CSM: What tints your cultural lens on racial issues?

[woldnewton]

Excerpts posted only. Read full article here.




Many white Americans sincerely believe that skin color no longer matters. They have shut their eyes to the facts that: this nation's churches remain heavily segregated, research shows children perform better in school when they are taught by members of their own race, and in the singles ads, many whites still seek white partners.



If we once were falsely accused of racial discrimination, then we are more likely to be suspicious of all those who make the claim that others are being discriminatory. After all, we didn't do it, so why should we believe anyone else did? On the other hand, if we have repeatedly felt the awful sting of racism, we are far more likely to believe the folks who make those charges and less likely to give the accused a fair hearing.

[mzteris]

1. Also read White Privilege:

Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy MacIntosh

"I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group

" . . . I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks. . ."

NOTE: There are a list of 50 "privileges" that "whites" enjoy - usually without even THINKING about it. Very interesting to read through this list.

another short excerpt:

". . . I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a patter of assumptions that were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turn, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.

In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit, in turn, upon people of color. . ."

http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html

[woldnewton]

2. Read the list...

all great observations, but the reality of at least one of them has changed --

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

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These days, even white liberals or Democrats are, by the mass media juggernaut, facing being perceived as the "cultural outsider"; liberalism is the "outside culture"; that of the elitist minority, and "populist conservatism" (an oxymoron if ever I heard of one) is being pushed by media as "the mainstream".

The rest hold very much true today, if not truer.

[mzteris]

3. ah - yes.....

the new world order according to buscho....

[noiretextatique]

4. "I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness,.."

this is why many racial discussions here devolve into "everybody can be racist." i find it amazing every time it happens, and think: how is this even POSSIBLE? does it happen in south africa?

[java-fiend]

10. if you want my unvarnished opinion...

then keep reading.

==================

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

Not without breaking federal anti-discrimination law.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

How rich are you? If you want to live in an all-white part of town, you will pay a pretty penny.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

Nonsense. Just because you are white does not mean you are rich. I want to live in a house in River Oaks that has a garage. Instead, I live in a complex with that is ungated, with no garage. Sometimes criminals come through, break into cars, peep into the windows of women who live in the complex, etc.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

Maybe, or maybe not.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

You can also get mugged.

The rest of Professor McIntosh's article is also pure drivel.

[Broken_Hero]

5. Yeah, i can see the point, good article btw...

Its hard discussing, or even arguing racial issues in the least bit. If you argue against the rw they say, well its the past, let by gones be by gones, by the way, it doesn't exist anymore....you argue with the lw and it seems, you get the same response...sorry, it happened to you, but its life, take it on the chin and move on(but they know it exists).

How can an effective debate start on racial issues, when so many people proclaim to know it all, all ready, and have no room to discuss? It seems to me, i spend half my time educating people about what is happening in "Indian" country, that i end up defending indians, and what is owed via treaties with the fed govt, than actually making headway on a indian issue. It just seems like an endless circle, what i would give for a discussion with 3 people who know whats effecting indian country, instead of the fly by night posters, who throw in their two cents, and proclaim, that its so sad, so bad, get over it responses i have gotten. I don't know, I suppose i'm just ranting.

The White Man's privelage article, posted by another here, was also a great read, I got it saved, thanks...:)

[SMSTRICK]

6. "How can an effective debatestart on racial issues ?'.......Be Honest !!!

For some reason whites are in denial when it comes to prejudice. I am not. My father did not teach me to hate,....he taught me to FEAR. Right or wrong,...or good or bad,...my mindset has kept me from getting my throat cut on more than one occation. Sometimes you have to use good judgement in real life situations.....But I do beleive that open HONEST (as well as respectful) discussions are important for TRUTH to prevail. People have to be willing to be honest with themselves if they they want to prevent passing down their baggage to their children....People also have to realize that being an American does not guarantee them the right to not be offended....Sometimes wounds have to be expossed in order for them to heal. People have to learn how to be open minded adults to prevent their emotions from over riding their reason..........God Bless

[turtlelowe]

8. Being honest helps, but

People first have to admit that they may not know everything about everything. For instance, when I was attending school at the University of Kansas, a fraternity and sorority who were participating in a campus skit competition wrote and preformed a skit that was highly offensive to Native Americans. The skit was about frat boys who wandered into a Native village and were introduced to "firewater" among other things. At one point, a frat boy comes out from behind a hut, adjusting his crotch while saying, "They were right, those Indian girls are good."

Our Native American Student Association, along with representatives from the African American, Asian and Hispanic student groups showed up on the night of the show to protest something so blatently racist being encouraged on our campus. The response, "You people are ungreatful, don't you know what we do for you?" The next day in one of my classes the topic came up. One girl in my class started off the discussion by saying, "I just don't understand why they were protesting us. We worked so hard on the skit and so did my friends. I didn't see anything offensive in the skit." (Mind you she was on the brink of tears during her entire speech.) My response, "Do you know any Indian people? Do you hang out with any Indian people? Have you ever attended any Indian ceremonies? Do you speak any Indian languages? Have you ever been to Indian Country or to a reservation? Do you know anything about Indian people beyond what you have seen on Dances with Wolves? No, then how can you speak on what is or is not offensive to Indian people?"

Simply put, most people assume they know everything and either don't realize or refuse to admit that they may have something to learn. In my instance, honesty didn't help at all, everyone in class thought I was just being mean. And at that point, they were no longer willing to listen. It didn't matter how respectfully I spoke or how thoughtfully I prepared my words, they just didn't want to listen. Unfortunately, this is a constant theme I encounter when trying to have open and honest converstaitons with others.

[Broken_Hero]

9. Yes, I run into that constantly...

Constantly, does not mean, all the time, but most of the time, I run into people like this....

[Brewman_Jax]

7. An article on the brain-rotting properties of privilege

by Tim Wise at http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/WhiteWhine.html

From the article: "Whites, as it turns out, take most everything for granted in this country; which makes perfect sense, because dominant groups usually have that privilege. We take for granted that we won't be racially profiled even when members of our group engage in criminality at a disproportionate rate, whether the crime is corporate fraud, serial killing, child molestation, abortion clinic bombings or drunk driving. And indeed we won't be.

We take it for granted that our terrorism won't result in whites as a group being viewed with generalized suspicion. So Tim McVeigh represents only Tim McVeigh, while Mohammed Atta gets to serve as a proxy for every other person who either has his name or follows a prophet of that name."

[Karenina]

11. Tim Wise

ALWAYS NAILS IT!

[jeffrey_X]

12. Always!

Tim Wise is my hero.

[Broken_Hero]

13. Very good link...

Just got done reading it, and will make sure my wife reads it too...thanks, for the link...:)

[TheGoldenRule01]

14. is it me?

"and in the singles ads, many whites still seek white partners."

Is it just me or there something wrong in that, because i can't see it?

If a white person and black person date that is of no moment to me, but neither is it when people of the same ethnic background prefer to date each other either. Full Civil rights and equal opportunities for Afro Americans or in my country non-white British people are not dependent on whether white people have sex with them.

[Brewman_Jax]

15. It's not just you

but for most white people, racism is seen as a character flaw of individuals, not a social caste system that grants privileges and rights solely based on appearance. Tim Wise has a few excellent essays on that subject, one being White Whine and the brain rotting properties of privilege. If the only section of the article that caught your attention was the singles ads, here's Sex across the Color Line.

The point of the article is the lack of social acceptance, not just civil rights, for those who aren't white. Full civil rights for non-whites are not dependent on whether or not white people have sex with them, but are dependent on if those of the majority will accept them as full and equal members of society. When that happens, who has sex with whom becomes immaterial.