1. Systematic Racism and
White Privilege
By Randi Hovey

2. How does Karen Brodkin support
her claim that educational and
Occupational GI benefits provided
after World War II really constituted
an affirmative action program for
white males? Would George Lipsitz,
whose article also appears in Part Two,
agree or disagree with this claim?

3. GI Bill of Rights (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act)
• Passed by U.S. legislation in 1944
• Intended to benefit WWII Veterans
• Benefits provided by the Veteran’s Association due to the GI Bill
• School grants/college tuition
• Hiring privileges
• Job training
• Low-interest mortgages
• Small-business loans

4. Affirmative action
af·firm·a·tive ac·tion: noun
• an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from
discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education;
positive discrimination.
https://www.google.com/search?q=affirmative+action&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=681&source=lnms&sa=
X&ei=zEY8VfCQMMSyoQTasIHYBA&ved=0CAUQ_AUoAA&dpr=1#q=affirmative+action+definition

5. Affirmative action and the GI Bill of Rights
“Educational and occupational GI benefits really constituted
affirmative action programs for white males because they were
decidedly not extended to African Americans or to women of any
race. White male privilege was shaped against the backdrop of
wartime racism and postwar sexism. (Brodkin, pg.53).”

6. Support for Brodkin’s claim
• Strong evidence of discriminatory social attitudes toward African
American citizens: increase in violent acts toward blacks, rise in
KKK activity, several anti-black race riots, and increasing numbers
of lynchings in war years.
• Proposed systematic racism in government programs such as the
Federal Housing Administration, the Veteran’s Administration, and
the U.S. Employment Service.
• Disproportionately giving dishonorable discharges to minority veterans.
• Hiring discrimination
• Educational segregation
• Women’s units were not treated as military

7. Systematic Racism: a product of historical
discrimination
“We can’t give you a loan today because we’ve
discriminated against members of your race so effectively
in the past that you have not been able to accumulate any
equity from housing and to pass it down through the
generations (Lipsitz, pg. 81).”

8. Systematic Racism: a product of historical
discrimination
• Social Security Act
• Excluded farm workers and domestics from coverage
• Federal Housing Act of 1934
• Confidential city surveys and appraisals created boundaries that
disproportionately favored white citizens
• Home buyer’s in county received six times the loan amounts offered to
individuals in the city who were dominantly minorities
• Trade union contracts
• Offered private medical insurance, pensions, and job security
• Union workforce was dominantly white

9. Systematic Racism: a product of historical
discrimination
• Urban renewal programs
• Destroyed 20% of central-city housing inhabited by minorities
• Destroyed 10% of central-city housing inhabited by whites
• FHA and VA financed $120 billion in new housing
• Less than 2% was available to minority families, most of which were located in
segregated neighborhoods
• 90% of low-income housing units destroyed under these programs were
never replaced
• 80% of this land was developed as commercial, industrial, and municipal
projects

10. Affirmative action?
an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in
relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.
• Intended beneficiaries: all veteran’s
• Face-value contingencies in GI Bill requirements led to systematic
discrimination disguised as common procedure
• Women were not considered military
• Dishonorably discharged individuals did not qualify
• Current social paradigms led to hiring discrimination and
disproportionate socioeconomic boundaries within government
funded housing programs
• Educational segregation presented less opportunity for minority
males

11. Affirmative action?
an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in
relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.
• Actual beneficiaries: Male veterans who were honorably
discharged (predominately white), were recipients of job offers
which allowed them enough earning potential to afford suburban
homes, and who were able to attend accessible colleges which
had the space to accommodate their education
• Social stigmas, in combination with details of government
programs ensured that any positive discrimination resulting from
the GI Bill favored white male veterans

12. Systematic Racism: discrimination based on
government view of individual worth
• Policies which cater to upper-middle class citizens
• Importance placed on corporate/industrial growth
• Implicit bias solidifying support of stereotype beliefs
“As long as we define social life as the sum total of conscious and
deliberative individual activities, we will be able to discern as racist
only individual manifestations of person prejudice and hostility.
Systemic, collective, and coordinated group behavior consequently
drops out of sight (Lipsitz, pg. 87).”