What exactly are the Boston University College Republicans trying to prove by sponsoring a Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship?
One thing is for certain, the $250 scholarship was not meant to help anyone financially.
As the organization writes on its application, “Did we do this to give a scholarship to white kids? Of course not.”
Instead, BUCR — a conservative campus group whose motto is “Be Conservative, Be Proud, Be You” — are trying to make a statement about affirmative action and race-based scholarships in this country, saying both practices isolate minorities and make them feel “inferior.”
The organization argues that giving money to disadvantaged students based on ethnicity clashes with “American ideals of freedom and equality.” Nobody, the organization seems to argue, should get a leg up on scholarship money.
But BUCR’s stance on affirmative action and race-based scholarships ignores the very real academic achievement gap between whites and minorities. From 1993 to 2003, minority undergraduate and graduate enrollment still lagged behind white enrollment, despite gains by minorities, according to an October 2006 report by the American Council on Education. Minority enrollments increased by 50.7 percent to 4.7 million from 1993 to 2003, and the number of white students increased 3.4 percent, to 10.5 million, according to the report.
There would be nothing wrong with a scholarship sincerely aimed at helping disadvantaged whites (it would not be viewed as “racist,” as a BUCR official has argued). But BUCR’s claim that race-based scholarships send the message that minorities are “inferior and incapable of meeting us at our level,” is absolutely obscene.
Such scholarships are celebrations of ethnic pride, not handouts from rich, white benefactors, as BUCR’s literature implies. Instead, minority organizations and community leaders often fund these scholarships, hoping to help a new generation of students succeed.
The United Negro College Fund, for example, has given more than $2 billion to help more than 350,000 students attend college. The organization — funded in part by black benefactors such as Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis Jr. and Oprah Winfey — says it offers scholarships because it believes “a mind is a terrible thing to waste,” not to make students feel “inferior.”
Even the College Republican’s own essay question — “describe in your own words what it means to you to be a Caucasian-American today” — acknowledges that heritage should be a point of pride, not shame.
Also to imply that white students do not receive any sort of “racial preference” is ludicrous. While they may not be awarded “Caucasian scholarships,” thousands of white students enjoy the benefit of “legacy” status every year.
And race-based scholarships are not just designated to black and Hispanic students. Many heritage groups dish out money to needy students, including those that would fall under the Caucasian label. The National Italian American Foundation, for instance, offers money to Italian American student who do well in high school.
And according to BUCR’s logic, recipients of need-based, as well as race-based, financial aid should be ashamed for being “incapable of meeting us at our level.”
Perhaps need-based scholarships should be cut because poor students will feel inferior to rich ones.
BUCR has polluted a logical, reasoned argument on the merits of financial aid with an illogical, offensive stunt aimed at race-based scholarships. Comparing private heritage scholarships to affirmative action is like comparing apples to oranges.
And with many of these race-based scholarships, ethnicity is still just a qualifier. The money is eventually awarded to students who most need it or demonstrate the highest level of achievement.
We can only hope the College Republicans, a group that hopes “to raise the quality and diversity of political discourse on campus” will find little support from fellow Republican students for a scholarship that promotes conservative stereotypes and twists the truth about race-based money.
