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Jeffrey Warren found out on senior awards night that he was the winner of a scholarship meant for African-American students.
No big deal.
That's how 17-year-old Jeffrey Warren describes his decision to return a $1,000 college scholarship meant for black students.
“I just thought it was the right thing to do,” says Warren, who is white.
His decision is winning him praise for his character – and offers of alternate financial help.
A hush, followed by some giggles, enveloped the Martin Luther King High School gym in Riverside, Calif., when it was announced on senior awards night that Warren was the winner of the scholarship awarded by the local Martin Luther King Senior Citizens Club.
The $1,000 scholarship, one of two awarded annually by the seniors club, is meant for African-American students. Club members didn’t know Warren is white until he rose to receive the award.
“We just couldn’t believe it at the outset. It was really something. There was a mixed feeling in the crowd,” recalled Etta Brown, chairwoman of the club’s scholarship committee, of the May 22 ceremony.
“People were surprised. Laughter started to come up from crowd,” Warren said. “They still shook my hand, they still said ‘thank you.’”
After some contemplation, Warren and his parents decided to return the scholarship. They sent an email the next day informing the MLK senior citizens club of the decision.
Warren Family / Warren family
Jeffrey Warren and his mom Frances Warren on graduation night.
“They said they would accept it back. They were very nice about it. They thanked me for being generous and for being a great kid,” Warren told msnbc.com on Tuesday.
“Jeffrey and I wanted them to be happy,” Rod Warren, who teaches language arts at the high school, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise, which first reported on the episode. “The ladies were trying to do something really nice.”
The scholarship application itself stated only that African-Americans were “encouraged” to apply. Warren applied online and apparently never saw a separate letter sent to school counselors specifying that it was for black students.
Some club members felt Jeffrey should be allowed to keep the scholarship, Brown told msnbc.com. “It was a very thoughtful decision between his family and himself that they would not accept it,” she said.
“I think it says a lot for his character and it says a lot of the character for the family,” said King High School Principal Darel Hansen.
“This was not something the school or school district asked him to do. He in our opinion won the award in good faith though there was a mix-up.”
Jeffrey’s scholarship was later awarded to a runner-up -- a female African-American student.
Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com
Organizations using private money, like the MLK seniors club, are allowed to set their own eligibility criteria for scholarships they grant.
Brown said the club’s scholarship committee will meet to revise the language on the application to clarify it's for African-American students so there’s no misunderstanding in the future.
Warren won’t be totally lacking in financial help for college. Rod Warren told the Press-Enterprise his son applied for 27 scholarships and also won three others, two for $2,000 each and another $500 scholarship.
Hansen told msnbc.com that since the story made local headlines, several people have contacted the school “asking where they could send a check to make a donation to Jeffrey.”
Several teachers also showed up at his graduation party at his home on Saturday and presented him with an envelope with $351 in cash donations collected from school staff.
Warren said he plans to attend San Diego State University in the fall where he will major in English or business, or both. He says he wants to teach, like his dad.
Brown thinks he has a bright future ahead.
“He’s a really neat student,” Brown said. “He deserved it (the scholarship). Martin Luther King would say he did everything right.”
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All these people who are so "color-blind" yet we know defend the Boy Scouts from not allowing gays, the Augusta National Golf Club from not accepting women, the Catholic church for all the various forms of discrimination they implement.
The hypocrisy on these issues is amazing.
Call me "hypocrite" all you want, young man. The organizations you mentioned are all private organizations --- none is a public, tax-supported institution. You might argue that the scholarship was given by a private organization, and you'd probably be right. So would you label as "hypocrites" anyone would would object to the KKK's offering a scholarship only to white students? Wouldn't you, instead, wonder why a public school would even allow an organization like that to offer a scholarship to a narrow segment of its student body?
My credentials for offering an opinion: I am black, and grew up in the strictly-segregated South in the 1940s and 1950s, so I know what race-based discrimination feels like. But I also: Participated in the lunch counter sit-ins in Oklahoma City, which antedated those in Greensboro (google it!); was on the march from Selma to Montgomery; was present on the Washington Mall when Dr. King gave that speech. I can assure you that not one of us sat in or marched, nor did Dr. King die, in order to encourage this kind of race-based reverse discrimination --- especially, in a school named after him!
I sat in. I marched. I cheered. What have you done that gives you the right to call me a hypocrite?
Don..........excellent post....
ShakingMyHead61Debnran, I was responding to Obamacratic post
I just love a good oops!
OK this isnt going to ever stop..GG u have to understand where black people come from..they get discrimanted just about everyday every shape or form.. so to sit there and say that your tired of black people pulling the race card is crazy..i guess only white people are only allowed to be that way..al sharpton is only sticking up for a race that has had a long history with racism..so u need to look out abroad and get ur crazy head out of ur azz understand why people feel the way that they do..some people cant learn how to figure things out before they open their mouth. i agree with what the boy did and i dont blame the mlk group from taking it back bc if it was a white only group and if the guy was black they wouldve taken it back as well..this country will always remain prejudice no matter how much u try to change it.
We cannot fix the ills of the past we can only fix the current state and the future state. By no means does citing past discrimination justify current justification. If you go there where does it end, maybe a better question would be WHEN does it end? When is enough enough? When is equal going to be equal. No one can justify discrimination. No one. If there were a whites only scholarship it would be decried and eliminated in short order today.
Why is endorsing racism the "right" thing to do!?
"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content
of their character."
Quote from the famous I Have A Dream Speech given by MLK in 1963.
Mr. King, we are not there yet. Color of skin still trumps content and character oftentimes.
Discrimination is awful....but I fail to understand how "black scholarships" or "black caucus" or "black music awards" etc is not reverse discrimination......" If you were to put white (the new minority) in front of any of those...people would go to jail probably.... I don't get it.
The scholarship application itself stated only that African-Americans were “encouraged” to apply.
AND??
SO he was not "African-American".
It did not say that ONLY African Americans CAN apply.
The kid did good.
But I would have kept the money.
I am tired of racism in the US.
WHY is a school named after Martin Luther King Jr. WHO HAS WHITES ENROLLED only giving scholarships out to blacks?
Absolutely not the right thing to do. Perpetuating affirmative action and racist acts are not the way to build a bridge towards equality.
No group should be allowed to designate a scholarship based on race. If it's an unacceptable practice for just one group, then it's unacceptable for all groups.
This is ironic on so many levels.
A race-based scholarship offered by an organization named after the very man who fought and died for racial equality.
Jeffrey did the right thing. There are less funds available to black students than to white or Asian students. Parents of white or Asian students have more money. It wasn't many years ago when there were many black students going to and graduating from UCLA. Today there are very few because of changes in California law.
I absolutely can't believe this. If this had been a scholarship meant to be offered only to white students, most everyone would have been up in arms; I know I would have.
This young man qualified for the scholarship, and won it? The only disqualifier was his race? He should have kept it.
BTW, I am black, and participated in the sit-ins in Oklahoma City (which preceded the Greensboro sit-ins), was on the march from Selma to Montgomery, and was present at Dr. King's Washington Mall speech. Before anyone suggests that I haven't paid my dues to have an opinion on this matter, tell me what you've done, and let's compare notes.
We did not march or sit in, nor did Dr. King die to open the way for the kind of nonsense reported here.
There are plenty of exclusive scholarships offered to individuals of more-immediate European ancestry that could identify themselves as "White" without much debate. They just are not referred to as "white" scholarships, as the country of origin is much easier to identify (e.g. "English" and "Black" both refer to the same sort of social-identification).
Former, been responding to you all over this board. There are *lots* of black Germans and black people from the UK who have several generations there. There are asians who are English, and many shades of brown people who are English. A German only scholarship does NOT discriminate on race - it discriminates based on where you were born.
The question is, is this scholarship open for a white guy of South African descent? If not, then it's discriminating based on skin colour. That's pretty brazen racism, as much as if a German only scholarship was pulled back from a black guy who was born in Germany, grew up in Germany, was German educated, etc.
Give it up, these scholarships are not racist.
Would this school even award a scholarship if it were restricted to white students? Jeffery should be condemned for supporting racism.
Sounds like a racist scholarship. Could you imagine a scholarship for white only? But he did the right thing. Do you believe if the scholarship was reversed that a black would have returned it??
If the man had the same quality of character as this young man did, then yes he would return it. Judging a person's character by the color of his skin is wrong. Your insinuation that a black man would not return the scholarship is as offensive as the group accepting the returned money.
There are plenty of exclusive scholarships offered to individuals of more-immediate European ancestry that could identify themselves as "White" without much debate. They just are not referred to as "white" scholarships, as the country of origin is much easier to identify (e.g. "English" and "Black" both refer to the same sort of social-identification).
The first thought that came to mind was "I have a dream.... that one day a man will be judged not by the color of his skin, but of the content of his character". While there is a valid argument to ethnic-centric scholarships (ie. German, Italian, etc.) it is incumbent upon the scholarship committee to ask questions that would qualify the applicant for that distinction (i.e. Tell us how your German heritage has impacted your life, etc.). Clearly this man was the most qualified applicant based upon the committee's questions/application - except for the color of his skin. MLK would be embarrassed.
Oh, and where is Jesse? If the shoe was on the other foot, he would be there screaming for a boycott.
Absolute racism pure and simple. If the scholorship was for a European American, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the rest of the black haters would be marching and decrying racism in America!
Now wait a minute. If my biracial son applied for this scholarship he could get it, but my nonblack daughter could not. Why would a scholarship only for whites not be illegal?
One People, One Agenda. Simple as that.
People minoritees have to have their own scholarships to help needy students go to college. Groups like the NAACP, SCLC, most HBCU's give scholarships. get over yourself and find something else to complain about....Not sure why you all are crying racism....does anyone complain when kids get athletic shcolarships.....
If this was a need based scholarship, then didn't this young man exhibit the GREATEST need - by virtue of the fact that he won the scholarship? .... or is it needy AND Black?
Minority students are not the only needy students and the NAACP does not consist of only African Americans.
Why just minorities, and not ALL people that need them?? There would not be any groups like NAACP or SCLC if people weren't racist. The opportunity is there for all to take. Scholarships should be given to ANY promising student. The promise of a "race scholarship" is racist in itself.
racism ( a scholarship only for back kids) what else is it, your an idiot if you think differently
I, a black man, could understand a scholarship being awarded to students within a certain economic status because poverty does not discriminate based upon the color of ones skin. Limiting help to someone that fit a certain racial profile, I disagree with.
"A scholarship meant for black kids".....
Of course, if we had a scholarship meant only for white kids, that would be racist. I'm so sick of blacks thinking they deserve special treatment because they think the black race is the victim of white society. And I'm even sicker of whites who give in to them.
As stated here earlier (but cannot be stated enough) the award is racist on its face! Blacks have become clearly the most racist group of people on the planet, because they have been told for three generations now that their skin color makes them "special" (aka...preferred). Our laws, and our education foster this, and these institutions are run by white liberals, which is where the blame squarely lies.
Couldn't have said it better myself, civilwar2.
THumbs up to the young man and his family. Thumbs down to the society that offered the scholarship in the first place. If a Caucasian only scholarship was offered, that would be racist, but it was for Black student so it wasn't. I call BULL!
waaaaa, waaaaaa, waaaaaaa!!
the largest group of people discriminated against in this country in today's world are white people.....
and i say again..WAAAAAA...WAAAAAA, waaaaaa
So much for intelligent debate.