Speech class argument

White People are the single most discriminated against race in America today. Isolated yet influential groups in pop culture and government use discrimination against whites in order to achieve racial equality. These groups can get away with racism because of the horrific truths of white oppression in America from before the civil rights movement. That very racism has lulled our society in to never being able to accept or acknowledge a white person being discriminated against. Kind of like the neighborhood bully being beat up, the kids on the block would never believe it.

“Do you know where you’re runnin from, scared of the sun, I live in the sun you shrivel like a raisin,” “Cause I kill more cracka’s than Bosnia,” raps Ice Cube, an African American, in his song called “Enemy” (lyrics depot.com). The cover of this album has a dead white man with a tag on his toe that says “Uncle Sam”. It is not hard to find Ice Cube’s blatant racism in his lyrics, it takes all of five minutes to find lyrics like this in an array of his songs. Ice Cube though, is still a socially respectable artist in American mainstream media. He has a number of hit movies that do very well with America’s diverse audiences. “Are We There Yet?” a film that Cube starred in grossed approximately $82,000,000 domestically (boxofficemojo.com). Kanye West, another African American pop culture figure, was quoted, “Actually, I do not think that white people are allowed to use slang until it is at least a year old. If you say a slang word too early, its like you’re trying to be black. So as long as the slang is a little played out, you’re all good.”( blackplanet.com ). Amidst his racial comments, Kanye still receives awards for music including eight nominations for the 50th annual Grammy Awards. Don Imus, a white radio host, made racist comments as well, “That’s some nappy headed hos there,” Imus said on his radio program (mediamatters.org). Imus was referring to the black female players on Rutger’s women’s basketball team. These comments enraged most Americans and from public pressure NBC News and CBS Radio dropped Imus’s program. Don Imus lost public respect and millions of dollars as a result of his abominable comment. Looking at all three of these examples objectively, one could conclude that they are all racist. Don Imus was publicly scrutinized and punished by his employer while Kanye and Ice Cube’s repetitive racial bigotry goes publicly unnoticed.

The American government exacerbates the problem with racism by enacting discriminatory legislation like Affirmative Action. “Affirmative Action permits factors such as race, gender and national origin to be considered when hiring or admitting qualified applicants, keeping the doors of opportunity open.” reads bold letters on the government lobbyist group ACLU’s website ( aclu.org ). Affirmative action only singles out the majority and enables racism to continue. White man, being the majority, is subsequently oppressed because of the color of his skin. Chief Justice John Roberts once wrote in a majority decision concerning race, “The only way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” ( caselaw.lp.findlaw.com ). Roberts statement exposes the hypocrisy in Affirmative Action. Thomas Sowell, an American Economist and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, says in his “Race, Culture, and Equality” speech- Do we as individuals and as a nation wish that others less fortunate had our blessings? We should and we do. But our blessings as a nation did not consist of having other nations give us foreign aid. The blessings of individuals who have achieved in life have seldom taken the form of having others accept mediocre performances from them or make excuses for their counterproductive behavior. ( tsowell.com )That is precisely what Affirmative Action does, it makes excuses for mediocre performance and enables counterproductive behavior to be accepted.

It is hard for people in our country to believe that white people experience discrimination. Modern history is saturated with Western Culture’s dominance. Starting with the Alexander and the Greeks, to the Roman Empire, to the English Empire, and now America and it’s Coalition, the West has been far superior to the world in might and riches. Every military around the world has adopted Western uniforms and Western military strategy. Western languages are used everywhere around the world as a result of European exploration and colonialism. These statistics, along with other facts of White Man’s success, create society’s ignorance of the racism that is occurring all around us. As of 2005 there were approximately 10,000,000 White people in America with 100k jobs and only 5,000,000 Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans combined with 100k jobs (census.gov). Figures like these over shadow the actual discrimination that occurs in our country.

Everyday I walk the campus of MHCC and see signs celebrating African American history month, Hispanic history month,and womens history month. Where is the European American history month? Why should I be ashamed of my heritage? Where is the WET channel? Where is the White Men's magazine? We dont have these things because we have had the bad side of our history shoved down our throat in the public education system. Where is the equality? MLK is spinning in his grave.