Talking Point 8

Whites Swim in Racial Preference by Time Wise
Premise:
· Racial preference
· Putting yourself in a fishes shoes
· Not seeing difference in color
· Equality
· Unfair
· Affirmative action programs
· Minorities
· Whites
· Culture
· Society
· Bad thing- negative
· segregation
· property
· families
· income/working
· self-sufficiency
· privileges
· fairness
· history
Author’s Argument:
Wise argues that due to “racial preference” is sought to be originated with affirmative action programs to whites, intended to expand opportunities for historically marginalized people of color, racial preference has been a large and long part of white history. He continues to go on arguing that it is hardly exaggeration to say that white America is the biggest collective recipient of racial preference in the history of the cosmos. It has skewed our laws, shaped our public policy and helped create the glaring inequalities which are still around today, segregation.
Evidence:
1. On page 1 in the first paragraph, he uses the example if we were fish and if he “asked a fish what water is you’ll get no answer.” Fish take their environment for granted just as Americans take culture and society for granted everyday. Many white individuals took life for granted in the years of slavery and severe segregation.
2. Again on the first page the sixth paragraph, “in recent history, affirmative action for white’s motivated racially restrictive housing policies that helped 15 million white families with FHA loans from 1930s to 1960s, while people of color were mostly excluded from the same programs.” This shows how affirmative action has been around in society for many years favoring the whites.
3. On page 2 second paragraph, Wise discusses self-sufficiency and says that “we ignore the fact that at almost every turn, our hard work has been met with access to an opportunity structure denied to millions of others.” Thus resulting in privilege which is like water to fish: “invisible precisely because we cannot imagine life without it.”
Comments/ Questions/ Points to Share:
I thought this reading was very easy to comprehend and had a great message in the pages. The fact that many say privilege is apart of life and white culture is true, but in cases such as college applications sometimes being a minority is beneficial. There still is segregation around today, but many simply do not see it because as Johnson stated it needs to be talked about and said. Just that, many Americans don’t talk about segregation at all. I really liked this article and I feel like it did the point across, and I also liked that he related human beings to fish. It was interesting but made a lot of sense.