This is something that I have been kicking around in my head for about a
week, but I waited to post to the list because I wanted to pose it as a
question rather than as a rant.
At work, there is a program that has apparently been around for a few years
called "BIG" - Blacks In Government.
Jokingly, all of us in our area said we wanted to join (because you get out
of work for a few hours) and another person in the area, that is apparently
a member of BIG, not realizing that we were joking, commented "but you
can't join, you aren't black".
Well, the question here is this: if there was a comparable program called
"WIG" - Whites In Government, would that be considered racist? I and others
are betting that it would.
Also, there is something going on at McDonald's called Black History Month.
What if there was a White History Month? I am betting that would be
considered racist.
What if there was a comparable TV channel to "BET" - Black Entertainment
Television? It could be called "WET" - White Entertainment Television. I
would bet an entire paycheck that it would immediately be labeled racist.
My point here is, that it seems to be socially acceptable to include the
word "black" in an ethnic name or label, but including the word "white" (or
Caucasian) seems to automatically make it racist.
Is it because we are paying for the sins of our fathers?
How do programs like these help solve the problem of racism or prejudice? I
don't think that they do.
An only slightly less annoying issue, that is somewhat related, is the
renewed drive to pay for slave reparations. But we have covered that one
here before.
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Gary L. Nunn
Delaware Ohio
