By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
Hey, no fair! If you are a person considered to be a minority, you cannot take this quiz and qualify for the drawing of the grand prize which is a paid year’s membership in the NAACP.
So, if you are white and think you are hip, cool or liberal and, once a year, you have a black person over for Bar-b-Q and a serious discussion on the short comings of President Obama, this quiz is for you.
Now, the grounds rules are: (1) no fair calling your black or brown friend for help; (2) you cannot access any library materials and (3) if you are married to a black person, you must go to a separate room and take this quiz by yourself and lastly, no… the TV program, Soul Train is not one and the same as The Underground Railroad!
This quiz is in response to some white folks freaking out about their precious Johnny or Suzie being exposed to critical race theory (aka: CRT) in the classroom. CRT propounds that society uses a theory that employs “race” as a defining characteristic and an artificial construct against people of color and which can then (and has resulted) result in arbitrary and oppressive treatment.
Too many white folks are anathematized by the mere thought that they have benefited, directly or indirectly, from being white in a nigh all-white country (until the “turning year” of 2042), that if you were to challenge their guarded and favored place on society’s totem pole of who gets the overwhelming share of the attendant privileges, perks and benefits, they are ready to fight you or deny such a totem pole even exists!
Therefore, being the kind person that I am, I wanted to ease them into experiences where they have blithely taken as their rights and, as a group, to those who deserve or have “earned” those upper slots on the totem pole.
Remember, their airs of superiority manifest in daily conduct or attitudes that connote rights of privilege or a right to question everything that challenges their beliefs as to how society should be governed.
So, without further ado…take the quiz! All are yes or no questions:
(1) You believe that affirmative action in college and professional schools admission processes hurt or harm “equally” qualified white students who apply to those same institutions. Yes/No.
(2) You believe that the Great Land Rush wherein white settlers were given 160 acres of land if they settled and farmed it for five years, did not work against similarly situated black settlers who were categorically denied such a land grab by the US government. Yes/No.
(3) You are OK with the US Constitution in which it stated at one time that a black person was only to be counted in the census as three-fifths of white person for purposes of apportioning seats in the House and Senate. Yes/No.
(4) You saw no problem with racially restrictive Southern professional schools in the early history of this country paying for black applicants to leave home and travel North for such an education. Yes/No.
(5) The issue of restrictive racial covenants in residential housing developments in both the North and the South were issued for a valid purpose. Yes/No.
(6) The idea of reparations as a tool to level the economic playing field in the United States is not fair to present day descendants of those people who engaged in economic racial acts. Yes/No.
(7) When it comes to teachers in grades K-1 through high school, you would prefer a teacher who is of the same racial identity as your child. Yes/No.
(8) White policemen should be given every benefit of the doubt when they kill a black or brown person in highly suspect circumstances…even when police body cameras show some troubling facts about the use of deadly force. Yes/No.
(9) To you, do Black Lives Matter? Yes/No.
(10) You would rather worship in a church or synagogue with people who look, act and talk like you. Yes/No.
(11) A large portion of what is being called, “The Big Lie” about the recent presidential election, was built around the huge turnout of minority voters in certain critical key states who voted against Trump. Yes/No.
(12) If your son or daughter were to be engaged to a minority person, you would feel uncomfortable warmly embracing that person as a future member of your family. Yes/No.
(13) If you see names such as: Leroy, LaShunda, Dy’bellina, Ty’ronne, Marcus, Fantasia or DeMarcus, you automatically assume that it is a black person, and you act accordingly. Yes/No.
(14) For professional services such as an accountant, dentist, OB-Gyn, lawyer, home decorator, mortician, financial planner or plumber, you would be more at ease and confident with that person being white. Yes/No.
(15) If you get on an airplane and see that the pilot and co-pilot are Mexicans, you have thought more than once about changing your ticket to another flight. Yes/No.
(16) If you walk into a new restaurant and notice that the majority of patrons are minorities, do you slowly look around and then head for the door to leave? Yes/No.
(17) In your private conversations with friends and family members, do you ever use the “N” word. Yes/ No.
(18) In your private conservations with friends and family members, if one of them uses the “N” word, do you speak out then and show your displeasure with that person. Yes/No.
(19) Between mortgage borrowers of the same credit worthiness, if a brown or black person received a mortgage but at a higher rate than yours (assuming all is equal), would that difference of financial treatment bother you. Yes/No.
(20) Have you ever wondered how “certain” black or brown people can afford the same vacation spots as you enjoy or drive the same luxury cars as you drive or live in a house that obviously cost more than your house. Yes/No.
Well, there it is! I know, I know. It is a lot but so is dealing and negotiating with a society that is seemingly determined to maintain the status quo regardless of how that impacts people of color.
So, if you want to know the answers to the above, please send me a non-traceable money order of $44.19 (includes postage and handling) to this newspaper and I will tell you where to meet me at a future date at one of the Metroparks to hand over the answers.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com