On my way to work each day, I drive through a large college campus. The campus is buzzing with students making their way to class. Do you know what I see a lot of? Young white men. In fact, the 2009 Census shows that while there was a huge increase in Bachelor’s Degrees for Americans overall, there is a racial gap between who is getting these degrees. 28% of Americans 25 years or older had at least a four-year college degree, but the rate for African Americans is just 17%—13% for Hispanics.
This must have been lost on Texas State University student Colby Bohannan and the others who formed a group called the ”Former Majority Association for Equality.” This Texan non-profit is standing up for those perennial underdogs, caucasian males, whom they feel are under-supported in higher education. They hope to be able to provide four $500 scholarships this July.
What year is this? Is Don Draper around here somewhere? Do white men need a little pat on the back for all of their hard work? Don’t they already have a leg up, what with controlling most of the world’s wealth and all? Now they need more money to go to college? Thank goodness someone is working to right this terrible injustice!
Bohannan said that he felt “excluded” when applying for college scholarships:
“If everyone else can find scholarships, why are we left out? 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.”
Does he have a point? In that 2009 Census, white men were not the majority in Texas. According to Bohannan, men applying for this scholarship need to be at least “25% white,” have a GPA exceeding 3.0 and demonstrate financial need. Is that really so different from other scholarships? Bohannan told reporters that the group’s goal is to help students. Sure, $500 isn’t much, but it’s something.
Even more once you consider that post-graduation, they’ll be making an average of 30 cents more per hour than their female former classmates.
