Monday, September 22, 2008

Ethnic Self-Hatred

Today I want to pass on an excellent piece I read over at Anti-Racist Parent. Well worth reading. Here is the link.

Friday, September 19, 2008

A Strange Irony

A quick thought. As we teach our minority kids about how bad we had it (and still do in some cases), teaching about Jim Crow and slavery, discrimination in general, do we unwittingly pass on a sense of inferiority? You have to wonder if it ever enters the child's mind the wonder why we were so targeted, why we let whites and others, do the things they did. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating not teaching history and discrimination realities. Just thinking that the irony as we do so is that though we try to concurrently teach how wrong such practices were and are, we may have to accept that built into the discussion is a seed of inferiority that we need to be vigilant about overcoming.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Tell It Like It Is

I know I'm going into politics again, but you really have to read this piece by Tim Wise, a white man who is unafraid to say the truth even when others who share his skin color will not. I think it is appropriate for this blog because the attitudes he speaks of are a big factor in holding up the barriers we face to getting beyond racism.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

A Day To Remember


Not much to say except days like this remind us why no more race, or division, is an important goal, no matter how impossible and unreachable it may seem.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Where Does Ethnic Hatred Come From?


As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am reading the great book, "Jackie Robinson: A Biography" by Arnold Rampersad. I just finished reading one chapter that detailed the incredible vitriol and hatred Robinson encountered on one trip to Louisville, Kentucky when he was still playing in the minor leagues, though still the first Black to do so. Later, Jackie would describe the language he heard, the slurs hurled at him whenever he did anything on the field, as some of the worst he ever experienced.

It's just amazing to imagine what that had to be like for him.

It makes me wonder, how can people have so much hatred inside of them, to do that to a person, to hate them so much that you can't control yourself, so much that spit flies from your mouth? All because of their skin color. Intellectually I understand bigotry. But then again, do we really understand this highly irrational reaction to difference?

When I read or hear about stuff like this, and while things may not be as blatant as back then we all know it still exists if only more subtly, I do wonder if we really understand where this stuff comes from.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Poor Little Mixed Kids

Here we go again. Yet another study that purports that Mixed kids and people have it bad in terms of being screwed up. Here is one key conclusion:

If we had to pick an explanation that best fits the facts, it would be the old sociology model of mixed-race individuals as the “marginal man”: not part of either racial group and therefore torn by inner conflict.


You know by now I think all of this is a bunch of hooey. By the way the same study concluded that Mixed kids were more attractive than non-Mixed. How they determined this I don't know.

At the end of the day, I think the model that is the basis of studies like this is intrinsically flawed because it presumes everything is black and white. For example when they say "mixed" or "interracial" are they focused on those our society perceives as polar opposites black and white, or are they looking at other cultural mixtures as well? From what I can see they tend to focus on black-white. But even in the case of black-white children, there is just way too much anecdotal evidence that these kids go through all the same issues and problems that everyone else does. Undoubtedly there is more on the plate for them, but again, to what degree do these studies take into account the family situation of the kids studied - whether the parents are together, whether the parents are poor or rich, what communities do they live in since some areas are more accepting than others, are the parents involved with the kids? Many questions that these academic studies don't seem to include when they simply conclude that Mixed means conflict.

There are just too many examples in our society of highly successful Mixed people to say that inherently they are prone to problems, and that list is way bigger than Barack Obama, Halle Berry and Mariah Carey. If you want to read the article about the study click on this link.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

A Good Speech With No Substance

Sorry I haven't written anything this week. It has been a crazy and busy week. Frankly I try to stay away from too much politics on here, unless it relates to "race" and culture. But I can't resist with all this new swirling around on Sarah Palin, who the media seems to be gushing over for being able to read a good speech last night.

John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, to be his running mate has to be one of the most cynical selections I have ever seen.

It is painfully clear that the entire reasoning behind the selection is to court all the disaffected Hillary supporters still running around out there. But come on. McCain wants that group so badly that he may well have completely blown up the logic and premise of his whole campaign. While I have no doubt he will succeed in getting many of the Hillary nutcases who still don't know what to do with themselves, does he really think women in general are so shallow that they would support ANY woman he picked?

I'm not even a woman and I'm insulted. This woman's resume is even shorter than Obama's, one of McCain's major criticisms of the Senator, and she has absolutely zero foriegn policy experience, another issue McCain has tried to hammer Obama on. And yet, we are supposed to believe he really thinks she is qualified to be President of the United States, since a VP has to satisfy that criteria as well. This is even more so considering McCain will be the oldest President to ever be sworn in should he pull off a miracle. I think the idea of the Republicans selecting a woman is great, because it does grab headlines and it does make their campaign also a symbolic one. But is this all the Republicans have? You really do have to wonder how the decision was made for example to pass over Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas if a woman was what you wanted. Or Condeleeza Rice? Was it just to get a young woman to counter Obama's youthful appeal?

It won't work.

I trust that women and young people are not the shallow thinkers McCain seems to think they are. I also think what this says about McCain is that he does not have the confidence to pick a strong woman, or man, someone who can stand up to him in terms of what they bring to the table, meaning someone who has equal or stronger credentials than he. No, unlike Obama who chose a VP who is clearly his equal and someone who has the experience to challenge his decisions, a trait that demonstrates Obama's leadership style, confidence and courage, McCain went with someone who in no way can call on a real resume of experience to challenge him.

There are also those who say McCain's choice, a monumental flip flop on his stance that the Presidency requires years of experience and foreign policy credentials, is no more of a contradiction than the change candidate, Obama, picking a Washington insider to be his running mate.

Wrong.

Change is not threatened by working with insiders. On the contrary, much of the change that has occurred historically has come from people working from outside with those working on the inside. So there is no contradiciton in the Biden selection. Just Obama's recognition that he will need someone on the inside to help smooth the way for the change he seeks.

There is absolutely no credible way to soft peddle the contradiction in a campaign that belittles its oponent for not being ready to lead and for not being able to handle foreign policy in a dangerous world, which are the main cornerstones of the McCain campaign, and then picking a back up that has far less experience than your opponent. The Republican's might as well throw that argument out the window.

No, this is a calculated risk based on a misguided belief that women will take any woman he throws out there. And sadly, I doubt McCain even realizes the insult. Palin may be a good person in general. But come on, most of her constituents are deer and moose. She is not the second coming of, or a substitute for, Hillary Clinton. I have seen Hillary Clinton. Palin is not her. Good try McCain. But you continue to misunderstand what this election is about.