Racism By Another Name
I loathe "diversity" programs where newspapers, for example, give handouts in the form of jobs and fellowships to "people of color" rather than who they should be giving them to: people who grew up without a lot of cash at hand. Well, now, it seems a lot of people -- with skin as pasty-white as mine -- may be able to take advantage of these leg$ up. From an unbylined piece in The Wall Street Journal, this news about DNA testing:
Some Americans are trying to use DNA testing to win success or riches in the diversity sweepstakes. A New York Times article Wednesday opened with the story of adopted twins, born of white parents. Since DNA tests purport to show that the boys have a bit of Native American and African blood, their father hopes the newfound ethnicity will help them qualify for college financial aid. Is this the new "one-drop rule"?Then there is the 98% "European" woman who applied to college as an Asian after a DNA test found a 2% "Asian" strain. And with all that casino money out there, it's no wonder that some Indian tribes face people demanding a share of it based on only DNA "evidence."
Evidence is in quotation marks because DNA testing for genealogy involves as much supposition as science at this point. Human beings have so many genes in common that assigning slight variations to countries of origin or specific ethnic groups is often just guesswork. Even so, it is not that difficult to imagine a flood of Americans trying to milk the preference cow this way. Now picture officialdom struggling to respond. In a world where everybody is a rainbow, where does the sorting begin?
Come to think of it, though, this was always the ultimate goal of people of goodwill: no sorting by race, color or creed. It may just happen by ways and means we never expected.
Actually, this reminds me of a time not so long ago when it was most profitable to be white and a lot of Asian and Indian people were trying to prove that they were in fact caucasian and 'could the US stop shitting on us with its racist laws because we're more white then the European born'. Unfortunatley for them, they went all the way to the supreme court but were rebuffed by the court- they basically just kept changing what white meant to exclude these Asian and Indian people who could legitimately, based on point of origin, claim whiteness.
Fact is, whether its best to be white or p of c to get a leg up, people will try to work the system. And please don't make me invoke the Grandfather Clause to defend diversity programs.
Lia at April 15, 2006 6:15 PM
I have good news and I have bad news.
The good news is that DNA testing has made another leap of accuracy.
The bad news is that we have all been identified as coming from Africa's Great Rift Valley, and as illegal aliens we all have to leave.
Radwaste at April 16, 2006 10:54 AM
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