A non-profit group in Texas is offering scholarships to a group that they believe to be disenfranchised and forgotten: White males. The organization, called the Association for Equality, was created by Colby Bohannon, who attends school at Texas State University. Bohannon is a veteran of the Iraq war and found himself frustrated by the fact that most grant and scholarship options were restricted to students who don't look like him.

"I felt excluded," Bohannon said to The Austin American-Statesman. "If everyone else can find scholarships, why are we left out?" Massachusetts offered similar scholarships in 2004 and 2006. The group's scholarships are worth $500 each, and to qualify, you must be a white male with a 3.0 GPA.

"We know that we're going to be receiving some vicious attacks from people claiming that we are racists or promoting some bigotry-filled agenda," Bohannon said. "If you're not a male, and if you're not white, you're called a minority, [but] I'm not sure white males are the majority anymore."

After getting some pushback from black and brown students, Bohannon has shifted the scholarship requirements to include any student who is at least a quarter non-Hispanic white. Also, in his home state of Texas, he is a minority: Non-Hispanic whites now make up 42 percent of the population.


Some might find this to be a bit odd, but I actually understand where Mr. Bohannon is coming from. Our knee-jerk reaction to resource allocation and scholarships granted specifically to whites is that it must be somehow racist and malevolent. The truth is that there are slews of whites who feel, for right or wrong, that they are not part of the white American elite, who've maintained economic dominance over African Americans for so many centuries.

Some of the disgruntlement felt by whites is imaginary, resulting from the loss of power being experienced by those who are learning to adjust to an America with declining resources and a slow trek toward true equality. You can compare this to the millionaire who feels sorry for himself because he now has just $800,000 in the bank. At the same time, there are many whites who are victimized by America's growing commitment to capitalism, where the average American worker is not receiving adequate wage increases, and where the last 20 years have presented us with the largest wealth transfer in American history.

Here's the deal: Racism has always been a serious and problematic source of inequality in our society. But even stronger than racism, capitalism is the mechanism that works the hardest to maintain an American underclass. The great challenge for many in the African American community is that because of racism, we are the ones who are far more likely than whites to be forced to exist in the underbelly of America's economic caste system.

Because of the imbalances that exist along racial lines, there is a peculiar variation among those who profess to believe in fighting for civil rights: There are some who simply believe that black people should be allowed access to the elite and middle class of America (leaving structural inequality in tact), and then there are those who believe that all working class and poor Americans deserve access to equality. The latter case requires a direct commitment to pursuing conscientious capitalism, which many black folks do not find interesting. In other words, there are some black folks who have no problem stepping on poor people, as long as they have the chance to be elitist too. This relates to my concern with the fact that President Obama spoke up for Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, but would never speak up on behalf of the scores of black men who've been shot by police since the Gates incident took place.

With that said, Bohannon's group is a firm reminder of where we remain in the struggle for fairness. Being black is certainly correlated with various forms of discrimination, which affects us all. But Bohannon and other struggling whites are also able to see black men and women like Barack Obama (along with his Harvard cronies) who hardly seem disadvantaged at all. So, my interpretation of Bohannon's group is that he is saying that we should not just continue fighting the demons of racial inequality, we should also seek to deal with structural inequities that affect the poor. But given that his group exists in the state of Texas, where racism seems to be growing, it's hard to imagine that his intentions are sincere or productive.



Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Facebook, please click here.