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Re: If we say Hilary three times...
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Re: Good White People
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But what other people think of me is none of my business. You know, as I read that last sentence, I think I am beginning to get more of a feel for what you're saying. I can say that some black woman thinks I'm just a racist in denial is offensive, but I don't have to really worry about that. That street doesn't really run two ways. |
Re: Good White People
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If you mean the latter, I would challenge it. Maybe affirmative action policies mean white people give something up, but overall I would say that white people should realize that we have a lot to gain by curing this nation of its legacy of racism. I mean, if you offered me a choice between what we have now, and what they had in the south in the 1950s, or the 1850s, I'd choose what we have now in a heartbeat. Part of the problem is that people with the upper hand in an unfair society see a zero-sum game. If you mean the former, well..... never mind. |
Re: Good White People
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If you were offended, I guess you concluded that she's talking about white people who are actually allies (which I consider you to be and what I assume you define yourself as). I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. Quote:
TM |
Re: Good White People
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I like her article. It's meant to make people think. It's meant to provoke. There is shame in being white. There is shame in being a lot of things. And we white people can't distance ourselves from the indelible stain of race, from that original sin, no matter how hard we try. The whiteness seeps into us. We can't avoid it. It comes in what we eat, what we read, who we talk with, where we live. And sometimes we just try not to deal with it. Which is worse, and a big contributing factor to the 75% of whites not having any black friends (even on the internet?!). Race can make white people uncomfortable, because it reminds them of their bad side. So white people hang with white people because it doesn't remind them of how white they are. Coping mechanism. Best thing about what has been happening in the streets lately. Angry white people. Because we should be angry about race. We white people may not be afraid, but we should be angry. |
Re: Good White People
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I've been involved in a number of recent conversations with relatives (white ones) about college admissions, and even among supposedly enlightened good white people, there is a feeling that if their kids were black they would have gotten into X which they didn't. And when I remind them of the number of kids in our extended family that are legacies, that have gotten favoritism because of their genes, they always view that as somehow "earned" favoritism while affirmative action based on race, instead of legacy status, isn't. This is fucked up. And it's the tip of that particular iceberg of resentfulness and privilege. Yeah, it's important that whites give up some stuff. And that privileged Americans of all colors give up stuff, too,* while we're at it. But the world we get in exchange would be way worth it. *Not scotch. |
Re: Good White People
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'I was giving some lectures in Germany about the death penalty. It was fascinating because one of the scholars stood up after the presentation and said, "Well you know it's deeply troubling to hear what you're talking about." He said, "We don't have the death penalty in Germany. And of course, we can never have the death penalty in Germany." And the room got very quiet, and this woman said, "There's no way, with our history, we could ever engage in the systematic killing of human beings. It would be unconscionable for us to, in an intentional and deliberate way, set about executing people." And I thought about that. What would it feel like to be living in a world where the nation state of Germany was executing people, especially if they were disproportionately Jewish? I couldn't bear it. It would be unconscionable. And yet, in this country, in the states of the Old South, we execute people -- where you're 11 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white than if the victim is black, 22 times more likely to get it if the defendant is black and the victim is white -- in the very states where there are buried in the ground the bodies of people who were lynched. And yet, there is this disconnect.' This country is constantly in denial about racism or the effects of racism. Black people have to prove, with a smoking gun, that our treatment is the product of racism. We are consistently forced to give up the historical context we know to be true because it's possible that any one instance may not be the result of racism. But that's applied everywhere to everything, from the job Loquanda missed out on because of her name to the mortgage rate that's too high because the apartment is located in a black neighborhood (all other things being equal) to whether or not an officer shot a 12 year old kid because he has an internalized fear of black people. Look, I'm not stupid. I understand that white people are never going to give up anything tangible. I realize that change will only come over generations and generations of painfully slow improvement. And obviously there has been progress. I think part of that article's point is that the good intentions we've seen from so many white people over Brown and Ferguson, etc. don't mean much when the outcome is exactly the same for black people as it has always been. And the author was expressing her frustration because of that. TM |
Re: Good White People
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The wife has encouraged me to try to become friends with a black female lawyer I've just started to work with at the office, and has suggested inviting her and her husband to things. Maybe I should do that. But I feel a little awkward because (1) I'm rather a bit older than her, (2) we've just started working on stuff, and (3) the black lady is pretty hot (and we all know I have awkward feelings about hot people). |
Re: Good White People
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Which is more or less what you say in your next paragraph. |
Re: Good White People
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I happen to know for a fact that there are other black people in Minneapolis. Take your ass out of your comfort zone and try something you wouldn't normally try. Go someplace you wouldn't normally go. Good god, man. It's not difficult. Do I have to come all the way out there and introduce you to some black people personally? TM |
Re: Good White People
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This isn't to say I don't understand why people think that they deserve things. I just don't think that, all things being equal, most people would be where they are now if dessert were applied justly and equitably. I'm pretty Rawlsian when it comes down to it. I'm white, but I'm also Hispanic. I don't really think of myself as white most of the time, though I certainly can slip into the role if I want to. I enjoy an immense amount of privilege, and I try to check it as often as I can. *I do believe in after meal sweets. |
Re: Good White People
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I guess I wonder what you mean by "whites giving stuff up?" [edit- Re-reading I think you mean more than just accepting we are advantaged, but then behaving based upon the knowledge?] My old biggest client has a black GC. He flat out looks for black candidates to fill any spots he has. I've a black friend who is into posting race themed topics on FB. One led to one white person being called out for not recognizing the advantages she had. This led to another white guy posting that he had not sought out the really good powerful jobs that all white people are guaranteed and taking some lesser jobs so as not to profit from his advantages. (the sarcasm is not mine, but unintentionally in his post) I thought man, you should have taken the powerful job and behaved like the black GC if you really wanted to correct shit. I think I have used what power i have, although the area I am in is so rarified I don't have as much opportunity. GC had to fill a patent counsel position; he looked for a year before giving up on a black candidate*. Still I do use what I can where i can. Although in retrospect over the years there were people i should have helped that I didn't. The thing that troubles me is regardless of all the people who might pull up kids, lots can't be pulled up. Detroit schools have some silly big drop out rate. How do you fix a 30/40 % rate of kids w/o HS degrees? My kids are scrambling with college degrees. No HS diploma is not a good base for em's future. I do not know how to correct this, and some of those kids will certainly get to crime, and ..... I don't know. *given the poison on this board that will focus on this point- I could offer theories for why there are few blacks with engineering degrees in law school, but it would distract. |
Re: Good White People
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Re: Good White People
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It's easy to justify that by looking at the broader context -- we don't all start from the same starting line, and white privilege is real. And even if he went to a lower-tier school, he would come out with those same privileges and advantages. On the other hand, we're the first generation of Americans, born to parents who lived through WWII in Italy and came to the US with essentially nothing but the educations they received in Italy. We were certainly not "legacies" (except to the extent that our two older siblings both went to the same college -- one from which the brother I'm talking about was rejected). By the time we were in high school, our family was perfectly comfortable but not rich. The kid he was mostly comparing himself to was from a wealthy black family. That context does make the broader context harder to see. I support affirmative action (though I would like to see it more targeted on economics than solely race), and yet I fully understand the difficulty that the above situation caused, particularly for a teenager. I don't like responses to that difficulty that boil down to "stop whining." But, okay. Leave that context aside. Do I give anything -- anything at all - up if police are held accountable for killing unarmed black men? No, and the same is true of many other of the legacies of US race history. |
Re: Good White People
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