Conflict of interests

Girl uses racially motivated sympathy to raise funds

Eighteen-year-old Allie Dowdle from Memphis, Tennessee has raised financial support from thousands of strangers within the span of six days to pay for college.

Dowdle has accumulated more than $34,000 in that time frame, and the numbers continue to climb.

Why such rapid and overall encouraging response? Dowdle is dating Michael.

Michael is black, and her parents are refusing to pay for college.

According to Dowdle’s GoFundMe page, there was immediate anger and disappointment when her parents found out the color of her boyfriend’s skin.

RACE — Allie Dowdle used the internet to her advantage when she created a GoFundMe page to garner financial support. Photo Credit: GoFundme.com

RACE — Allie Dowdle used the internet to her advantage when she created a GoFundMe page to garner financial support.
Photo Credit: GoFundme.com

“I showed my parents his picture, and the conversation was over before it even began,” Dowdle wrote.

“My dad did not give me an option. He told me that I was not allowed to see Michael ever again. Why? Strictly because of skin color. It wasn’t a quiet ‘no,’ either. I’ll never forget the yelling my parents did when they expressed how disappointed they were in me, that I could do so much better.”

Because Dowdle and her boyfriend continued to date without her parent’s consent, she was “cut off” from all financial assistance and has sought out the public to aid in furthering her education.

While the initial response has been positive when glancing at the comments and numerous donations on Allie’s web page, news articles interviewing her parents tell a different story.

“It was never about race,” Allie’s father, Bill Dowdle said in an interview with the Daily News.

“It became obvious that she needed to go out in the world and grow up.”

Dowdle’s father even went on to state that his daughter’s plea for help and her statements about race were nothing more than, “a justification and gave her the moral high ground.”

Whether or not racism is at the heart of the issue for Dowdle’s parents, according to her web page the young adult is still living at home with her family, being clothed and fed for free despite lack of financial support for college.

While some may see Dowdle’s case as a sad testament to the heartbreaking racism driving the actions and minds of young Americans growing up in old, southern tradition, others will view it as nothing more than a ploy from a spoiled white girl to rebel against her parents.

Writing for The Daily Helsman, Jonathan Capriel’s scathing review of Dowdle’s cause was aptly explained in his article titled, “Say No to Racism” By Putting a White Woman Through College.”

Capriel’s argument perfectly encapsulates many of the intense frustrations I can cautiously say I both understand and feel.

Had Dowdle’s significant other not been black, would she have raised nearly as many funds as she did?

Oppressive racism is a sad reality for many in our world today, both within the bounds of the U.S. and out of it.

It is a discrimination of one race and a mindset of arrogance and entitlement that one race is better than another.

While Dowdle may feel the unfairness of judgmental parents, I’m not confident in believing that she has truly experienced the pain and sobering reality of discrimination.

I don’t think even for the sake of furthering her education she should be funded.

Not because she doesn’t deserve to have help, but because racism has nothing to do with her finances.

Longie is an opinion writer.

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