"An Open Letter to the White Right..." (Tim Wise's excellent rant)

[AspenRose]

http://www.timwise.org/2010/11/an-open-letter-to-the-white-right-on-the-occasion-of-your-recent-successful-temper-tantrum/

"In forty years or so, maybe fewer, there won’t be any more white people around who actually remember that Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Opie-Taylor-Down-at-the-Fishing Hole cornpone bullshit that you hold so near and dear to your heart.

There won’t be any more white folks around who think the 1950s were the good old days, because there won’t be any more white folks around who actually remember them, and so therefore, we’ll be able to teach about them accurately and honestly, without hurting your precious feelings, or those of the so-called “greatest generation” — a bunch whose white members were by and large a gaggle of miscreants who helped save the world from fascism only to return home and oppose the ending of it here, by doing nothing to lift a finger on behalf of the civil rights struggle.

So to hell with you and all who revere you.

By then, half the country will be black or brown. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Nothing, Senõr Tancredo.

Nothing, Senõra Angle, or Senõra Brewer, or Senõr Beck.

Loy tiene muy mal, hijo de Puta.

And by then you will have gone all in as a white nationalist movement — hell you’ve all but done that now — thus guaranteeing that the folks of color, and even a decent size minority of us white folks will be able to crush you, election after election, from the Presidency on down to the 8th grade student council.

Like I said, this shit is math, baby. And numbers don’t lie.

Bottom line, this too shall pass."

:yourock:

Right on, Tim.

[DonCoquixote]

1. as a latino

Part of me wants to say right on,

But admittedly, I know that if I allowed all whites to be painted with the redneck brush, I would become that which I hate.

Still, I will say this much, there is one nation that will die, one that has deserved death, because even after Lincoln acted with "malice toward none, charity toward all", the CSA has NEVER given up.

And please, CSA du'ers, if you cannot see by now that the Confederate cause was evil, I cannot say anything.

But yes, I will live to see the CSA Broken!

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. If you decide to start a band, look me up.

I'm great with the timbales.

I saw the same thing, Tim. They are fighting a losing battle. Their children will eventually become the minority group, and I hope our children will not have memories of how fucking mean their fathers were to them.

[Karenina]

15. Ours will use that experience to weed out

those who GET IT or are trying to und die Dummköpfen for whom there is no remedy. Those of us on the bleeding edge of inclusion have taken pains to teach our children well, as their survival depends on it.

[EC]

3. If they were so afraid of the dark man

why don't they promote interracial marriages more to dilute the races...(oh yeah, they are afraid it will dilute the white race) but from what I've seen each generation gets lighter, don't they?

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Well, skin pigmentation and genetics are a lot more complicated than mixing paint, so no

that wouldn't necessarily be the case. :)

But you are very right in the regard that there are still plenty of whites who are against interracial marriages, for the reason that you stated.

[Number23]

4. Kick! and a rec too!

[fishwax]

5. k/r for the righteous anger

:kick:

[Mimosa]

7. Yukky.

The 1950s -and into the 60s- were when progressive anti-racist, anti-sexist and pro-gay movements were forged.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I could correct some of the Spanish

but that was righteous... oh and some of it, don't ask me for translation...

:blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush:

And I am a hard one to make blush.

[Number23]

9. No, I'd love one!

don't ask me for translation.

Please?? I got the jist of some of it, but I'm a bit shaky on the rest. For someone who has traveled throughout Latin America, my Spanish is muy mal. Muy, MUY mal!

[AspenRose]

10. Kicking for the evening/early morning crew

:kick:

[Duncan Grant]

11. KnR

:kick:

[RZM]

12. Couple things

Wise is a bit old to be picking generational fights with his elders -- isn't that mainly for teens and people in their early 20s? By now he should be slamming the kids. But anyway, there's a few problems here. The first is his tone, which is a bit over the top -- 'we have to be patient/and wait for your hearts to stop beating' . . . that's a bit much. Also, he addresses his letter to the 'white right' but also inserts 'rich' in the first line. I'm not quite sure exactly whom he's talking to. While I've never much cared for the 'greatest generation' tag, as all generations have great and not-so-great members, so it's somewhat odd to label its 'white members' a 'gaggle of miscreants.' Most were normal, everyday people (and still are). I also think he's reading race way too much into 50s nostalgia. A lot of nostalgia is fueled by yearning for lost youth and the culture (especially music) that came with it . . . what Wise labels 'cornpone bullshit.' I don't begrudge anybody for looking back wistfully at their young days through rose-colored glasses. It's not always the same as Trent Lott's infamous comments at Strom Thurmond's retirement party -- It's a human tendency. So, BTW, is growing more conservative with age, though I know here at DU there's plenty of liberal stalwarts who are having none of that :).

As for his predictions about the declining white share of the population setting the stage for a permanent liberal majority, the jury is very much out on that one. I gather that some people think that the moment the white share of the population dips from 50.0 to 49.9 percent will be some magical threshold where everything will change. It won't be. Whites will remain a plurality for a long time after that too. I wouldn't be surprised at all that as this trend continues, the GOP will increase its efforts to build up its share of the white vote (I think Bush and McCain both got about 55 percent of it), which will still be the single largest racial/ethnic/whatever demo long after the 50 percent threshold is crossed. I don't know if they will be able to keep up with demographic changes or even increase their share much at all, but that's going to be their plan. Also, I wouldn't take it for granted that non-whites will always vote liberal/democratic in overwhelming numbers -- probably many groups will, but economics will probably decide that. If we see more and more non-whites moving up the economic ladder, they are going to want those tax cuts and all the other trickle-down stuff the right peddles. Of course, the way things are going, that's probably not going to happen. Also, Wise may be correct . . . I don't know -- it's going to be very interesting to see the right struggle with itself to come up with a viable strategy for all of this and if the fight gets ugly enough, it might benefit the left.

[CBR]

13. K&R nt

[Karenina]

14. . .

[Solly Mack]

16. ...

Damn...too late to recommend.