Clarence Page Thinks Racial Discrimination Is Nothing Special

Commenting on the flap over a student group’s offering a “white only” scholarship as a way of protesting affirmative action (discussed first here), Clarence Page, the syndicated columnist, reveals that he believes racial discrimination is nothing special:

[I]f scholarships were the standard for what amounts to discrimination today, a lot of people, not just whites, would have reasons to feel resentful. Take a look at just a few of the other groups that FinAid.com found receive preferences under currently available scholarships simply as a consequence of their condition of birth:

Left-handed students: The Frederick and Mary F. Beckley Scholarship will award up to $1,000 to left-handed students who will be attending Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pa.

Little people: The Little People of America association offers a scholarship for its members, who must be 4-foot-10 or less in height.

Tall people: Tall Clubs International offers a $1,000 scholarship to women who are at least 5-foot-10 and men who are at least 6-foot-2, presumably in their stocking feet.

Just-average people: The David Letterman Scholarship, established by the late-night TV star, awards scholarships to telecommunications students at his alma mater, Ball State University, who are “average students who nevertheless have a creative mind.”

Catholics named Zolp: The aptly-named Zolp Scholarship offers full tuition for four years at Loyola University in Chicago for Catholic students whose last name happens to be Zolp, as documented by their birth certificate and confirmation certificate. First-name Zolps need not apply.

Anyone named Scarpinato: Full attendance at Texas A&M is available for anyone whose last name is Scarpinato – by birth or by marriage, so you still have a chance to marry into this scholarship.

Descendants of alumni: There are lots of these, of course, but one of the more unusual enables selected incoming freshmen at Hood College in Frederick, Md., the opportunity to pay the same first-year tuition as their alumnus parent or grandparent. Without inflation.

Twins and triplets: Lots of these too. But one of the more unusual is offered by Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, where each twin gets the scholarship in alternate years.

What Page is saying here is that someone who is denied a scholarship because he is right handed or big or short or either learning disabled or brilliant etc. etc. has as much grounds to claim that his treatment is unfair as someone denied because of race.