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I feel like there are a lot of people seeing everyone roll their eyes about this whole flack with @SpencerJCox’ response to the ‘minority scholarships are reverse racism’ thing and may quietly wonder “wait- why isn’t it racist?” If this is you, here is a little thread about why.
Racism has a few definitions. Let’s start by saying we aren’t using the “David Duke is racist” definition of the term- there, ‘racist’ refers to the belief in the inherent and endowed superiority of one race over another. That sort of belief is not at play in this discussion.
Here we are asking about systemic racism- “is a scholarship program with a minority preference racist?”
In that context, some system is racist if it promotes the ‘oppression of one race to the social, economic, or political advantage of another’ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
In that context, some system is racist if it promotes the ‘oppression of one race to the social, economic, or political advantage of another’ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
Basically, if a system makes things more unfair for a race, it’s racist. If not, it’s not.
Systemic racism is about context. So we ask “Does @RyanQualtrics awarding minority scholarships in Utah, USA, 2021 make things more unfair?” That’s a question data can answer.
Systemic racism is about context. So we ask “Does @RyanQualtrics awarding minority scholarships in Utah, USA, 2021 make things more unfair?” That’s a question data can answer.
The below links & research show a higher ed. system where for a minority, it is harder to attend, graduate, pay for, and benefit from college.
Does awarding scholarships to minority students make this system more unfair? No. It makes it *more fair*. So it is not racist.
Does awarding scholarships to minority students make this system more unfair? No. It makes it *more fair*. So it is not racist.
Minority groups make up 22% of Utah’s population but 19% of our undergraduate students. If our educational system were fair, we’d expect those numbers to be the same. https://ushe.edu/data/
Black and Hispanic students are also more likely to attend for-profit colleges, more likely to drop out of college, and less likely to pursue lucrative STEM degrees. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/reports/2018/05/23/451186/neglected-college-race-gap-racial-disparities-among-college-completers/
It’s more expensive for Black people to go to college- they start out accumulating more debt on average and the size of that gap increases as they put graduation further behind them. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/research/black-white-disparity-in-student-loan-debt-more-than-triples-after-graduation/%3famp
I put the conclusion above, but if I didn’t lose you- it’s currently harder for minority students to get in, stay in, afford, and benefit from college than white students. Giving scholarships to minority students makes things more fair. It is not racist to make things more fair.
