2999332

Illinois Dream Act

Here is a paper by a social work student who was interested in the Illinois Dream Act. I think it's an interesting paper, and worth sharing.  My comments are in the red typeface at the end of the editorial.

On May 4^th, SB 2185 was passed with a 45-11 vote. This bill will create a DREAM Fund, which will be a scholarship account entirely funded by private dollars, and it will give out scholarships to students without legal resident status seeking higher education. The fund would open up college savings programs and prepaid tuition programs to all Illinois residents. The eligibility requirements for a student to receive a scholarship include: lived with their parents or guardian while attending a public or private high school in Illinois, graduated from a public or private high school or received the equivalent of a high school diploma in Illinois, has attended an Illinois school for at least three years as of the date the student graduated from high school or received the equivalent of a high school diploma, and to have at least one parent who immigrated to the United States.

I have mixed feelings about this new bill. These students were brought here with their parents, they had no control over whether their parents had legal status or not, and so to deny them an education is cruel and a violation of international treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A while back Illinois passed a law so these residents could benefit from the in-state tuition rate and that was a fair step. And yet I am also worried that somehow American citizens of Illinois will have to pay for their education, for although American citizens who reside in Illinois and benefit from the taxes paid by undocumented workers (e.g., payroll taxes for Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, or Social Security that these workers will probably never collect, sales taxes, and even sometimes property and income taxes), I worry that the children of undocumented workers might receive public education subsidized by taxpayers (many without any children in public schools or universities) who expect their taxes to support only the citizens and legal residents in their communities. I know the bill says the scholarship funds will be from private dollars and donations, but this is Illinois; we’re not known for managing our money or our programs’ money the way we should. I don’t want to be seen as an uncaring person who is against the bill, but if these residents are of college age then shouldn’t they now know their undocumented status and either work on changing it before going to Illinois colleges and universities or else go to universities in the nations where they have legal status? 

Yes I am an European-American but I worked just as hard to get into school and I have taken out loans to help pay for it. But sometimes it bugs me that if you are not European-American and a school has to fit the diversity quota for that year, then come on in and here is a scholarship for you just because of your ethnic background and not your academic achievement. It would just be nice to find a way for people to earn their education by following the law, and by not taking opportunities or funding away from the students who are legal immigrants and those who are American citizens.

One point you want to make is that there is a sort of compact between citizens and their government, and so residents who are not citizens stand in a special situation, and it seems that those residents who obey immigration regulations ought to be rewarded by receiving nearly equal treatment with citizens, while those residents who do not follow immigration laws or regulations ought to be forced to do so.  You have not mentioned anything about a government’s responsibility to establish clear procedures and to process immigration cases at a reasonable speed, but I think you probably are assuming that we expect non-citizen residents to “follow the law and procedure” because we expect laws and procedures to be clear, fair, and administered with reasonable speed (which is not, unfortunately, the case for immigration case processing in our nation). But at any rate, it is clear that some citizens support their government because they conceive of their government as an expression of the common interests of citizens and legal residents. Inasmuch as the government may devote American lives and treasure to the support of undocumented non-citizen residents or foreign citizens living abroad, such citizens may feel the government is diminishing the resources available to support citizens and legal residents.  So, it seems your opposition to public funding to support undocumented resident aliens must rest on this feeling that this is to some degree a breach of the contract and trust between citizens and government.

 There is also the quite natural sentiment that laws established in democracies are the laws we as citizens want, and people who come to our land should follow our laws.  Persons who live here without legal status are not obeying our laws, and are therefore demonstrating that they are willing to live in a way that contradicts the will of the citizens and legal residents.  You are suggesting that the children of such households ought to take care of their status to become legal residents (but you do not examine whether we as a people have pushed our government to make this feasible or a possible option for such children), or you are suggesting (implying, but I have edited the paper to make it explicit) that such children ought to seek an education in the lands where they have citizenship. You are also concerned about ideals of equal opportunity and the principle of individual merit, and you somewhat object to policies that give more opportunities to individuals because of the groups those individuals happen to belong to, regardless of individual merit. Again, the principles, when spelled out, make sense.

The DREAM Fund is to be supported with private donations, rather than public funds, although some public funds will be used to administer it, I suppose. And various programs we have to give incentives to Illinois residents to send their children to schools in Illinois will now be open to persons whose resident status is undocumented or in limbo. 

By the way, it is sometimes claimed that because undocumented foreign residents in the United States don’t have Social Security numbers, they therefore do not pay Medicare or Social Security withholding on the earned income. In fact, undocumented foreign workers who have jobs in the United States tend to use fake Social Security numbers. This is how employers and banks are starting to catch undocumented workers and account holders, by comparing the Social Security numbers reported and the names associated with those Social Security numbers in government databases.  It’s true that some very casual labor jobs or agriculture jobs might pay cash only, without any withholding or taxes paid, but even in those cases where income taxes are evaded, most residents cannot escape paying sales taxes or (sometimes indirectly through their rent payments) property taxes.