Recently there has been an uproar concerning a“whites-only” scholarship offered by Columbia University. The Lydia C. Roberts Graduate Fellowship requires the recipient to be “a person of the Caucasian race.” The school is currently undergoing legal proceedings to eliminate this clause from the scholarship.
In light of this situation, there has been talk surrounding the elimination of all scholarships that are racially based in an attempted movement toward a society that is colorblind in all scenarios — including college processes.
These same discussions often depict minority scholarships as a form of reverse racism by claiming that they are a politically correct form of discrimination — which is clearly inaccurate.
Historically, people of color have been marginalized and barred from social, economic and political advancement opportunities. Minority scholarships are, simply put, an attempt to level the playing field for disenfranchised groups.
While this progress is being highlighted as discriminatory against another group, the benefits provided to collegiate-level education by minority scholarships are being neglected.
Scholarships explicitly for people of color are only making U.S. colleges and the subsequent workforce a more equally opportunistic place.
