Letters to the Editor
weeping for brunnhilde
Published Letters: 1150 Editor's Choice: 3
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@ David
[Read the article: Barack Obama, working-class hero?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]More from Obama's speech:
"That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."
Legitimate or not, productive or not, honest or not, her anger is real.
Kate is Pastor Wright, don't you see that?
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@ ethics_professor, Kate, Reality Counts
[Read the article: Barack Obama, working-class hero?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What's CRT?
Please do not mistake me. We're talking past one another, which (to me) is the root of our problems.
First of all, I haven't "bought into" the notion that Kate is a racist.
From what I've read, Kate demonstrates what I consider to be racializing tendencies. I am not suggesting anything about the core of Kate's being.
I do not know Kate.
Nor am I accepting the "reverse racism" of Pastor Wright.
This is not what I'm suggesting.
I'm suggesting that Pastor Wright is incendiary, especially to those outside of his own group, however you define it.
I'm suggesting the same thing about Kate.
I'm suggesting that the dynamics at work are the same, in so far as Obama is calling on us to talk to one another, regardless or who is or is not a racist, or who we think is or is not a racist.
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@ Reality Counts
[Read the article: Barack Obama, working-class hero?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Somewhat like how easily the Clintons have been successfully painted as racists despite their decades of work to support civil rights."
False dichotomy. One can have worked for civil rights and be a racist, all at the same time. I'm not making a case one way or another regarding the Clintons, but intellectual honesty demands that you acknowledge that racism is an exceedingly complex phenomenon and not given to facile dichotomies such as the one you present. It's not either/or.
"What I have seen in monitoring these boards is that Kate is angry at Obama and his supporters for playing the race card and tarnishing the Clintons with it. And in that, I agree with her. So, I suppose I am a racist too."
I don't know if you're a racist or not, and part of my point is that frankly, I don't care.
I'm not here to accuse anyone of anything, just to be clear.
"You are perfectly free to mistrust her. After all, she is a Clinton supporter so by definition is untrustworthy."
No, I mistrust her because what I've read of hers suggests we're on such different pages I'm having trouble finding the common ground on which trust is built. I'm not speaking to her character, but to a huge difference in perspective.
Perhaps "mistrust" is too loaded. What I mean to say is that she's yet to earn my trust, based on the posts of hers I've seen.
"People like David, Tom, Manos etc., on the other hand, are totally justified in race-baiting, name calling, cursing, smearing, inciting, etc. because they are Obama supporters, and therefore, pure as the driven snow."
?
"Look back over their previous posts. The most vile invective. I don't know Kate and I don't know you. I only know what I read. I thought you were sincere in your attempt to have a civil discussion about race, but your eagerness to label someone a racist reveals the phoniness of the Obama "ethos" of reconciliation. Truly disappointing, to say the least."
Ok, listen. I'm not "labelling" anyone a "racist." I'm saying that from my perspective things Kate says and how she says them strike me as something akin to what I would call racist.
It's my opinion. But so what?
I'm still making an effort to talk to her, racist or not.
Perhaps over time my opinion will change. For now, I'm suspicious of her and it's precisely that suspicion that I'm trying to address head on, through dialogue, rather than "retreating to my corner," as Obama puts it.
What's your problem with this?
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@ Kate
[Read the article: Barack Obama, working-class hero?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I am extremely disappointed in you for writing the above. I am a racist ONLY as defined by some of those posting on this site, those so filled with faux virtue that I sometimes want to scream. I know full well who I am, I know my faults and shortcomings. Racism is most definitely not one of them, so whale away, all of you."
First of all, I'm sorry that I offended you. Honestly. I'm not here to offend anyone.
One of the reasons I think we misunderstand one another is because your model of "racist" is a binary one.
One either is or is not a racist.
Mine is very different.
I see racism as a culture that permeates everything, at least in this country. Like Obama's grandmother, one can tap into racism without being some kind of klansman or cardboard cutout of a racist.
Black people are implicated in racism as well, both towards other black people, towards themselves, and towards white people.
It's extremely complex and I understand that it's painful for white people to even entertain the notion that they might be implicated in racism, despite their sincerest belief in racial equality, but it's necessary to drop the gloves if we're to advance.
What's happening here is a microcosm of the Pastor Wright episode.
Lots and lots of bruised feelings and misunderstandings and assumptions and indignation, but not much listening.
I'm trying to listen, honestly.
"This will not change my awareness of certain realities, no more than it will change that of millions of other decent people in this country being subjected to the typically damaging, acidic intellectualism which permeates the far left. I have the courage of my convictions and I will continue to stand by them."
I'm not asking you to abandon your convictions, btw. Maybe others are, but I'm not.
I'm just trying to understand them.