A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the U.S. Minority Business Development Agency, founded during the Nixon administration, must avail itself to disadvantaged entrepreneurs of all races and ethnicities, including whites.
The summary judgment rendered on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, appointed in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump, was the latest in a recent series of federal court decisions rolling back decades of affirmative action programs aimed at remedying racial discrimination.
Pittman, a judge in the Forth Worth branch of the Northern Texas District, sided with two white businessmen who sued the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), a branch of the Commerce Department, last year after being denied benefits on the basis of race.
The plaintiffs were told they were ineligible for agency assistance because they were not members of any of the races or ethnicities included on a list of qualified minorities presumed to be disadvantaged and thus entitled to services, according to the judge’s summary of the case.
It’s not controversial, but it is ignorant of the underlying issues. Yes, poverty is a class issue; but it’s also a race issue. It’s a lot easier for a white person to change their class than it is for a black person (or any person of color). Give a white person a million dollars and they are accepted almost everywhere. Give a black person a million dollars and they are still denied access to opportunities.
If you give two race car drivers the same car and training, but one of them has friends/family who are a fully professional crew to do their pit stops and the other doesn’t have any friends who know about cars and has to change their own tires and fill their gas tank, then guess who is going to win that race. If you give those same two drivers the same professional pit crew but one has a shitty car, then guess who is going to win. The problem is unequal starting points requiring unequal assistance to ensure equal ending points. Giving everyone equal access to equipment/training doesn’t give equal endpoints if the starting point is different.
Not if they’re poor, no.
Also not true. Anyone with a million dollars is going to be more valuable to society than someone without it, regardless of race.
And your comment right here is exactly why this extra help is needed. You have a clear lack of understanding of how the real world works. Ask a person of color how they are treated when they go shopping. Black people in a clothing store will get followed around by workers and even other customers who think they might be stealing. Imagine how it feels to be treated like a criminal everywhere you go, even if you have the money to be shopping there. They have the money, they can afford it, but they still are treated like they shouldn’t be there. Hell, my buddy growing up worked at a clothing store and got free clothes to wear during work, and he was still followed around by customers thinking he was stealing. I can tell you that I’ve never been treated like I shouldn’t be in a store even when I clearly couldn’t afford to shop there. That’s not a class thing, that’s a race thing.
Just last year in Los Angeles, not exactly a white-only city, a black person had the cops called on them for trying to deposit a large check at their own bank. The black person was a movie director or something and had a ton of money, including in their account at that bank; but the teller and manager assumed they were a criminal and doing something illegal and called the cops on them.
So tell me again how black people aren’t denied access even when they have a ton of money.
You also either didn’t read my post or didn’t understand what I was saying. I said they are denied access, and you replied they are going to be more valuable to society. I never questioned their value, just what access they are given by society. Access is one of the most important things in life, even more so than money in my mind. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Value is a whole different thing. Slave-owners value their slaves, but they don’t treat them like friends.
Go ahead and breakdown black/white ancestry for me, judge for us who belongs to what race, because America truly is a melting pot, kind of a mess.
Fuck me, I dated a Jamaican women that had pale(ish) skin and hazel eyes, but seriously tight curls. Black or no? My wife is 50/50 Japanese/Pilipino. Which is she?
Here’s a starter guide:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischling_Test
Quadroons count as black? How about octoroons? 1/16th, uh, roon?
You guys are agreeing. Their analogy is talking about systemic racism and not getting the same treatment.
I get systemic racism and privilege. As a middle-aged white guy, I’m stunned at the privilege, even vs. being a poor young white guy watching blacks get fucked over. Man do I have stories.
But granting government privilege by race sounds kinda messy, given my post, doesn’t it?
My point is, we’re so genetically mixed, it’s getting harder by the day to point to a person and say, “Black!”, or anything else. Jo Koy has some hilarious standup about Philippinos being the Mexicans of Asia. If you dropped me in a room with my wife’s friends, and put in ear plugs, I couldn’t tell!
Anyway, I’m white as fuck, and it’s obvious. Maybe I should shut up.
Well if you want an answer, go tell a racist you have a black great grandparent. They subscribe to the one drop theory. But it’s also not just about current stuff. It’s about the generational trauma too. Just because someone was born lighter than their parents does not erase the difficulty inherent in anything involving their parents. Getting into school, camps, sports, banking, networking, etc.
So white Jews should be beneficiaries of affirmative action in 2024?
Catholics were targets of the Ku Klux Klan. How should they be aided in 2024?
Why? Are you denying then bank loans in 2024? Did you redline them in 1965? Pass criminal sentencing laws meant to destroy their community in 1992? Are you not even looking at job applications with names like Matt and Adam?
None of those things are lawfully happening today towards any immutable traits
The effects of those policies very obviously ripple out today, and many of them absolutely are still in effect regardless. Racism never ended.