TYT: White Student Returns $1,000 Scholarship Meant For Black Student

[alp227]

*via CBS "RIVERSIDE (CBS) — A 17-year-old student at King High School in Riverside has returned a $1,000 scholarship intended for black students because he is white.

Jeffrey Warren and his father Rod returned the scholarship from the Martin Luther King Senior Citizens Club the night the teen was announced as the winner of the African-American student scholarship, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise."

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/06/11/white-student-returns-1000-scholarship-intended-for-black-students/

When the top-rated comment on the KCBS site reads "Blacks are the most racist bunch on the block, and that's a fact!" (257 likes), you know you are going to fall eyes open into the dumpster.

(Yes I know this video is 2 weeks old, but I was on vacation when this story came out and only discovered this story today.)

[bluestateguy]

1. Just thinking out loud here

but say you had a white student from South Africa who emigrated here with his family as a child and then became a citizen. Wouldn't he qualify as an African-American? I know that is not applicable here, but I was just thinking that.

[alp227]

3. The US Census classifies people's race this way:

"White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian.

Black or African American.A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as “Black, African Am., or Negro” or report entries such as African American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian."

(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_RHI505210.htm)

So White South Africans would technically be white since they descend from Dutch and British immigrants to S. Africa. Thus, it'd be quite absurd for someone like Dave Matthews or Charlize Theron to identify as African-American. Similarly, Gisele Bundchen (born in Brazil but of German descent, then married football star Tom Brady) wouldn't want to identify as Hispanic if she ever filled in a US census form.

Also "“Some other race” was included in Census 2000 for respondents who were unable to identify with the five Office of Management and Budget race categories. Respondents who provided write-in entries such as Moroccan, South African, Belizean, or a Hispanic origin (for example, Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban) are included in the Some other race category." (Census 2000 Brief on Race and Hispanic origin)

[MADem]

5. I don't think all that is correct.

Hispanic is not a racial designation. It is a cultural origin. If you are Chinese and raised in Argentina, grow up speaking Spanish and immersing yourself in the culture of the country, you are Hispanic. If you are a blonde from Madrid, you are Hispanic. If you are black from Ponce, PR, you are Hispanic. If you are mixed race from Panama, you are Hispanic.

And if you are an American who comes from parents of ANY color who came from Africa, you are African American, even if you might not be "black." People who are US citizens from Egypt are both Arab American and African American.

Brazilians are not Hispanic--they speak Portuguese down there. Their origins of their language and culture include the Iberian peninsula as well as Africa and elsewhere--but they are not Hispanic.

[Honeycombe8]

6. Hispanic is ethnic, which includes cultural, plus some. Chinese is a race all its own AND

a culture. Like a Chinese raised in America, a Chinese person raised in Mexico is still Chinese, both racially and ethnically/culturally. The fact that they also speak spanish and were raised in a spanish country doesn't make them ethnically/culturally hispanic.

African Americans - the term means BLACK people, not white. The fact that white people also lived in Africa does not make them African American, as that term is meant in this country. If you go back far enough, ALL humans are from Africa, and therefore, everyone would be African American.

Mixed in with the hispanic culture is also sometimes race. Hispanics from Mexico are of the indian race, or a mixture with teh indian race (Mayan or whatever the indigenous peoples of Central America were). They speak Spanish only because Spain conquered that area. Hispanic people from Spain, however, are white, for the most part. I'm not sure about Cuba's history.

[MADem]

11. I have friends who are so dark they make Eddie Murphy's brother, nicknamed "Darkness" by

Dave Chappelle, look bright white. They are also of Panamanian heritage. Do not even try to tell them they are black--they will cut you with a glance so fierce you will feel it for a week. Do not tell them they are "African American" either--they will refute the assertion and the only block they care to/will check is HISPANIC. They will not be moved, either. They don't harbor any dislike of black folk, they simply don't identify as "African-anything" or "black." Their cultural identity is what they are, and they'll only check that Hispanic block.

You are in error about a Chinese person raised in a Hispanic culture. They ARE Hispanic. They may have a racial background that is Asian, but they are culturally Hispanic if they grew up in a Latin culture. I'm not talking about someone who moved to a Spanish speaking nation as an adult, but someone born of racially Asian parent(s) who were raised in an Hispanic culture (e.g. Chino Moreno). This is a common mistake that many people make--they really don't quite "get" what it is to be Hispanic. It is a CULTURAL affiliation, and your RACE does not matter. Hispanics come in all colors of the rainbow (this comes as a surprise to many). Ask Big Papi of the Boston Red Sox!

It's a bit like being "American." Your race does not matter. There are cultural ties that bind us all no matter what color we are.

Example of an Asian Hispanic? Franklin Chang-Diaz. Father is of Chinese ancestry.



Then there's Alberto Fujimori--his ancestry is Japanese, but he's Hispanic.

[alp227]

9. D'OH! I keep blending Portuguese people w/Hispanics until you corrected me.

(I checked the census site just to be sure.) So a more accurate example about a non-Hispanic from a Latin America country would be Harry Shum, who was born in Costa Rica to Chinese parents. I think he would select "Asian" not "Hispanic" in his Census form and other applications that ask about race. Yet he culturally identifies with the Latin American culture, the Wikipedia article quotes him: "Spanish is actually my first language before I learned Chinese and English."

Or Idris Elba, a Black British actor best known for his character in HBO's The Wire. If he filled out a US Census form he obviously couldn't select the racial category for Europe. Bottom line is, race and national origin differ widely.

[MADem]

12. I know Asian kids from Puerto Rico, and believe me, they check HISPANIC.

They don't identify with their Asian heritage, no one in the families speaks the Asian language, and the only time they eat Asian food is when they go out. The last person to speak the language was great grandma who has been dead since the kids were infants. They are bilingual, because they went to the fancy private English Language school during the day, and spoke Spanish with their family and friends after school. They also know that if they check that damn Asian block it makes it ten times harder to get into college.

I know Americans in the same circumstances--and they aren't all "Chinese babies" who were adopted at great expense, either. I know a Maryland born-and-raised guy of Japanese heritage--who is the grandson of Nisei and "pure" Japanese, racially--who cannot speak a single, solitary word of Japanese, and who absolutely sucks at languages. He's the absolute antithesis of any stereotype anyone can come up with.

People are what they feel, as much if not more than what their DNA tells them. No one is going to insist that Skip Gates identify himself as biracial if he doesn't want to--his life experience has been as a black man, not as someone with a half black/half European heritage.

Gates was the host and co-producer of African American Lives (2006) and African American Lives 2 (2008) in which the lineage of more than a dozen notable African Americans is traced using genealogical and historic resources, as well as DNA testing. In the first series, Gates learned that he had more than 50 percent European ancestry, and was descended from the mulatto John Redman.[15] In addition, he discussed findings with guests about their complex ancestries.[15]

In the second series of episodes, Gates learned that he is part of a genetic subgroup possibly descended from or related to the 4th-century Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages. He also learned that his ancestors included the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The two series demonstrated the many strands of heritage and history among African Americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates

[tblue]

2. Good for him.

I can't watch the video but it sounds like he did the honorable thing.

Screw the idiot commenters with nothing better to do with their time.

[freshwest]

4. Too bad he was embarrassed by the other students laughing, but it turned out okay.

I see the disconnect there and I'm glad no one really did without. We are sadly not at the point that MLK's version of this as Cenk imagined, is not a reality. They need to specify the kind of applicant that they will award the scholarship to and here is why I say so.

When I was in high school, the DAR or Daughters of the American Revolution in my area, offered a scholarship for girls graduating from my school. The student counselors, just like in this case, didn't think about what historically was going on with the group giving the award.

The winner judged by grades was from China. We had kids from Hong Kong who had moved with their families and attended there. So this girl, who I knew and was very popular, had the highest grade. The school announced she was the winner but the DAR saw the name and said, 'Oh, no, she can't, because she could never be a DAR member.'

I was eligible because of family history, but hadn't applied. But here was this girl who applied and was humiliated. On her behalf, we confronted the DAR and they gave her the scholarship. It still could not have made it all right again. If you had seen the look on her face...

It was different times. We thought race wasn't the way to decide it. There was the UNCF giving out scholarships too, and it was obvious who it covered. The DAR application was not specific, did not say that the student had to eligible for membership.

They had not specified. We thought they would have given the scholarship to a white girl without question and that they were being racists. This was when the schools were mostly segregated. To the students, it was a moral issue.

[Beer Snob-50]

7. 34 years ago I received a letter saying I had received a scholarship

for the next year of school. It came from the school African American Association. When I went to visit the gentlemen who ran the orgainization, he took one look at me and said that there may have been a mistake. I did return it also. My more conservative relatives thought I should have kept it and sued for affirmative action.

[ryan80]

8. Spam deleted by NRaleighLiberal (MIR Team)

[Enrique]

10. my theory

the kid didnt know who Martin Luther King was, when he applied for the scholarship.

[MADem]

13. That's hardwired into history class--they just put a big Mao-like statue of the guy on the mall. Of

course he knew who Martin was--he's never lived a year where Martin's birthday wasn't celebrated.

He knows that Martin was the guy that talked about people being judged not by the color of their skin but the content of the character.

Still and all, the intent of the award was to benefit a black kid, so the people awarding the scholarship need to tighten up their application specifics in the future, so this won't happen again.