Take it from a land of coffee-coloured famalies - it isn’t quite that easy…

“One kind of hate feeds another; one open expression of bigotry without significant consequence only provides permission for many more to follow, and the inherent violence of such talk inevitably gives permission for people to act it out.”

Discussion is CRUCIAL to find any sort of possible solutions to racist issues. To NOT discuss is to silently agree with those who commit acts of ignorance and hate. We may live in a rather fucked-up place, but damned if I won’t vote, work and fight for fairness for ALL.

Oh man, I am SO gonna steal and use this one… as pissed off as I get at the TV bobbleheads’ reports on pretty much a daily basis, I’m with ya on THAT.

Big frowny face.

I’m hoping for a hard backlash on the immigration thing. I am so sick of factionalism amongst shades of brown and the white poor. When I hear blacks bash illegal immigrants. . . well, let’s just say it taxes the tremendous discipline and politeness I have displayed on this blog. (/sarcasm) I’m a little glad for the immigrant bashing. We need bigots to overplay their hand so that the mainstream is forced to have a “come to Jesus” moment where they have to choose, consciously, what this country will stand for.

And if they choose unwisely and y’all move to Canada, leave your guns and canned foods c/o me because I’m staying right fucking here and I’m gonna need them.

Naw, I’m not bitter.

The civil rights movement’s object wasn’t blacks. It was about whites changing how they treated blacks and others. Blacks didn’t wake up in 1955 and say, “waitaminute, Jim Crow sucks ass.” Whites realized it existed due to the actions of activists (black and white). I had an old white female friend who told me that she had no idea what was going on until she saw protestors attacked with firehoses on television. . . and when she saw that, she broke down and wept.

Exactly. The way we’re going to eliminate racism is to convert a majority of white people into that weeping status. Moral shame is a powerful weapon, and it’s the only one I know of that has worked to convert white Americans into genuine anti-racists.

My mom became that rare creature, a white atheist who has been working against racism since 1961, from organizing the housing and food for the Freedom Riders’ conference at her work-study placement as a dorm hostess. Exposure to the people who were fighting for their own dignity changed her thinking. However, I don’t believe that we have time for 120 million people to have their own road-to-Damascus moments.

Two thoughts about that:
One, I think this is why the media narrative that scripts what most people think is so narrow. It’s not in the interests of those who are benefitting from structural racism today to acknowledge that it’s there. If there is no racism beyond individual acts of malice or bigotry, there’s no story.

More important, though, these are bad times because this amnesia and selective perception are flowing throughout our politics. It’s hard out here, to convince white people that any particular form of structural injustice is worse than any other. (Hence the Big Story about the nooses, because something happened. In contrast to all those other days at the high school in Jena, LA, on which nothing happened.)

So, regardless of the accuracy of ‘white supremacy’ to describe what’s going on every day, it matters a lot that those of us who think this issue is important sell the suit…we can tailor it afterwards. I’m an expert in selling things, and few white people want to buy the truth, which is that we all benefit from white privilege. I know I’m right, but I want to win more than I want other people to agree with me that I’m right. I don’t think it’s immoral to choose terminology, and I’m not above putting lipstick on the pig while pointing out that its shit pollutes.

As to the practical ways to get moral shame to work against racism, I’m hopeful that the coming 12 months of ceaseless racist bashing of immigrants (the visibly brown ones) will be full of great opportunities to sell the suit.

Either that or I’m done with this shit and taking my kid to Canada, where whiteness is accurately perceived as the boring default for embarrassing reasons, not the best and only way to be Canadian.

SixtiesLiberal
December 4, 2007 at 9:06 am

Just give some of us a chance to show we are not one of them.

My friends, if I didn’t give white people a chance, who would I date?

/tastelesshumor

Please read it before jerking a knee.

SixtiesLiberal
December 4, 2007 at 8:17 am
Your cancer analogy would be more apropos if you used bone cancer vs. skin cancer. One is more central and systemic but they’re both cancers.

Hm. Not quite. This is the racism/bigotry divide again. If a black man discriminates against a white man in the workplace, it’s obviously wrong (and grounds for suit). But that white man cannot argue that the black man is acting as part of a subtle, insiduous system of oppresion. He can’t point out there’s never been a white president, that his race is singled out for crimes that are mostly committed by blacks, that he makes up the majority in the prison system and so on.

It. Is. Not. The. Same.

Not even remotely. Not even slightly.

The black man has the ability to do wrong to a few white people. A bigoted white person in a racist milieu can harm thousands.

If I kill you with a thrown knife, I’m guilty of murder. That’s serious, no doubt.
If I kill you with a M16 loaded with armor piercing rounds, I’m guilty of murder. Also serious.

The first murder, however, is irrelevant to a discussion of arms control. It’s a derail. You can’t point to the seriousness of the crime in order to introduce it; the seriousness wasn’t the issue (just as the moral impact of black to white discrimination isn’t the issue). Knives aren’t part of a greater, insiduous system. 50% of the “legitimate” gun trade is used by criminals; the second murder says something in that narrative.

Discussing “reverse racism” is a derail. Not saying you did it, Sixties. But it’s just not the same conversation (though it is important for other reasons).

NOC, I didn’t see your post #64 in the wee hours before I posted mine this morning and I appreciate it. Sometimes a little paranoia is healthy, in the self-protective kind of way. There’s an old joke that says just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there aren’t people out to get you. Just give some of us a chance to show we are not one of them.