MSNBC Guest: Whites loved Affirmative Action when it benefited them, but not now that it benefits blacks…

MSNBC’s Michael Eric Dyson argues that Whites have been the beneficiaries of Affirmative Action from the beginning of the country until the 20th century, and they loved it. But now that it benefits blacks, they don’t like it and want to take it away…or something:

…So for me, it’s very simple. Many white people are not asked to talk about their own privilege. …We’re pretending as if white Americans have not been the recipients of Affirmative Action from the beginning of this nation on down to the 20th century.

When we talk about the G.I. bill which in majority strokes went to white Americans — there were a few other exceptions — it created the middle class, it provided opportunities for them to buy homes, to get educated and to get employment. That is an extraordinary degree of Affirmative Action. …

So my point is simply we don’t ask white people to ask questions about their privilege, we don’t ask the degree in which they’ve been recipients of Affirmative Action in the negative, in terms of preferential treatment.

So that now…in regard to Sotomayor, in the middle of the game you want to change the rules. When the rules benefited you, it was all good. When it didn’t benefit you, now it becomes a problem.

The burden of race still is borne on the back of those who are African American, Latino, and others and America must see it has imposed that burden and must now share it in terms of reducing it.


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