The article ‘A Particularly Cheap White Whine’ I found to be slightly ironic. I think the fact that white people are complaining about scholarships being unfair especially when being based on race or ethnicity is ridiculous. It is not as though every scholarship in America is based on sole fact of race. “According to a national study by the General Accounting Office, less than four percent of scholarship dollars come from awards that are restricted to persons of color alone.” In reality of our society I think that white people still benefit more from scholarships because of the problem of racism still existing and the idea of power and privilege. I think that people who are complaining about some scholarships should step back look at the larger perspective, “…whites are fully capable of competing for and receiving any of the other monies-, roughly 99.75 percent of all the bucks out there for college. “
One of the points that Wise makes that really stood out to me in this article is him explaining how although there are a small number of scholarships solely for colored students, the larger problem is the opportunities children are given in this country. Wise brings up points about the privilege that white students have in their classrooms starting a young age. “…schools with high concentrations of students of color are 11-15 times more likely than mostly white schools to have high concentrations of student poverty.” Other factors such as white children being educated by more highly qualified teachers and schools offering more honors and AP courses in a white community really got my attention while reading. I think the problem with some white people, is they are just looking at the smaller picture instead of understanding obstacles people of color must overcome and how many opportunities they may be not able to fulfill just because they are not available to them. Our education system is not fair in these ways is a prime example of the culture of power. White individuals are the ones with the power in society and they are the ones who are benefitting best from the American education system. I agreed with the point Wise makes in the article about these “merit” scholarships, “to award scholarships on the basis of so-called merit, when merit itself has been accumulated due to an unfair head start, is to perpetuate a profound injustice….to offer scholarship monies to capable and high achieving students of color, who through no fault of their own have been restricted in their ability to accumulate “merit” to the same degree, is ensure as equitable and fur a competition as possible, and to do justice in an otherwise unjust system.” (pg.3) I think this previous quote completely states the main idea Wise is trying to get across in this article, and I completely agree. When students have no choice but to attend a public school with low scores and teachers who are not well qualified, those students are automatically not on an equal level of opportunity of education as say a white student from a wealthy community.
I think the other main point that is brought up from this article is issue of racism as a whole. I think this story of scholarships and the unequal opportunities children face in their education brings up a larger issue in our country of racism. Many people want to believe that racism does not exist in our society anymore when in truth it does. Wise makes it clear in this article of the imbalance of unequal opportunities in the education system. I think that providing these scholarships for students of different ethnicities is a good step in the right direction because it is allowing students to pursue their education further- it opens the door to more opportunities. Wise simply states, “…these are not scholarships based on race, but rather, scholarships based on recognition of racism and how racism has shaped the opportunity structure in the U.S. “
In conclusion, I agree with Wise about the issues of opportunities being unequal among students, and scholarships are is foot in the right direction. Although, thinking more critically about this problem I think people need to go back and think about power, privilege and the culture of power. They need to fix the problem with the education starting at the source instead of just trying to fix the outcome with scholarships. The people in power should not just think about the people that surround them, but everyone in society and making sure that each student as an equal opportunity to receive the same education be offered the same opportunities to be successful.
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