[yeah, of course. i mean, you've hit the core of many critical issues of civil rights activity. The school, in their efforts to honor MLK, *should* have had an award for "Civil Rights Activist of the Year" for the student most committed to working toward social change or whatever. I agree that it's not really useful, when you're trying to talk about equality, about color blindness or whatnot, that you create race-based categories for honoring people. If your initial argument was "that award seems offensively narrow" i'd probably agree. The article doesn't indicate the criteria for the award, and says only that it's given to a "distinguished" individual selected by teachers. Ostensibly it could be given for excellence in sports as much as in academics or activism or anything else, though i would hope all elements would be taken into account. Seems like a fairly hollow award in a narrow field of competitors, but if i say that, it's offensive to the students that have recieved it in the past, and who are almost certainly deserving of honor, regardless of race.

fundamentally, the only way to move beyond these kinds of issues is to not base activities, awards or whatever on race at all... base them on cultural influences, historical movements or leaders, or common interest, but racializing things only perpetuates a racial view of the world.]-k

RE: You are not African-American, You are White