Writing Assignment #3
Whites Swim in Racial Preference
Lindsey Hoskins
Ivy Tech Community College
The article, “Whites Swim in Racial Preference” was extremely interesting and full of valuable information. The article clearly displayed numerous key terms from our text, in regards to racial inequality. These terms include, but are not limited to, social control mechanisms, discrimination, social stratification, and white privilege. The article, written by Tim Wise, perfectly demonstrates a social control mechanism called censorship. Censorship is where authority figures control what the citizens know by only bringing certain information to light. This is shown in the article when President Bush disapproved of Michigan's policy of awarding points to undergraduate applicants who are members of underrepresented minorities, such as African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians. He failed to mention, however, that greater numbers of points are awarded for other things that amount to preferences for whites to the exclusion of people of color (Wise, 2003, para. 16). Thus, Bush was leaving out information and only allowing people to know what he wanted them to know. Doing this was supposed to get his audience to see the issue from his perspective. Discrimination is widely demonstrated in this well-written article. “Affirmative action for whites was the essence of the 1790 Naturalization Act, which allowed virtually any European immigrant to become a full citizen, even while blacks, Asians and American Indians could not… racially restrictive housing policies helped 15 million white families procure homes with FHA loans from the 1930s to the '60s, while people of color were mostly excluded from the same programs (Wise, 2003, para. 4-6). Clearly, people of color were discriminated against when it came to becoming a citizen and securing a home for their families. Also, it is demonstrated, inadvertently, through the point system of Michigan University.
Lindsey Hoskins
Ivy Tech Community College
The article, “Whites Swim in Racial Preference” was extremely interesting and full of valuable information. The article clearly displayed numerous key terms from our text, in regards to racial inequality. These terms include, but are not limited to, social control mechanisms, discrimination, social stratification, and white privilege. The article, written by Tim Wise, perfectly demonstrates a social control mechanism called censorship. Censorship is where authority figures control what the citizens know by only bringing certain information to light. This is shown in the article when President Bush disapproved of Michigan's policy of awarding points to undergraduate applicants who are members of underrepresented minorities, such as African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians. He failed to mention, however, that greater numbers of points are awarded for other things that amount to preferences for whites to the exclusion of people of color (Wise, 2003, para. 16). Thus, Bush was leaving out information and only allowing people to know what he wanted them to know. Doing this was supposed to get his audience to see the issue from his perspective. Discrimination is widely demonstrated in this well-written article. “Affirmative action for whites was the essence of the 1790 Naturalization Act, which allowed virtually any European immigrant to become a full citizen, even while blacks, Asians and American Indians could not… racially restrictive housing policies helped 15 million white families procure homes with FHA loans from the 1930s to the '60s, while people of color were mostly excluded from the same programs (Wise, 2003, para. 4-6). Clearly, people of color were discriminated against when it came to becoming a citizen and securing a home for their families. Also, it is demonstrated, inadvertently, through the point system of Michigan University.