DAN KIMBER
I've been the Debate Club/Team advisor for a number of years at our
school and have always enjoyed watching and learning from the
students as they banter away and challenge one another's assumptions
of how things ought to be.
The topics they find most engaging are, as might be expected, the
most controversial ones. Gays in the military, prayer in public
school, abortion, the war in Iraq, capital punishment, etc. One
subject guaranteed to stir things up at our ethnically diverse high
school is whether a "white club" should be allowed on our campus.
One strand of students has argued over the years that in the face
of a vanishing Euro-American (for lack of a more encompassing word)
presence in our schools, the social dynamic has drastically changed.
A group once in the majority is now a small minority. How to cope
with that when you are a member of the "Whites"/Caucasians/Europeans
-- whatever name that is given to the more deeply rooted Americans --
is at the heart of the proposal for a white club.
The debate goes something like this: Those in favor of such a club
say that at Hoover High there is an Armenian Club, a Latino Club, a
Black Student Union, a Philippine Club and a Korean Club. But there
is no White Club. It's not fair, some of these students have
lamented, that any group, majority or minority, be underrepresented
or under-appreciated.
This is what I sometimes hear: "We have lost our identity and only
seem to celebrate other ethnic and racial cultures."
"We're tired of multiculturalism -- what about Americanism?"
"We're discriminated against by the other groups."
"Kids make fun of how we say and do things."
They say things like, "That's so white," or "There's more of us
than you, so we're in charge now." (Sounds like a few letters to the
Forum recently).
Those opposed to such a group argue that whites are hardly
under-represented. While they may be numerically in the minority in
school, they belong to a national majority that permeates our
nation's social, economic and political fabric. For instance, there
is no need for a "white entertainment television" channel, since the
vast majority of shows cater to mainstream (white) tastes, culture,
beliefs, history, etc. Furthermore, the reason for ethnic/racial
clubs is not to promote values that are at variance with the
mainstream, but simply to maintain a culture, a language and a way of
life that is being swallowed up by the dominant culture.
Some would want to interpret the existence of a white club on a
