Thursday, October 24, 1991
White male shutout at stake
by Jennifer Flanagan
I have been hearing some
grumbling going on among
some white males on this
campus and elsewhere. They feel
they arc being attacked, held
responsible for all of society's
problems, and cast as "the devil
incarnate of the PC crusade," as
one young man recently put it.
Overgeneralizing for the
moment, for the sake of getting
to the point without worrying
about PC rhetoric myself - I
realize that every group of
people, stereotypically, hates
another group of people.
So why have white males
been targeted by the PC
movement? Because,
stereotypically speaking,
American white males hate
everybody. And unfortunately,
this is one stereotype that has
its foundations in truth.
Collectively, white males in
America have successfully shut
out of power every ethnic
persuasion and the opposite
gender for 2(X) years.
Granted, it isn't your fault if
you were born a white male.
On the other hand, you have to
understand that by being born
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into the group that has been
running the country for the past
200 years, you not only have an
automatic foot in the door, you
have a seat at the head table.
And the rest of us would now
like an invitation to dinner.
Of course, no one ever
willingly steps down fron►
power, which is why concepts
such as diversity and political
correctness have to he introduced
into polite society. Since the
universities and colleges are
teaching America's future
leaders, it is logical that such
places have begun the
campaign.
There seems to be this idea
going around that PC is akin to
"Big Brother" and the thought
police arc around every corner.
The "huge" PC campaign
that everyone is so up in arms
about is really not so big. A
very small percentage of college
campuses have radical PC
movements happening; Behrend
is certainly not one of them. We
aren't even remotely radical.
We have one diversity
requirement, a token number of
minority clubs, and a freshman
orientation program that
includes topics like campus
The Collegian
rape. And students feel this is
too PC?
The fact that students have
problems with diversity at
Bchrend isn't showing anyone
that we are too PC. It's
illustrating the fact that we arc a
chokingly conservative campus.
The idea behind diversity and
political correctness is simply
to get those who think America
means White Male America to
realize they arc not, nor have
ever been, the only ones here.
The accusations randomly
being hurled around are not
directed at all white males,
though it may seem like it.
Granted, white males have been
the focus for much of the PC
movement.
In fact, a few weeks ago I
read an article in the New York
Times entitled "The Crime of
White Maleness," written in
response to the ;Attacks on white
males.
I agree with the author of
that piece in that it is, of
course, not a crime to he a
white male. However, it is a
crime to have patriarchal,
supremacist attitudes, and in
that sense, I'd say there arc
males out there guilty of the
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crime of "white maleness."
Following this logic, it is
possible, then, for women to be
guilty of white maleness, since
such displays of white
supremacy and sexism stem
from the attitudes found in a
white dominated patriarchy such
as our own.
The students responsible for
defacing the NSBE's poster two
weeks ago, the student who
yelled racial slurs at Dr.
lchiyama last year, the young
man who, in response to the
gay bashing forum held last
year, said he'd like to bash some
gays with a baseball hat, the
young man who blames the
victim in cases of sexual
assault, the young man who
said "Send them back to Africa"
at last year's forum on racism,
the student who declared her
G.P.A. is more important than
cultural diversity - these
students, male and female, arc
guilty of the crime of white
maleness, as defined above.
Students who don't want to
learn about racism and sexism
because their minds arc made
up, students who don't need
education on sexual assault,
students who think the diversity
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requirement is a waste of time,
these people arc exactly who the
PC crusade is directed at.
Most American men approve
of representational democracy -
it's our system of government.
Cultural diversity and the PC
movement are merely minorities
and women wanting exactly
what representational democracy
is about - appropriate
representation in politics,
education, curriculum and so on.
Since the white males in
power don't seem to he
interested in acknowledging that
equality, women and minorities
decided that a little
consciousness-raising was in
order. The lxople Who complain
the most are the very people
Who need this kind of education.
And it's not going to stop until
your consciousnesses - and your
consciences - have been raised.
By the looks of things, that
may take a while.
Jennifer Flanagan is a sixth
semester English major. Iler
column appears every other
week in The Collegian.
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