White People

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- When he read that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department was looking for recruits with rugby player physiques, Emile Engelbrecht knew he fit the bill at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds. But it was another trait explicitly sought by the department's brass that made him apply to be an officer: white skin. "Maybe I am the perfect candidate at this stage," said the 31-year-old. "They saw they made a mistake, and they need us white guys to help do the work." Having gone from a white-dominated force to a black-dominated one in the 13 years since apartheid's demise, the Johannesburg police force now says the pendulum has swung too far. Much of the change occurred in the 1990s as whites left in droves, often for private security jobs, and hiring black officers became a top priority.

Just when it seemed America had exhausted its analysis of racial and ethnic dynamics, a new movement is afoot: White Studies.For many, the term evokes white supremacy, even neo-Nazism. But White Studies stems from a growing cadre of white liberals, mostly academics and social activists, who have spent countless hours writing, talking and educating others on what it means to be white.This burgeoning field of multicultural studies aims to dismantle racism by making whites aware of their privileges -- from assuming police won't target them because of their skin color to not having to teach their children about racism.

LAST JULY, I wrote an article about white privilege for The Sun and every week since it appeared, I have received at least a dozen letters from people who want to talk about race.A wire service carried the article and it was picked up by newspapers across the nation. More people found it on the Internet, where electronic copies wound up on discussion lists. And Ambrose Lane, who is black and hosts a talk radio show in Washington, D.C., discussed the article on the air and offered to send copies to anybody who requested one.Since the article appeared on July 19, 1998, I have given a lot more thought to who I am, and I've learned a lot more about why many white people can't come to terms with my premise: whites, whether overtly racist or not, benefit from living in a mostly white-run world that has been built on the land and the backs of non-white people.

Who's behind the letter being sent to Baltimore voters from an organization supposedly called the "Aryan Blood Brotherhood"? I have two theories: either some very devious black people or the stupidest white people in America.First you need to learn more about the letter. A former Sun editor, who lives in Guilford, says a neighbor brought it to him Tuesday morning. It was typewritten and dated Aug. 9. Here's how it reads: "Dear White Brother:"It is with great pleasure that we support for Mayor, Martin O'Malley, a fine young man who is the last great hope for White people in the Jew-controlled City of Baltimore.

If you want to catch TV's most captivating series this summer, don't look to HBO. Don't look to MTV. Look to C-SPAN.The weekly "American Presidents: Life Portraits," three-hour treatments of each of the nation's 41 chief executives, may be television's most ambitious documentary project ever.But aside from its obvious value to history buffs, what makes "American Presidents" so compelling are the unexpected, often contentious debates that take place between the program's featured historians and its viewers who call in and offer very different takes on the American presidents.

Pint-sized and big-mouthed, 8-year-old Huey Freeman is black, angry and has had it up to here with white people.He and his family have just moved from inner-city Chicago into a white suburb and, well, let's just say that the adjustment to a life of big lawns and middle-class living has been a bit rough on Huey and little brother Riley lately."

White people find their niche in the inner cityI enjoyed your article about the county residents who come into the inner city to buy their drugs.And Gregory Kane's viewpoint of the issues was most thought provoking as well as entertaining.Who says the inner city has nothing the rich, white preppies want?What I found particularly offensive was the smug attitude of the suburbanites.They all came off like a bunch of whiny, spoiled brats. Blaming their drug habits on the inner city seems to be putting the cart before the horse.

THE LEWINSKY mess is depriving our nation of the chance to see how far President Clinton might have gone with his efforts to keep race relations at the top of the American agenda.This effort is no small task. Public perceptions on race are as diverse and divergent as the American population.There is a large segment of white people who would rather believe that that this is a colorblind culture. We've dealt with race, they say, now let's move on.On the other hand, some high-profile black folks would like to continue to think that the black-white race dynamic is the only one that counts.

SOMEHOW I can't get worked up much about whether black athletes are better than white athletes. While I'm a fan of many sports, and as a kid enjoyed playing a variety of games, no one in any of my families (the one I was born into and the one I helped produce) has been anything like a great athlete or has possessed an identity determined by the word "athlete," so the issue lacks immediacy. I relate to it as a distant entertainment, the way blimp pilots must relate to the Super Bowl. I wonder, really, to how many Americans is it relevant?

Here's what white privilege sounds like:.....I'm sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support.The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that being white has advantages in the United States. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people?

You are such a racist nigger."- reader e-mail To answer your questions: Yes, the e-mail is quoted in its entirety. Yes, it's authentic; I received it a year or so ago. And, no, it is not unique in its sentiment, its coarseness or its deafness to irony. That note has always struck me as a stark benchmark of our slide into racial incoherence. Here's another: Last week on "FOX & Friends," Glenn Beck, the FOX News host, declared President Obama a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr. That's for Marion Barry, who seems to need the reminder. The former mayor and current city councilman of Washington, D.C., is a longtime supporter of gay rights. So observers were stunned last week when a bill committing the city to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere passed the council on a vote of 12-1.

If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments. I still don't know what those "tea bag" protests were about. I saw signs protesting abortion, illegal immigrants, the bank bailout and that gay guy who's going to win American Idol. But it wasn't tax day that made them crazy; it was Election Day. Because that's when Republicans became what they fear most: a minority.

Dear Chris Rock: I apologize in advance for the language that will shortly follow. And yes, there is a certain irony there, given that you are one of the most profane men on the planet. Also one of the funniest. That's why I eagerly anticipated your new HBO special, Kill the Messenger, even though I knew there would inevitably come a moment that made me embarrassed for you. And sure enough, it came. During your routine, you noted how, last year, the NAACP held a symbolic "burial" of the N-word.

Someone is going to think this column is racist. That person - he or she will be white - will be unable to point to so much as a semicolon that suggests I believe in the native superiority of my, or any other, race. Rather, the accusation will be based in the fact that the column discusses race, period. It's a phenomenon I've seen many times, most recently when a friend of mine told me that a friend of hers regards me as racist because I write about race. To which I gave my standard answer: If that's how it works, I'll start writing about money.

Black-oriented blogs have had a lot to say about the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (above). Here are some recent blog posts collected on the Web site afrospear.wordpress.com: "When Mr. Wright says god should damn America, white people take this personally for America is white America. ... America is the corporate environment where white people rule the upper management, white people make up the vast majority of middle workers, and black people make up the bottom rung of the corporate ladder.

CHICAGO -- The important thing about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the inflammatory former pastor of Barack Obama's church, is not that he thinks America is "controlled by rich white people," that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the result of our "chickens are coming home to roost," or that God should "damn America" for its sins against blacks. It's that Pastor Wright is supporting a presidential candidate who clearly believes none of these things, but instead puts his faith in what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature."

You wanted to read my Michael Vick column? Sorry, that's not going to happen. Let me be clear: If Mr. Vick sponsored dogfights and brutally killed canines who did not perform, as he is alleged to have done, he's a despicable man. It wouldn't break my heart to see him caged up with a rabid dog while wearing raw sirloin strapped to his tender parts. Problem is, that's pretty much all I have to say on the subject, and there's no way to get 615 words - about the length of a column - out of that.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- When he read that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department was looking for recruits with rugby player physiques, Emile Engelbrecht knew he fit the bill at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds. But it was another trait explicitly sought by the department's brass that made him apply to be an officer: white skin. "Maybe I am the perfect candidate at this stage," said the 31-year-old. "They saw they made a mistake, and they need us white guys to help do the work." Having gone from a white-dominated force to a black-dominated one in the 13 years since apartheid's demise, the Johannesburg police force now says the pendulum has swung too far. Much of the change occurred in the 1990s as whites left in droves, often for private security jobs, and hiring black officers became a top priority.

President Bush's nationally televised speech this week on immigration reform may have jump-started stalled negotiations in Congress, but the real action and more colorful debate took place outside the halls of the Capitol a few days earlier. Just beyond the Senate building, on a grassy knoll that is the Upper Senate Park, an assortment of like-minded demonstrators - they prefer to be called patriots - held forth on the finer details of an issue that has lately divided Americans along racial, political and ethnic lines.