Wheaton College, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, has created a refugee scholarship following the POTUS' immigration order in an effort to preserve their "foreign-born community." Another scholarship called The Privilege Grant, was recently created and is exclusively for white men "pursuing college on equal footing with their female, queer and ethnic minority classmates."
Wheaton College houses 1,650 students who have come from more than 70 different foreign countries. While the Refugee Scholarship is open to "any refugee student fleeing conflict," preference will be given to applicants from countries directly targeted by the recent order - including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Students seeking to land the full scholarship are required to submit a 100- to 200-word personal statement "outlining their background and what receiving this scholarship would mean to them." While the general response to the initiative has been supportive, some question "why the college has chosen to prioritize foreigners over U.S. citizens." Wheaton's Refugee Scholarship is not the first of its kind, but appears to be the first "in direct response to Trump's order."
Another scholarship, recently created by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulous, is exclusively available for young, Caucasian males looking to receive a college education. Each Yiannopoulous Privilege Grant is worth $2,500 and students must be currently enrolled or admitted to an accredited two- or four-year, full-time American college or university. Though some earlier commentary described the scholarship as for solely "straight white American men," the website does not mention anything regarding sexuality. The grant is one of the very few scholarships awarded exclusively to white males.
It's no joke (though it may have started out as one, according to Yiannopoulos). "If you're a woman or you're black," he says, "If you're disabled, or you're Muslim, or a refugee...If you identify as an attack helicopter, you can get free money. But the facts say that actually it is young white boys who are educationally underprivileged. As educationally underprivileged as many other groups. So it did start as a joke, but nobody can resist the truth wrapped in a good joke..."
Some feel this type of scholarship is propping up white nationalism, while others argue that there are scholarships for all manner of minorities as well as female-only scholarships, so perhaps it should not be an issue to offer one to white males. What do you think? Should there be scholarships for such a demographic? Why or why not?
Photo credit: Breitbart News
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