"To tell you the truth, we didn't see this coming," Mroszczyk said. "The Drudge Report picked it up yesterday, and today I just finished a round of national interviews. It's kind of overwhelming."
All the media attention is focused on a $250 Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship offered by Mroszczyk and the BU chapter of the College Republicans. Applicants must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher; they must write two essays; and, here's the kicker, they must be at least one-quarter Caucasian.
The application itself offers an explanation: "We believe that racial preferences in all their forms are perhaps the worst form of bigotry confronting America today."
According to Mroszczyk, his group is offering the scholarship to point out "how ridiculous it is to have any sort of racially based scholarship."
At BU, for example, students who are at least one-quarter Hispanic can apply for a National Hispanic Recognition Scholarship.
"There are plenty of poor, white, academically gifted students who need that money just as much," Mroszczyk said.
It isn't the first time a group of students has tried this kind of stunt.
Two years ago a chapter of the College Republicans at Roger Williams University also offered a $250 whites-only scholarship. That's where the BU students got the idea.
"We are not doing this as some kind of white supremacy thing. I wanted to have a dialogue about racial preference," Mroszczyk said.
It seems as if Mroszczyk has gotten his wish. People from across the country are now weighing in on the idea through e-mail and the radio. And closer to home, some BU students are having their say too.
"It's a poor way to talk about affirmative action," said David Coreas, the 21-year-old senior who is president of the Latino fraternity Phi Iota Alpha at BU. "If they want to have a scholarship, then let them have a scholarship, but they're stirring up controversy in the wrong way
Coreas said he believes that racially based scholarships are necessary to level a very uneven academic playing field.
"We have to look at the situation honestly," he said. "Caucasians tend to have a higher per capita income than Latinos and other minorities. We have to have scholarships to survive."
Coreas said he would welcome an honest dialogue on campus about race and affirmative action.
Mroszczyk admits even some of his good friends are shaking their heads.
"They said I can't believe you're doing this," he said.
But for all the talk, there are still no takers for the scholarship. The application has been available online since Nov. 7, and so far not one student has filled it out.
That's money wasted, according to David Coreas.
"I wish I could apply: That $250 could help me pay for my textbooks," he said.
Coreas isn't eligible, though.
But for BU students who have a pretty good GPA and can write a couple of essays, there's still time, as long as they're also 25 percent Caucasian. The deadline for applications is Nov. 30.
Ha, yes! Sounds like a good idea to me. I'm behind the creators of that scholarship 100%. The people who are outraged by a "white's only" scholarship have the wrong idea about discrimination and racism.
And what's more, if I was going there--I'd apply!
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~I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~
I would say that the scholarship sounds like a good idea but I don't know, there's just something not right abot the way that the scholarship was announced.What kind of person would just outright say for whites only? I thought Jim Crow ended
I know that there are plenty of scholarships for minorities, but they are there because so many scholarships go to the majority (white people). Plus it's only $250, what college do you know of that only cost $250?
Love, Peace, Jesus and Hair Grease
Any open-to-all scholarship should be just that--available to everyone. But to have scholarships for Latinos, blacks, red headed people, left handed people, veteran's descendants, but none just for caucasions? That sounds like racism to me. The scholarship was created to make a point, not with "whites are the best" agenda.
It's a statement, that's all, and a very good one at that.
The point of small scholarships is to take care of smaller costs. Or, if you get enough small scholarships, you have a sizable amount. Any and all dollars help for those, of any race or ethnicity, who need financial aid to pay for college.
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~I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~
In my opinion, there should not be ANY race-based scholarships. I mean, what kind of message does that send? Blacks and hispanics are bound to come from low-income families so we better help them out? I think you're right about the point it made, I just wish they would do away with race qualifications completely.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. --Jimi Hendrix
Godspeed to that guy. he's obviously pretty cool.
Michael Allen Yarbrough (PBUH)
assuming that Latinos and Afro-Americans NEED the help is a terrible form a racism.I have a perfectly Caucasian friend that goes the The University of Michigan that need the finacial help more than any colored person I know, so why not have one?
One Million White Ethnic Scholarships Don’t Trouble Student Group Protesting Minority Scholarships
One Million White Ethnic Scholarships Don’t Trouble Student Group Protesting Minority Scholarships
by Chris de Morsella
The Daily Free Press, the student
newspaper at Boston University, recently ran
an article covering the activities of a Republican student group that was
seeking to draw attention to what they call the “worst form of bigotry
confronting America today,” Boston University’s College Republicans are
circulating an application for a “Caucasian Achievement and Recognition
Scholarship” that requires applicants be at least 25 percent Caucasian.
Joe Mroszczyk president of the student group, Boston University College
Republicans, told the college's BU Today Web
site "
We think giving out a scholarship based on any race is crazy" I would ask
Joe is it “crazy” only when the targeted ethnic groups are people of color? To
expose the glaring hypocrisy and double standards that Joe is self-righteously
engaging in I did a quick Internet search on various “white” ethnic scholarship
search terms and got large number of hits. If Joe is so opposed to scholarships
that have an ethnic focus, I would suggest he include in his noble crusade
ethnic scholarships for students from the following ethnicities as well:
Number of returned results on Google for the following searches:
In order to further illustrate the gross hypocrisy that underlies the
incendiary claims made by Mr. Mroszczyk, I have compiled a small sampling of
the plethora of white ethnic scholarships.
Click here
to view a sampling of white/ethnic scholarships.
Scholarships that are targeted towards some ethnic group or another literally
number in the millions. The overwhelming majority of these ethnic-scholarships
are NOT targeted towards minority groups. These awards are usually NOT for
groups that HAVE been historically disadvantaged in our society – but rather
they target various white ethnic groups such as those listed above.
This phenomenon of white outrage at scholarships that target traditionally
disadvantaged ethnic groups – a rage that is mute when it comes to the vast
majority of ethnically targeted scholarships that are geared towards various
white ethnicities is ignorant, ugly and unfounded. Currently there seem to be
fewer and fewer scholarships that target minorities. I know this because we
publish scholarship opportunities on our web site
The Multicultural Advantage. In it we list scholarships, grants, and
other opportunities for, not only minorities, but also for women, veterans,
international students, older students, GLBT's, disadvantaged students, and
students with disabilities. With each new year it is getting harder to find
opportunities for minorities as these programs are being dropped as a result
of the pressure being applied. Part of the reason scholarships that target
disadvantaged minorities are being dropped is that this hypocritical white
backlash only sees ethnic or race when they are non-white and ignores ethnic
and race when it is white.
I feel that it is time for a healthy backlash against this backlash that
simmers in a veritable witch’s brew of misdirected anger and cloaked racism.
There is nothing that evil about scholarships that have ethnic or racial focus.
I doubt, for example that Joe gets hot under the collar regarding the numerous
scholarships that exist for the descendents of Polish immigrants or those that
are there for Irish, Italian or Jewish Americans or any number of other “white”
ethnic groups. This leads me to seriously question why does this loud young
Republican reserve his indignation, exclusively for the significantly smaller
number of scholarships that exist for disadvantaged ethnic and racial groups.
There is no consistency or integrity in this overly affected outrage, of his.
It is false, and seems to me at least, to be motivated by something much darker
than some righteous quest for justice or fair play.
Okay, first, how many people know these even exist? I certainly didn't.
Second, these scholarships aren't about a "ha ha we're white and you're not you suck" attitude. If you're going for "ethnic pride" or something, then what's wrong with scholarships that celebrate different nationalities? I think Joe's point is about people who say it's racism for caucasions to have scholarships that are just for them, because it's not.
Third, I think the point of this caucasion scholarship isn't about saying there aren't any other caucasion-only scholarships out there. It's about showing how stilted our society's perception of race is. And it's certainly fulfilling its purpose in that manner.
I wouldn't accuse them on having some kind of white supremicist agenda before you really took a look at what they're saying and how they came to those conclusions.
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~I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~
I am not insulted by that scholarship at all. The point still remains that as a majority, minorities are more finacially needy than white Americans AND minority scholarships are suaully offered by minority based organization. Would it make any sense for an Indian organization based out of a reservation to pay for the college education of an 18 year old caucasian ivy leaugue student ? The chances of that happening are slim. please read my blog on white racism.
People need to get over it because they have scholarships for minorities only as well. Beside it's their money that they are giving away so they are the ones that get decide and no one else so everyone needs to get over it. Every scholarship has requirements so there is no sense in fighitng against it.
Think globally act locally.
Always listening.