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gergroy on 27 August 2014
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Smear-Gel said:
gergroy said:
Smear-Gel said:

People dont realise that income issues and racial issues are very often intertwined. Like I said, lower income communities often have a significant number of people from minority groups. Do you think that's a coincidence?

 

Another annoying thing is that people seem to think these scolarships suddenly make regular scholarships dont exist that white people who are poor can access. Or that zero white people get scholarships now. If these scolarships set out to perform a specific thing, who cares? Plently of other scholarships for other people. Many of which wont likely go to minorities because, you guessed it, prejiduice and racism.

Im sorry, but that is just plain bull crap.  I am a freaking teacher and I teach an adjunct course for my local college.  I have a very good idea of how the education system works and how scholarships are awarded.  EVERYTHING about enrollment and scholarship applications are designed to favor minorities.  In fact, a lot of scholarships are mandated to have a certain percentage of minorities in it, so if there isnt enough minorities that apply, they will actually turn white students away, even though there is still money available to be given out.  There is way way way  way more prejudice against a white lower income student on college scholarships than a minority student.

And I would say that the scholarships favour the minorities because, like I said twice, there is some relation between race and income levels, and so they know that a minority would have a harder time getting into higher education than a white person.

As for the other stuff, I'm not saying this is perfect. Very often, good intendtions get excecuted in really stupid ways. No doubt about it, turning away students when there's still money available is just stupid. And due to the growing wealth gap, many people whould be considered the "majority" (ie, white) are now falling into the lower income bracket now. This needs to be addressed more, yes.

But that's not to say the existence of these practices are INHERENTLY bad, just excecuted poorly. But pretty much everything is done poorly now. Yeah, I'm a bit cynical.

I see what you are saying, but i think the thinking is flawed.  Just because there is a disproportionate percentage of minorities in the lower income bracket, doesnt mean that they should handicap the white portion of the lower income population.  This is where the confusion of racial and income issues resides.  

If they want to improve access to lower income people, they should, and not confuse it with race.  The higher income population are the ones that need to be handicapped, not the lower income white population.  I actually see a lot of scholarships awarded to very rich families, because they can pay to better educate or train their kids so they are often better academically and in extracurriculars.  That scholarship often turns into play money as their parents pay their way through school.  

You see, that is where the system is broken.