It's a wonder that no one has thought of it before. Though it's likely that others have and were either talked out of it or simply ordered to forget it. But Lisa McClelland, 15 and a student at Freedom High School in Oakley, Calif., launched the idea, which has attracted the national media's attention. Now the fat is in the fire, and where it will all end (in the words of a famous parody of Time magazine) knows God.

Lisa's idea was to start a Caucasian Club at her high school. After all, the school already boasts a Black Student Union, a Latinos Unidos, and an ALOHA Club (for Asian Americans). Lisa, who is white, felt that a club for whites was needed to round out the symmetry of the situation. Some 20 other students, mostly friends of hers and not all white, have already signed up. And Lisa, who heard that previous attempts to start such a club had been vetoed by the principal, took the precaution of collecting some 300 names of students and adults (again, not all white) on a petition requesting his permission.

As Lisa sees it, the club would be a place where members could gather to discuss "racial dynamics," and how one person's whiteness may affect others who aren't white. Racial injustices and prejudices, she told a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, "belong in the past." And her membership in the school's Gay-Straight Alliance would appear to testify to her own basic open-mindedness.

Nevertheless, the idea of a Caucasian Club has run into stiff opposition. Again, not all black students at Freedom are against it. Larischa Dorton, 16 and a member of the Black Student Union, for example, feels that if there's a black club, there should be a white club. But the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says that it is "vehemently opposed" to the name of the club. "It's not culturally sensitive to the community we are addressing," said Darnell Turner, vice president of the chapter. "The club, in name, seems like a backdoor approach to separation. From a historical perspective, this will bring up fears."

In response, supporters of the proposed club have suggested other names: the White Heritage Club, the Euro-American Students Union, and so on. But these might strike the club's opponents as even more alarming and "divisive."

In truth, it's hard to see what logical objection there can be to a club for white students, especially if blacks, Latinos and Asians all have their own clubs. All three of the latter are minorities, to be sure, but in California whites themselves became a minority in the 2000 census, to the accompaniment of considerable fanfare.

"What is white culture? What are we proud of?" asked Clint Simons, 17 and white, who opposes the idea of a Caucasian Club. But presumably such a club might address precisely such questions, and come up with an answer or two. Surely whites are not utterly devoid of accomplishments to be proud of. If America is truly a multicultural society, then whites have as much reason to celebrate their contributions to it as any other social group.

I don't know how Principal Eric Valto, who will have the final say, will rule on Lisa's petition. But I suspect we have not heard the last of her inspiration. In high schools and colleges all over the country, her example will encourage others, and opponents of the idea will be hard put to explain why white students, uniquely, must be denied the right to organize in benign groups to discuss important social issues.

It should be emphasized, again, that students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds will be welcome to join Lisa's Caucasian Club. Its membership won't be confined to whites; only its subject-matter.